![Jones Beach Boardriders Club member Oceania Rogers at the Australian Boardriders Battle. Picture: Bob Willetts Jones Beach Boardriders Club member Oceania Rogers at the Australian Boardriders Battle. Picture: Bob Willetts](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/kZL4qV6yTxfrWZJxKQxjSN/b0a23875-8d7d-40b0-bce0-03d64e35f936.jpeg/r0_83_1620_997_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
South Coast and Illawarra clubs have proven they're up there with some of Australia's best, following an impressive showing at the final of the Australian Boardriders Battle.
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Kiama-based Jones Beach Boardriders Club were especially impressive in Newcastle on the weekend, progressing all the way to the semifinals of Australia's biggest grassroots boardrider event which involves more than 70 of Australia's best boardrider clubs.
Some 24 of these clubs made it to last weekend's final, including Illawarra club Scarborough.
Scarborough did well on the opening day on Saturday and headed into the main day, the team's event, seeded No 1 but unfortunately were knocked out in the quarterfinals on Sunday.
Jones Beach also did well on Saturday, with club junior Lennix Smith and over 35 competitor Matt Thompson winning their division.
![Jones Beach Boardriders Club surfer in action in Newcastle. Picture: Bob Willetts Jones Beach Boardriders Club surfer in action in Newcastle. Picture: Bob Willetts](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/kZL4qV6yTxfrWZJxKQxjSN/ac61c3ce-d8e7-4c3b-83f7-992ee5d9f348.jpeg/r0_83_1620_997_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The club's female competitor Oceania Rogers finished second in her division, as did the club's open age competitor Nick Clifford.
Jones Beach Boardriders Club president Joel Trist said the club had a really good day with its individual events.
"We were in fourth spot after Saturday and did really well on the team's day the following day. We were very happy to make the semifinals," he said.
"To be within the top eight clubs in Australia is a pretty incredible result for us.
"It was a very big achievement for the club, we were so happy to come out of it with a semifinal finish.
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"We have come in sixth before when the national final was at Cronulla but we've never got that high for a long time, so it is probably up there with our best achievement."
Trist added that the biggest annual boardriders event across Australia kicked off Jones Beach's boardriders' season for the year.
![Jones Beach Boardriders Club surfer in action in Newcastle. Picture: Bob Willetts Jones Beach Boardriders Club surfer in action in Newcastle. Picture: Bob Willetts](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/kZL4qV6yTxfrWZJxKQxjSN/a7c9c9a3-1b5e-45e8-8ef2-a131e5fbc835.jpeg/r0_83_1620_997_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"Hopefully you will see numbers grow even more as a result of this impressive showing.
"We've got about 150-160 members at the moment and our focus this season will be like last season, pushing our juniors and female competitors in terms of improving and going on to the next level and competing in a few other team events throughout the year."
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