Zen Shepherd and Shannon Armstrong take out hotly contested open titles at Albany Boardriders’ 2024 Wavefest

During a weekend of wet and wild conditions, the weather gods turned up for Albany Boardriders’ 2024 Wavefest on Saturday with new winners crowned champions of the surf. Blessed with offshore winds, consistent reliable swell and little tide movement at Parry Beach, 80km west of Albany, local surfer Zen Shepherd took out a thrilling men’s open category on countback while Shannon Armstrong clinched the open women’s title. Nothing could separate Shepherd, Josh Coumans and defending champion Reuden Lemmes after the final round before a countback determined the podium order. Shepherd secured his second win since his maiden wooden fin in 2019, Coumas was second and Lemmes finished third. Dual reigning junior Wavefest champion Tyce Shepherd rounded out the top four and also claimed the wave of the day honours in the final. Armstrong outlasted strong challenges from Kylie Outhwaite and Gemma Moir, who finished second and third respectively, while Chelsey Norman was fourth. Bremer Bay’s Owen Thomas clinched the men’s over-35 title from Josh Coumans and Adrian Shepherd and David Beeck took out the men’s over-45 event ahead of Jason and Darryn Oostdam. Jess Ngeh excelled across the waves knocking off strong competition including open champion Armstrong to secure the women’s over-30s division. Albany Boardriders competition director David Beeck said the event, which usually runs over two days of the long weekend, was jostled in high spirits in a one-day surfing extravaganza. “It was as good as waves anywhere on the south coast at Parry’s and it was consistent all day, there was minimal tide movement so it was just good all day,” he said. “It’s always good when when you get a couple of good sets come through in the final and that’s what happened in the open men’s final.” Having made a late decision to move the entire event on to one day, Beeck said the competition was contested in superb conditions. “It ran like clockwork and if everything ran to plan it would finish just after 4pm and it ran to plan,” he said. “Hearing the rain in the morning on Sunday was pleasing so it worked out well. “Late Friday arvo I drove out to Parry’s (Beach) and it was pretty good out there . . . there was a massive swell in Albany but it wasn’t getting past Denmark.”