A New Venue, more international Boardriders clubs, the best of Australia’s surfing fraternity and for the very first time an Australian First Nations team, the annual Usher Cup World Club Challenge Presidents dinner had it all. The World Club Challenge draw has quickly become a feature of the annual Usher Cup World Club Challenge Presidents dinner and last night was no different as more than 280 competitors, club representatives and celebrities gathered to celebrate the launch of the 2024 contest see who they would face when the World Club Challenge gets underway.
US Commissioner Darren Brillhart was invited on stage by contest director and co-founder Wayne Rabbit Bartholomew to draw the teams out and he quickly set the tone for an epic day of international action.
13:28:32
“You know Maui verse Kauai unbelievable two great Hawaiian Islands and then Newport versus Huntington, incredible and then of course those Australian clashes, North Shelly are the real dark horses coming through the qualifiers, they are a gun side, you know everyone has brought their A team this year and I am expecting fierce competition in the water and super friendly vibes on the beach.”
Santa Cruz, Byron Bay, Le-Ba and North Shelley will contest the opening heat of the World club Challenge with Snapper Rocks, defending World Club Challenge champions MNM Boardriders and the potent Torquay side contesting the second heat.
North Shore, Florida, Duranbah, and Coffs Harbour will line up in heat 3 while the powerhouse American battle takes place in heat four with Huntington Beach, Newport, Noosa and NASA taking to the Snapper Line-up.
North Narrabeen, San Deigo, Western Australia’s Scarborough and WindanSea will contest heat five with San Clemente, Indonesia’s Padma, North End and Point Lookout contesting heat 6 before Kauai, Maui, Australia’s First nations team the Juraki and Byron Bay clash out in heat 7.
Merewether Japan’s RabeDabe, Kawana and Burleigh Heads round out the opening round. For Rabbit, the inaugural Usher Cup qualifier provided plenty of insight into how the World Club Challenge will be run and won this year with teams relying heavily on time and surfer management.
13:27:33
“It was unbelievable, we had to move it around to Duranbah to run that day and the waves were tricky and the surfing was red hot and I was really watching how they managed the clock and the coaches are learning a lot, they watch every match and a lot of the US teams were down there today watching, and then we go to Snapper and my format is built for Snapper, you can be on the rocks, you can be in the keyhole, it’s really a thinking man’s game.”
13:28:27
“This year if you manage the clock well, you can send one of your surfers back out, either your weakest surfer to improve their score or your gun surfer out to get an excellent score, but you still need to get in and on dry sand to get that three-point bonus, it’s a chess game.”
Four years on and the Usher Cup World Club Challenge continues to have a huge influence on boardriders surfing around the world with Bartholomew and fellow co-founder Theodore Vairaktaris determined to keep increasing the events global capacity.
13:27:07
“I think the Usher Cup has really got traction, I think we are really inspiring other nations to get this global board riding club movement that Theo and I really want to see happen, America is on fire there is over fifty clubs in America right now and I am really stoked about that, and I do think we have made a real contribution to that.”
In tricky northerly conditions the Usher Cup, World Club Challenge got underway this morning before the men took to the waves for their opening heats during the afternoon session.