The 2006 Cronulla Surf Design Cronulla Regional Titles held over the last few weeks and with the finals decided last weekend will, hopefully, go down as one of the best ever held.

The decision to run a preliminary weekend and to run a finals day three weeks later was regarded as a great risk by plenty of the contestants and assorted officials. After last years marathon effort to run 62 heats over two days it was decided to split the contest into the two weekends for this years event and try to get some exposure for the for the local surfers by having a day of finals where people could come down and watch the best going against each other.

Jake Stalker, at 17 the youngest Opens Champion. Great shots by John Veage - thanks 

Great waves on the day, these at the Island

North Cronulla lines

Under 14's Champ Jesse Horner

The crew who made it all happen - good on you guys

The first weekend dawned with absolutely no surf, although, the forecasts had said the swell would pick up around lunchtime. So the contest was put on hold until midday and when everyone returned the swell had jumped to three foot and continued to rise throughout the afternoon.

The younger divisions and the Womens were contested during the arvo and we waited for the big guys until Sunday morning.

At 6:30am there were so many guys at the contest site frothing to get under way because the bank at the Alley was going off. A long day, great surfing, great waves had everyone looking forward to finals day. When?

Over 45s Champ Barry Tyte

Over 35s Champ Todd Liddy

Over 40s Champ Geoff Winney

What a great guy - Over 28s Champ Andy King missed out on the Opens Final by .5 of a point!

Under 16 Womens Champ Charlottte Conlon

Heat winner lefts if you could get one

So to the finals day. What if there was no surf? Who would get lynched for the decision to run over two weekends. Luckily for the organisers the surf was pumping.

First out were the semi-finals in the Over 28's, the Open Women and Open Men and the first portents of the day to come were in the Opens where the young crew knocked the the older guys that had featured in the finals over the last few years.

The Over 50's was the first final of the day and it was taken out by the ever present Steve Woodall. The 45's followed and Barry 'Fanga' Tyte relived his days as a former State Open champion by bringing home the bacon.

The Under 16 girls were next out and it was one of the surprise finals of the day. With the surf absolutely going off and the normal alley rip running wild a couple of the organisors spent plenty of time telling the young girls not to try to get out the back and ride the reforms in front of the contest site.

The girls said yes and then all proceeded to paddle out the back and got some great waves showing no fear at all. Charlotte Conlon won with two great waves but Alyssa, Tammy and Kayla deserve special mention for their efforts.

Next came the Over 40's and this was one one the best ever with Geoff Winney taking the title with two great waves but with Maurer, Breadner & JT right on his tail and hard to separate.

The kids came out next with Kurt Kiggins winning the Under 16's and then Jesse Horner winning a very strong Under 14's from from Zac Scott, Rory Jenkins and Harry Wheeler. 

The Under 18's signelled the start of the big four and Like Madden didn't disappoint with the equal highest wave score of the day(9. 5) to edge out Brandon Tyte, Ben Kiggins and Corbin Nash.

Open final keeping the Judges busy: Mitch Warren 2nd in white, Todd Mingrimm 4th in yellow, Jake Stalker in red 1st

Opens Joel Etherington 3rd had some big moves

Zac Scott showing his fin system

The Open Women was a strange final with Aussie Masters champ Akemi O'Leary only getting one wave and scoring high but Nichola and Michelle got plenty and Nichola winning on countback from Michelle and Akemi left wondering why she hadn't taken off on anything else.

The not so old Over 28's was next and what a cracking final. Andy King was pretty mad about being knocked by less than half a point in the Opens and was seeking retribution and went ballistic, eventually finding a nine point ride.

Then almost on the next wave Scotty Yealland went hideous and scored a nine five and hit the lead but with only a couple of minutes left Kingy pulled into a steaming left and scored another nine to put him back in front and he hung on from there.

The Over 35's featured last years winner Ash Gee but he couldn't seem to find waves and left it to Todd Liddy (one of our great commentators) to just edge out Gavin Thoms.

Scott Yelland with some big moves but couldn't get any length of ride

Scotty with another big one

So, finally it was up to the Open Mens and although Joel had previously won this event, it was still a real changing of the guard. When Joel had won he was up against the guys who had done it all before but this years final was all new starters. Both Joel and Todd started OK but about halfway through the heat Jake belted an eight five and then Mitch countered with a seven and things between all four became very tight.

With lots of sixes being scored as the waves deteriorated and the cross wind hit, Jake then pulled out a seven to edge ahead and hold onto till the end and at seventeen become the youngest ever winner.

Maybe this hadn't had the best waves of the day but the tension added to the excitement of the final heat of the day.

Harry Wheeler

Ben Kiggins

Then it was off to JD's Bar & Grill in the mall for the presso and a few beers and reflect on the contests' results. After a sensational year for the region at State and Aussie titles in 2005 everyone is looking forward to this years competitions and hoping to emulate last years' results.

Over 50's:

1st:Steve Woodall

2nd:Mick O'Connor

3rd:Mick Lane

Over 45's:

1st:Barry 'Fanga" Tyte

2nd:Anthony Bates

3rd:Colm O'Leary

4th:Mark McCarthy

Under 16's:

1st:Charlotte Conlon

2nd:Alyssa Quealy

3rd:Tammy Wheeler

4th:Kayla Moore

Over 40's:

1st:Geoff Winney

2nd:Richard Maurer

3rd:Mark Breadner

4th:John Tucker

Under 16's:

1st:Kurt Kiggins

2nd:Jesse Horner

3rd:Shaun Carey

4th:Jarrod Horner

Under 14's:

1st:Jesse Horner

2nd:Zac Scott

3rd:Rory Jenkins

4th:Harry Wheeler

Under 18's:

1st:Luke Madden

2nd:Brandon Tyte

3rd:Ben Kiggins

4th:Corbin Nash

Open Woman:

1st:Nichola Turner

 2nd:Michelle Kuramuchi

 3rd:Akemi O'Leary

 4th:Laura Armour

Over 35's:

1st:Todd Liddy

2nd:Gavin Thoms

3rd:Ashley Gee

4th:David Gall

Over 28's:

1st:Andy King

2nd:Scott Yealland

3rd:Wylie Fowler

4th:Jason McKenzie

Open Mens:

1st:Jake Stalker

2nd:Mitch Warren

3rd:Joel Etherington

4th:Todd Mingramm

Thanks go out to all the people who helped put this thing together including:

Head Judge:

Scott Baxter

Judges:

Dane Gorrell

Ashley Gee

Paul 'Tommy" Tyler

Stuart Gooch

Paul Holbrook

Contest Director:

Paul 'Chook' Holbrook

Commentators:

Michael Crisp

Todd Liddy

Beach Manager:

Brad Whittaker

Food supplied by Lynn & Tony at North Cronulla Kiosk

Photos by John Veage & Julian Warne

Thanks to Mark Aprilovic from Cronulla Surf Design for his twentieth year of sponsorship of this event.

Thank you to the Cronulla surfing community for embracing and supporting each other through this event and all the things that have happened recently!

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