Day One

Cold start to the 21st Annual C J "Snowy" McAlister Winter Surfing Festival
The waves were way smaller than the huge seas that had been around for the previous few days
There were still some nice clean 2 - 3 foot peaks to be had
The free surfers were making life a bit tough for some competitors, despite being asked on numerous occasions to vacate the contest area
A new addition to this years contest was a few heats for Tandem and SUP (Stand-Up Paddlers)
- The tandem event featured the top two couples in Australia plus a few local combos (Father-Daughter, Heavy Male-Light Female)
- Although it was performed in main in a serious manner, it certainly produced some laughs from the "peanut gallery" with buckling knees, and female bodies being flung in all directions across the expanse of the Pacific Ocean
- The SUP got up 'n running with a mass of swirling blades and huge slabs of fibreglass flying in all directions
- No injuries sustained, but it made judging them very interesting
The 1966 World Champion, Nat Young, made an appearance as part of the launch of his latest book which he was to introduce to the public at large later in the evening

Day Two

What an absolutely miserable start to Day Two
Wet and Windy
Although hacked to pieces by a Sou-Easter, the swell still managed to get up around 3 foot
Sunday dawned just plain wet.
Today featured another interesting first
- It was a 3km SUP race out to a predetermined spot on the ocean and then a dash to Fairy Bower and back again
- Around 3km in length with the fastest paddler completing the journey in around 15-minutes
An event for Fish was on the cards today - for the uninitiated, a Fish has a maximum length of around 6'6 and must have two fins and a "fish tail"
- They slid 'n slipped their way across the testing conditions
Day pretty-much finished as it started - Wet 'n Windy

Day Three

Cool 'n Wet start to the Finals Day
Surfed in some nice clean waves
The weather however did no favours to anyone
Finals were run in a variety of conditions
The Under-18s had some great waves to work with, whereas the last couple of Finals (8-foot and 9-foot) had to cope with rough, wind-swept chop
One of the big news items on the weekend was the fact that the major sponsor (Global Surf Industries) was giving away over $20,000 worth of boards to Final's winners and other very surprised competitors