A crack field including at least 14 championship tour competitors is set to hit Merewether for the Burton Automotive Pro men’s event at Surfest next month.
Entries close for the February 19-25 6000-point qualifying series contest on Tuesday and already 14 of the 34 men from the World Surf League’s elite tour have confirmed their places.
Keanu Asing, Wade Carmichael, 2012 winner Willian Cardoso, Griffin Colapinto, 2017 runner-up Jesse Mendes, Tomas Hermes, Ezekiel Lau, Connor O'Leary, Frederico Morais, Ian Gouveia, Adrian Buchan and Kanoa Igarashi have entered along with headline acts Owen Wright and Matt Wilkinson.
On Thursday, Wright and Wilkinson were announced as star entrants, along with world champion Tyler Wright and two-time Surfest winner Sally Fitzgibbons in the women’s 6000-point Grandstand Physio Pro.
Surfest starts this weekend with the Lake Mac Festival of Surfing at Redhead, where shortboard and longboard events will feature as well as Australia’s richest stand-up paddleboard contest.
At the 1000-point Carve Pro at Maroubra on Friday, Merewether’s Jackson Baker dominated his opening heat of the QS season, winning his round-three contest with scores of 9.25 and 6.25.
Fellow Merewether surfer Morgan Cibilic easily won his round two heat with a two-wave score of 14.15 but bowed out with third in round three.
Clubmate Philippa Anderson starts her QS campaign in round three of the 6000-point Ron Jon Florida Pro on the weekend.
