MAROUBRA’S BEACH BREAKS CARNIVAL AN HOMAGE TO THE OCEAN

By Madeleine Gray on July 4, 2017 in News

This month’s Beast cover star, Martine Emdur, is an artist who paints bodies submerged in the sea, from the vantage point of someone who is also beneath the slick surface of the ocean. In our talk with her, one thing that rang particularly true is how she described her fascination with the world that exists under the waves: “There’s something super soothing and mysterious and incredibly beautiful and kind of scary. The other thing I love about it is relief from the whole gravity feeling. Your feet are up, you’re floating, feeling embraced.”

Emdur is right. The feeling of being in the ocean is a singular experience, and one that we, as people who live close to some of the most stunning beaches on Earth, are familiar with.

Randwick Council’s Beach Breaks Carnival is an annual event that celebrates our proximity to this beautiful coastline, and the incredible athletes who manage to glide between submersion and emersion on the waves with agility and grace: surfers.

This year the festival will take place on Sunday, July 23, from 12 noon to 4:30pm.

“The Beach Breaks Carnival is a vibrant community event held along the picturesque Maroubra Beach promenade,” a Council spokesperson said. “The event celebrates the surfing history and culture of Maroubra Beach.”

The Beach Breaks Carnival includes surfing contests, market stalls, food and drinks, amusement rides, live entertainment, and the induction of a surfing legend into the Australian Surfing Walk of Fame. Nominations for this year’s inductions have already closed, and we are excited to see who will be unveiled on the day and welcomed into the very prestigious group that makes up the Walk of Fame.

Nominees must have either won a world-class surfing or surf life saving championships and/or made a significant contribution to the sport, or be a local Maroubra person who either began their surfing/surf life saving career at Maroubra or who currently resides, trains, or is strongly affiliated with a local surfing association or surf club.

Last year’s inductees were Olympians Leigh McCleery and Jon Donohoe AM, and founding member of the Maroubra Surfers Association, Gordon Merchant AM.

It won’t just be surfers from days gone by who are celebrated at the carnival either. From 9am to 12pm, carnival-goers will be treated to the spectacle of 100 junior surfers vying for a place on the NSW Team to compete in the Australian Junior Titles, so if you can manage to get out of bed earlier than midday on the weekend in question, we strongly encourage you to get down and cheer these talented groms on. They’ll be shredding the waves like pros in the cold, and they’ll need all the encouragement they can get from the rugged up folk on the shore!

Finally, the carnival itself will cater to the masses (literally), with delicious food stalls offering up tasty and healthy fare from local Eastern Suburbs food purveyors. There will also be rides and entertainment for the kids, and live music for the adults.