Western Suns Development Squad Tour (NSW)

It was a huge weekend of surf sports for our Western Suns Development Squad who made the trip east to test their skills against peers across a full three days of events at Freshwater and Manly, NSW!

The squad of twenty-eight will be heading into the upcoming Aussies well prepared after gaining a huge amount of experience at the Freshwater Carnival, Youth Pathway Cup, Manly Open Carnival and Manly Nipper Nats across the long weekend. Making their home base at the Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation for the weekend, feedback from the group has been overwhelmingly positive as they gained valuable competition experience while having had a huge amount of fun!

This trip, fully funded by Surf Life Saving WA, provides an important opportunity for our youth athletes to develop their skills in a range of conditions and compete against their peers from other states. Thanks also to our official Western Suns apparel partner Engine Swim and Team Managers Alysse Priddis (City of Perth SLSC), Mark Muir (Secret Harbour SLSC), Robert Innocent (Trigg Island SLSC) and Andrew Mosel (SLSWA), and team physiotherapist Jeremy Hunter (Trigg Island), who made the journey with the team.

FRESHWATER OPEN CARNIVAL
Events kicked off with the Freshwater Open Carnival on Friday, 26th, with competition off to a flying start with all U17 athletes making the finals on the day, while the U14 and U15’s took a more strategic approach, spacing out their events and saving energy for the afternoon’s Youth Pathway Cup. Standout individual performances came from U17’s Taylah Rafferty (Sorrento SLSC) with 1st in the Flags and 4th in Beach Sprints. The U15 female board relay team, comprised of Sascha Innocent (Trigg Island SLSC), Nikita Fredonnet (Trigg Island SLSC), and Neve Macleod (Mullaloo SLSC) also claimed a win, while Trigg Island’s Jazmin Shipway Carr took 2nd in the U17 Female Ski Race and Patrick Eley claimed a 4th in the U17 Male Board Race.

YOUTH PATHWAY CUP
Next on the agenda was the inaugural Youth Pathway Cup for the U14 – 15’s, held later that afternoon, with WA claiming an admirable 3rd place overall finish. The beach athletes showed great teamwork on the day, stepping up to take on some of the board and surf race events – without the huge effort by the ‘beachies’ in these events WA would not have earned the necessary points for their overall tally.

A slate of standout performances saw WA athletes claim 1st place across a number of events including the U14 Female Beach Relay comprised of Sienna Algeri (Sorrento SLSC), Imogen Herrington (City of Perth SLSC), Alexandra Slocombe (City of Perth SLSC), and Maisy Redden (Mullaloo SLSC); Serena Nandapi (Binningup SLSC) in the U15 Female Beach Sprint; Sienna Algeri (Sorrento SLSC) in the U14 Female Beach Flags; Mia Fraser (City of Perth SLSC) in U15 Female Beach Flags and Will Savage (Trigg Island SLSC) in the U15 Male Iron Man.

MANLY OPEN CARNIVAL
The Manly Open Carnival, comprising water, beach, R&R and surf boat events, took place in humid conditions on the Saturday. Another successful day was had by WA athletes, all of whom showed great drive and determination, with many making it through to finals. Standout individual performances came from Will Savage (Trigg Island SLSC) who smashed first place in the U15 Male Iron Man, while club mate Jazmin Shipway Carr claimed 3rd in the U17 Female Ski Race, Mia Fraser (City of Perth SLSC) 3rd in the U15 Female Beach Flags, and Sorrento SLSC’s Taylah Rafferty took out 1st in the U17 Female Flags and a 4th in the Female Beach Sprints.

MANLY NIPPER NATS
A MASSIVE turnout for the Nipper Nationals – Australia’s largest Nipper Carnival – had WA athletes buzzing with excitement! Over 1,000 U9 – U14 Nippers from across Australia gathered at Manly Beach on the Sunday with events run through to finals. We couldn’t be more proud of all our WA athletes who participated. Congrats to the U14 Boys Beach Relay team of Ollie Waymouth (Sorrento SLSC), Declan Cook (Sorrento SLSC), Daniel Mann (Quinns-Mindarie SLSC), and Mitchell Eady (Mullaloo SLSC) who took out the Silver Medal; and Daniel Mann who also had a ripper individual performance, taking home bronze in the boys U14 Beach Flags.