Hello Kneeboard world!

What a year 2025 was. We had just the second Victorian Neil Luke Classic winner in the history of the competition with serial the serial bridesmaid becoming the bride for the first time. Dean Bould gave a standout performance that left the beach cheering, and the cheering continued with the announcement at the presentations afterwards.

The Kneeboard Surfing Victoria State Titles were blessed with amazing conditions at each of the events, with phenomenal surfing on display throughout. We had a tight race, with Owen Fairweather and Stan Koefed announced joint State Champions.

The club remains strong and bloody good fun, thank you all for the help you’ve provided to make it run, whether that be via Sponsorship, jumping in the judging booth, organising, filming, taking photos, storing the trailer – you all know who you are and what you contributed, and we’re all incredibly grateful.

Here’s some of the write-ups from throughout the year:

ROUND 1:

Scores here: https://liveheats.com/events/354071

Yesterday we held our 1st round of the Victorian State Title.

With the swell increase we decided to hold the comp at the Gunnery. The thing is, there was alot of swell , and Menoes was looking a little low and the swell was rather strong that gave a lot of wash throughs.

With that, we kicked off around 8.45 with 25 minute heats and first heat and challenging conditions fronted the competitors with a 400 meter paddle out, then add some solid 6ft+ waves washing thru the site. Fun times had by all. BAHAHAHA…

There where some tubes, lip bashes, big cuttys and some great hold downs in the mix. Well done to all involved as this was no easy event to surf, but surf everyone did, and did it well.

Young Owen Fairweather and Grayson Hyde showed some great talent to kick off the day wth Dave Sexton getting a nice drop and run.

A GRADE RESULTS

Owen Fairweather

Stan Kofoed

Bruce Sherlock

Andy Whitehead

B GRADE RESULTS

Mark Jeffrey

Gary Finger

Steve Farmer

Alastair Ryan

Gary Smithett

Congratulations to all the competitors and finalists as a challenging day it was.

We are looking forward to our next gathering which should be in July at Urbansurf, so be prepared for that.

I hope everyone gets some great waves in the coming months, with perfect waves groomed with beautiful offshores.

ROUND 2

Scores here: https://liveheats.com/events/410138

No write up, but the full event was LiveStreamed by the legend Keith at CarveMedia

https://www.youtube.com/live/m3Uy6VYm1Og?si=Pu-J76ZlExW733rP

ROUND 3: Posted November 15, 2025

Scores here: https://liveheats.com/events/436179

Open Final Video here: https://youtu.be/wuzhnINOHsE?si=2kSneS3RL-UsWAuG

What a morning for the KSVs 3rd and final event of the year. Finally there was a break in the never ending onshore winds. Waves were pumping Everyone absolutely ripped fun times had by all all this wrapped up in one morning.

We arrived at Woolies with a 3-4ft swell running with bugga all wind blowing. This was the case all morning. A cranking right rip bowl bank was the order of the day. What a great turnout. Congrats to all kneelos who participated .

Standouts of the day in A grade.

The Fairweathers ripped like they do.

Stanley was on a mission blasting his way to the final.

Andy was getting shampoos and scratcha was firing.

While B grade we were seeing

Mark and Travis smashing lips

Steve and Red with some smooth lines

And the ever consistent Gary the Finger finding some great waves.

Well done to all participants, everyone left with huge smiles.

We finished up at the Killy Pub for lunch with a sensational feed and a cupola froffies. So good.

RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT: Posted December 9 and December 22, 2025

What a great afternoon wrapping up the competition season on Sunday hangin and surfin with the KSV Krew at URBNSURF.

Started off with a session on the left with a full side hootin and hollerin big turns and even bigger wipeouts..

After we ended up upstairs at the duck where everyone was watching their session go down with a feed and a Xrissy drink.

With most of the members in the house, KSV held the yearly AGM with a couple of changes to move forward into next years calendar events.

Prezez: Rod Paarlberg and Bruce Sherlock.

Vice President: Paul O’Neill

Treasurer: Red Ceglow.

Secretary: Andy Whitehead.

Committee: Tony Jewell, Stan Kofoed, Owen Fairweather, Rob Johns.

Thanks to those who have put there hand up to help keep the club moving forward. The things done behind the scenes is necessary to keep everyone in the club happy and make there day at either surfing competition or gatherings as seamless as possible.

Getting down to the nitty gritty of the Victorian State Titles, things got very tight at the pointy end in both the A grade and B grade divisions.

Congratulations to all winners and participants throughout the year, Twas a great year of waves, friendship, laughter and competitive spirit. With all these factors, how can ya not have a great time.. This is what surfin with mates is all about.

Victorian State Title Open winners.

1st Owen Fairweather & Stan Kofoed,

3rd Pete Fairweather

4th Andy Whitehead

B Grade Victorian State Title winners

1st Mark Jeffrey

2nd Travis Sutton

3rd Gary Finger

4th Gary Smithett

Most improved: Darcy Sutton

Best Clubman: Kev Ross

Raffles were run and won by many who bought tix with heaps of prizes from our sponsors.

STRAPPER SURF

WARATAH PRIME LAMB

SNAPPY PET PHOTOGRAPHY

KSV CLUB APPAREL

A BLOKE IN THE CARPARK WITH 6 BOTTLES OF RED

ATOLL TRAVEL

NEIL LUKE KNEEBOARDS

We’ve had a big outcome in the final standings of the 2025 Victorian State Title.

Owen Fairweather and Stan Kofoed had finished dead level on points at the top of the Open division.

A countback was initially used to declare Owen the winner — a system that’s been in place for several years but had never been needed until now. Unfortunately, that process wasn’t clearly communicated to members, and that’s on us.

After reviewing the situation, a unanimous decision was made to crown Stan Kofoed and Owen Fairweather as joint 2025 Open Victorian State Champions

Massive congratulations to two absolute rippers — KSV couldn’t be prouder.

2024 was a very successful year for the Kneeboard Surfing Victoria club.

3 competitions run successfully with a range of conditions to test Victoria’s kneelos and crown a champion.

Round 3 was held in November – video can be found here: https://youtu.be/IawQPmCWuUo

Round 2 was held in October – video and write-up can be found here: https://www.kneeboardsurfingvictoria.com/ksv-2024-victorian-state-titles-round-2-surfies-point/

Round 1 was held in April – video and write-up can be found here: https://www.kneeboardsurfingvictoria.com/kneeboard-surfing-victoria-state-titles-2024-round-1/

You can explore all the scores from the season here: https://liveheats.com/kneeboardsurfingvictoria/events

A Grade Champion: Owen Fairweather (back to back!!!!)

2nd place: Tim Kadwell

3rd place: Andy Whitehead

4th place: Paul O’Neill

B Grade Champion: Gary Smithett

2nd place: Rod Paarlberg

3rd place: Dave Sexton

4th place (equal points): Tony Jewell, Bruce Sherlock, Paul O’Neill

Well done to Owen on back-to-back State Championships, and a Junior World Title thrown into the mix as well. Charging!

Other highlights of the year:

• Gary Smithett’s showing in the B-Grade – our oldest member still mixing it up!
• Greyson Hyde and Darcy Sutton having a crack at solid Surfies Point – we’re proud to have you join us, good to have some young guns in the club.
• The three-way tie for 4th place in the B-Grade ; Paul, Tony and Brewdy are all A-Grade surfers who shouldn’t have been in the B’s at all, but it shows the quality and depth of surfing talent mixing it up in the comps.
• Mel paddling out and having a crack at Woolies in comp 3 – we’re proud of you Mel, and stoked to have you in the club!
• Highest single wave score – Andy Whitehead’s 8.5 in round 1 semifinal heat 1.
• Highest heat total for the season – Owen Fairweather’s 14.86 in the final of round 3 at Cape Woolamai – a 7.03 and 7.83 sealing his championship in style

Photo by Mick Devall

Welcome Kneelos to the 2025 Kneeboard Surfing Victoria State Titles season.

Remaining one of the cheapest clubs in Australia, we have 2 membership options available. Surfing Members gain entry to all State Titles rounds, Social Members can enter one round, and pay the balance ($40) if they would like to enter more later on.

To become a 2025 member, please complete this form online, send your payment to the Kneeboard Surfing Victoria bank account, and send proof of payment to contact@kneeboardsurfingvictoria.com

KSV Surfing Member: $80

• Membership period Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025
• Entry into all 2025 Victorian Kneeboard State Titles event

KSV Social Member: $40

• Membership period Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025
• Entry into one Victorian Kneeboard State Titles event 

($40 balance payable for entry into second event)

Money Payable to KSV bank account  

Bendigo Bank BSB 633-000 Account 135765022  

Please insert name in reference 

(Surfing Victoria Membership to be paid separately)

Thanks to Kev Ross for the footage

Write-up by Brewdy:

Well, what a day surfin had by the KSV members. A great turn out for what was a change of venue to Surfies Point as the swell didnt quite turn up in Time for the Crack unfortunately.

Fun and banter and mateship is what we thrive on and that was in full force today.

Cleanish 4ft runners were the staple to start the comp.

But as the tide ebbed out and with the start of the push, sets were getting bigger by every heat. Some solid walls of water running thru the line up and the lads pushed thru with some great surfing.

Well done to Grayson Hyde, he and Darcy Sutton, who are our youngest members, surfed great today.

The best score of the event went to Tim Kadwell with an 8.5 linking some great cutties and driving thru to the shorie with a smooth roof climb over the shallow bank.

A final was a ripper with these results..

1st Owen Fairweather

2nd Tim Kadwell

3rd Pete Fairweather

4th Andy Whitehead

B final was a ripper too.

A very young Darcy Sutton (14) son of Trav, scraped away with some clean lines in tricky conditions in the final. Well done young fella. Results..

1st Paul scratcha Oneill

2nd Darcy Sutton

3rd Rocket Rod Paarlberg

4th Alistair Ryan

Well done to everyone as it was a challenging day.

Thanks to everyone who gets around our comps either in person or via socials to send there support.. It’s humbling. Also running the live heats as this shows everyone what’s goin on.

Next KSV meet will be Sunday 17th November.

Warmer water, weather and usually pumping waves grace us that time of year.

If ya keen to get in on some fun, hook up Rod and let him know ya in….

Now to watch the NRL final.. I’m knackered…

Brewdy

Points allocated per event:

Kneeboard Surfing Victoria 2024 State Championship standings after round 1

There’s a lot going on at KSV!

Looking forward to a big year of waves, mates and competition.

Thank you to our sponsors and partners for the support

2024 is off with a bang, with your committee having been very busy since Presentation day at UrbnSurf in December. A big thank you to Rod, Paul, Jim, Andy, Bruce, Tony, Pete and Dave for all their hard work.

CURRENT AND COMPLETED PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES

Kneeboard Surfing Victoria Website

a source of valuable information for KSV members and other interested people

Kneeboard Surfing Victoria now has a website! Visit kneeboardsurfingvictoria.com for upcoming event dates, links to registrations, details about becoming a member, and more.

Each of the event write-ups (published on our socials) are linked and/or copied to the website to keep a record. It’s also slowly being updated with past results too – if anyone has any other content they’d like added to the site, please send it to contact@kneeboardsurfingvictoria.com 

             

Online scoring coming to competitions

allowing competitors and fans to follow along and improve their performance

Thanks to a Quick Response Grant provided by Bass Coast Shire Council, Kneeboard Surfing Victoria has been able to purchase equipment to enable judging at our events via the LiveHeats platform. 

A laptop for the head judge will also allow for more efficient management of our memberships, event registrations, and allow for live scores to be available to competitors and spectators. 

We also have 3 tablets for judges to use, which have also been set up with the EmergencyPlus App, in case of emergencies. A 4G/LTE Cat6 Wi-Fi HotSpot was also covered by the grant, and a Telstra sim card will give us connectivity at all the surf breaks we hold competitions.

A huge thank you to Gene Parini and Emma Foley at Gippsport and Shirley Egan at Bass Coast Shire Council for the help and guidance applying for the grant.

For those of you who have registered for the Neil Luke Kneeboard Classic, you will have already experienced the sign-up/payment process – that same landing page is where you will be able to see the scores from each of the heats as the days progress.

https://liveheats.com/events/192734

Neil Luke Kneeboard Classic 2024

the 39th running of the longest running kneeboard competition in the world

This year’s Neil Luke Kneeboard Classic will be a smaller affair than many years, with 30 athletes registered to compete as of registration close.

Running on March 16 & 17, we welcome all spectators, and will be running a raffle, and selling merchandise over the course of the weekend.

Competition sign-in will be on Friday March 15 @ 7:30pm at Sombreros Cantina, Cowes. 

Competitors must check in on Friday, either in-person, or via email to nlclassic@kneeboardsurfingvictoria.com

Real-time updates about the event (meeting places, etc.) will be published to Instagram during the event.

Follow along with all the scores at https://liveheats.com/events/192734 

Kneeboard Surfing Victoria State Titles 2024

three rounds to decide the 2024 State Champion

Will Owen Fairweather defend his title? 

We kick off this year’s State Titles with Round 1 on the Mornington Peninsula on April 14. Should the weather and swell not cooperate, we have been given back-up dates with our permit.

Round 2 and Round 3 will be held on Millowl (Phillip Island) on October 6 and November 17 respectively.

An athlete’s best 2 results count toward the points accrued toward the title.

We currently have about 17 paid-up members ready to compete for the title. If you haven’t already, please return your membership form and proof of payment to contact@kneeboardsurfingvictoria.com 

Points Awarded in each division per event.

Club Trailer Maintenance and Improvements

extending the life and utility of our club’s important asset

Another grant thank you to Bass Coast Shire Council provided the club with the funds to bring our club trailer back to life. This important piece of infrastructure ensures our club is able to run events, so it’s very important that it is safe and usable for years to come. 

Before the work, the steel in the trailer was rusting out and the springs had lost their spring.

Now, thanks to Troy at Yarram Engineering, our trailer is solid, rust free and ready to carry our competition equipment for years to come.

Another huge thank you to Gene Parini and Emma Foley at Gippsport for support with the grant submission.

Kneeboard Surfing Victoria Inc.

Cowes, VIC, 3922

Welcome kneelos to the 2024 KSV State Titles season!

The Neil Luke Classic is just around the corner, and your KSV Committee has been hard at work planning for the Victorian Kneeboard Surfing State Titles, with 2 events locked in on the island, and a third on the peninsula being finalised. We’re also planning a couple of social events, and, of course, preparing for the upcoming Neil Luke Kneeboard Classic in March.

This year, and based on member feedback, the KSV Committee have decided to extend a couple of options for renewing/becoming a member of our club. Financial membership runs from January 1, to December 31 each year, and Victorian members who plan to surf in the Neil Luke Classic should also be a paid up club Surfing Member by the running of the comp.

Surfing Member: $60

• Includes entry to all 3 state round events
• Option to participate in social events (additional cost per event)

Social Member: $30

• Includes entry to 1 state round event
• $30 balance to be paid if wishing to enter a second or third state round event
• Option to participate in social events (additional cost per event)

Payments should be made via bank transfer to:

Kneeboard Surfing Victoria

BSB 633-000

Account 135765022

Please insert name in reference.

Please send proof of payment and completed membership form (below) to contact@kneeboardsurfingvictoria.com or simply complete this form online: https://forms.gle/7SePFxtdf5Jvbyou9

The following photos have been kindly provided by Gary Smithett