Challenge Her Team’s Classic at Surfest 2022

MAROUBRA BEACH, NSW / AUS (Friday 25 March 2022) – Merewether will host over 100 women to kick off the Australian-first surf series, the Challenge Her Team’s Classic on Monday 28 March. 

The event will not only boost the energy of the sport locally, but will reach and inspire thousands of girls and women with a live and free webcast via Kayo Sports who have partnered with Surfing NSW in 2022 to bring Australians more surfing than ever before. 

The Challenge Her Team’s Classic invited women of any age and surf ability to form teams of eight. The teams will take to the water in 90-minute heats in a relay-style event whereby surfers run out, catch their best wave and return to shore to tag their next team member. 

There are 10 registered teams from Sydney, the Central Coast and Hunter regions, made up of women who surf longboard and shortboard of all ages, including two mother-daughter duos that make up the Umina Boardriders Club team. 

Her Wave Program Manager Claire Ellem said it is diversity in teams like this that makes the event so unique and such a celebration of women in sport. “I don’t know if there is anything else like this. It’s the chance for women to enter a surf team with mums and daughters, where age and ability isn’t a barrier. With stories like these we’re going to experience some magic on the beach on Monday. This is the reason we have developed the series, to bring women together, to have fun and show the world that anyone can fall in love with this sport and the ocean like we have.” 

The action-packed day aims to inspire and increase women’s participation in surfing across NSW without the emphasis on elite competition. The focal point is around having fun in the surf, making new friends and learning new skills that last a lifetime.

Order of Events

7am – Welcome to Country

7.30am – Clinics begin (Learn to Surf, Train Like a Woman, Longboard & Shortboard Clinics)

7.30am – Individual heats start (20 mins each x 8)

10.30am – Live webcast starts on Kayo Sports 

11am – Team’s Challenge heats start (90 mins each x 2)

2pm – Team’s Challenge final starts (90mins)

4pm – Presentation 

The Challenge Her Team’s Classic Newcastle event is proudly supported by the NSW Government, NSW Office of Sport, Surfest and Salt Gypsy.

The Challenge Her Team’s Classic is part of the Surfing NSW Her Wave platform, supported by the NSW Government, NSW Office of Sport and the Her Sport Her Way Way initiative. Her Sport Her Way is a four-year strategy that aims to build a stronger sport sector where women and girls are valued, recognised and have equal choices and opportunities to lead and participate.

As part of the initiative Surfing NSW’s Her Wave program is providing a number of opportunities for surf schools, community groups and individuals to have their first surf experience or enhance their surfing through fun, supporting and positive interactions like the Challenge Her Teams Classic. Find out more about the Her Wave program.

Surfing NSW Challenge Her Team’s Classic Ambassadors

Carly Shannahan (Coffs Harbour), Ellie Lambkin (Newcastle), Hunter Roberts (Sydney), Anne Dos Santos (Sydney), Arabella Tarpey (Pambula)

Pic Credit: Surfing NSW