Wildcards Confirmed For The Rip Curl Newcastle Cup
15/03/2021

Wildcards Confirmed For The Rip Curl Newcastle Cup

Local and International athletes get the call-up for the second event of the 2021 WSL CT season.

Local Newcastle surfers Jackson Baker and Phillipa Anderson will join Californian Crosby Colapinto (USA) as the confirmed wildcards for the second Championship Tour (CT) event of the 2021 WSL season, and the first of the Australian leg of the tour.

Commenting on the chance to surf in his first WSL event at the highest level Baker said. “I’ve wanted to surf in a CT since I was a kid and it’s really cool to be given that chance at home, with the support of my boardriders club and in front of family and friends” “I love Newcastle and I can’t wait to represent Merewether on the biggest stage”.

In addition to World Tour rookie, Morgan Cibilic, Baker and Anderson will represent Merewether Surfboard Club on the International stage come April. Whilst Colapinto received the opportunity after Kelly Slater withdrew with a foot injury and elected not to attend the first Australian event of the season.

With a 35-year history hosting World Champs and local legends, there is no venue more deserving of a CT than the surf-mad city of Newcastle. The waiting period is scheduled for the 1st to the 11th of April which opens up the possibility of north-easterly swells coming in from cyclonic activity in the Coral Sea. These can be sculpted into epic lefthand tubes by the sandbanks of Dixon Park. Alternatively, if a low depression sends a southerly swell up through ‘pinball alley' the oceanic area between Tasmania and New Zealand, the famed Merewether Point, with its roping right-handers, come into play. It's this combination that has made Merewether an iconic wave on the East Coast of Australia. It was named an Australian National Surfing Reserve in 2009

Watch the world’s best back in action at the Rip Curl Newcastle Cup, running from April 1-11. Tune in via the World Surf League app or visit www.worldsurfleague.com