Pictured: Philippa Anderson with artist Julie Squires and four-time World Surfing Champion Mark Richards.
Credit: © WSL / Tom Bennett
The Women’s QS6,000 as part of Newcastle Surfest is one of the most unique in the world with the entire event being crowdfunded by local Newcastle businesses. Each year, every business that donates goes into the draw to take out the spot as naming right sponsor. Although it’s a fantastic initiative to encourage local businesses to get behind women’s surfing, it has always made it hard for the event to own and name a perpetual trophy, like the Mark Richards Trophy that is awarded to the male winner in Newcastle.
In 2019, The Holmes Civil Developments Pro, Women’s QS6,000 will award for the first time, the Surfest Women’s Trophy. The trophy was sculpted by Julie Squires, the same artist who produced the MR Trophy over 20 years ago and has been developed to share a likeness to Newcastle surfing legend and event hopeful Phillipa Anderson (AUS) who is thrilled to be apart of the new tradition.
“It’s really exciting to have this trophy and to be able to say I got to be a part of its design is really cool,” Anderson said, “I think it’s a great thing for Surfest but also signifies all of the great things that are happening in women’s surfing.”
Australian surfing legend and four-time World Surfing Champion Mark Richards is over the moon that female competitors will have the opportunity to hoist the new trophy up on Finals Day at Surfest. The local legend who never won Surfest times,
“It’s so great to see that there is now a perpetual trophy for the women’s event here at Surfest,” said Richards. “It’s always been a tricky situation with the continually changing naming-rights sponsor but I think they’ve done the right thing to name it the Surfest Women’s Trophy. It’s so great to see it modelled on the style of great Novocastrian Philippa Anderson and I’d hope to see her holding it on the podium in less than a week from now.”
