Lennox Head surfers Mikey McDonagh and Nyxie Ryan win Great Lakes Pro at Boomerang Beach

It was golden event for Lennox Head surfers at the Great Lakes Pro, with one of the most dramatic finishes in QS history highlighting finals day at Boomerang Beach.

Lennox Head surfers Mikey McDonagh and Nyxie Ryan have claimed a spectacular Le-Ba Boardriders double after both took out the Great Lakes Pro QS event on a thrilling final day at Boomerang Beach on the NSW mid-north coast.

In what was arguably the most dramatic finish to an event in years, McDonagh put in some clutch surfing with a buzzer-beating wave to defeat the Sunshine Coast’s Taj Stokes 13.34 to 12.80 in the men’s final.

Needing a score of 7.03 very late in the heat, the 21-year-old paddled onto a wave with just four seconds remaining, remarkably pulling off a series of impressive turns in the choppy conditions to score a heat-high wave of 7.57 and take out the final in the most dramatic of circumstances.

With the scores dropping just as the competitors were making their way back to shore, emotions were running high as McDonagh celebrated with friends and family on the beach.

“It’s a bit of a blur right now. There was five seconds to go… as soon as I paddled into that wave I could see the kink in it. I thought, ‘Ok, it’s going to give me one section’. And yeah, I’m lost for words, to be honest,” he said after the final.

“This event was a good one for me. I felt like I was just in-synch the whole time and was just really enjoying surfing heats. I don’t know what to say right now. I’m over the moon, it’s the best feeling in the world.”

McDonagh caught his last wave with four second remaining in the final. Photo: supplied.

The win at the death was a fitting finish to an incredible see-sawing final that saw Stokes actually take the lead from McDonagh with just 80 seconds remaining, testing the Lennox Head surfer’s patience.

“There were 30 seconds to go and I could see some waves coming,” he said.

“I just had to hold my nerve and the wave that came just gave me one big first section that I could open up on.

“I’m really confident in that backfoot stomp and I knew that if I could open up with a big first turn and finish the wave off then I’d go close to the score.”

The victory capped off an incredible event for Lennox Head, with fellow Le-Ba Boardriders clubmate Nyxie Ryan taking out the women’s final with a win over Victorian surfer Ellie Harrison.

Ryan made it a Le-Ba double by defending her Great Lakes Pro title.

Ryan dominated the heat from the outset, scoring a pair of 6.33 waves to win the final 12.66 to 9.90. In doing so, the 20-year-old defended her Great Lakes Pro title from last year in what was her fifth victory at QS level.

“I’m super tired at the moment but I’m super stoked,” she said after the final.

“I knew coming into this day that if I made it to the finals I’d have to surf four heats, so I had a good dinner last night, some snacks in the morning and just heaps of Powerade and water throughout the day. It really took the gas out of me, but I’m stoked to win.”

Given that it was a QS 3000 event, the victories set both McDonagh and Ryan up well in their quest to qualify for the second-tier Challenger Series, to be held later this year.

“I usually only do well in all the 1000s, so I’m stoked to make it past the round of 16 at least in one of the bigger comps,” says Ryan. “I’ve gained a lot of confidence over the past two years and just love taking it heat by heat, surfing my best and just improving each comp.”