Geraldton beaches were packed out over the weekend for the WA Surf Lifesaving Country Carnival

The weather at Pages and Back beachers was perfect over the weekend as Geraldton hosted the Sunsmart WA Surf Lifesaving Country Carnival for more than 500 competitors.

The carnival, held over two days from January 26-27, saw Surf Lifesaving clubs from all over WA come to Pages Beach on Friday and Back Beach on Saturday for the State’s biggest annual surf lifesaving event.

Geraldton Surf Lifesaving member Callum Ilich said they had received a lot of positive feedback from visitors.

“People are loving it, we’ve had a lot of compliments, people appreciating the work that the volunteers have put in to get everything up and running as well,” he said.

The weather on Saturday down at Back Beach provided exciting competition and held out for the whole day which was the biggest hope of the club.

“(Saturday) the conditions have improved like we had hoped they would, the wind has swung around to the east and the waves are still large, but they are dropping throughout the day,” Ilich said.

The waves at Back Beach combined with the weather provided a competitive playing field which Ilich said made the events more unpredictable.

“It’s nice and calm once you’re out the back, but there is a fun challenge on the way out and on the way here,” he said.

“What I love about surfing is nothing is set in stone, so if you’re in front on a day like today and you don’t get a wave the rest of the pack will catch up

“(Surf lifesaving) is always so unpredictable and that’s what makes it exciting.”

Ilich said that the club did not have official numbers on how many visitors came through the weekend, but they were very happy with the turnout overall.

“Good numbers, we’re happy to see, last we heard there were over 500 people registered to compete,” he said.

“If every competitor has two or three people who comes with them, then there could be an extra 1500 spectators . . . it’s been quite busy in town as well, there’s been a lot happening over the Australia Day long weekend.

“Not just from a surf lifesaving perspective but from a community perspective and an economic perspective, it’s just been a really good weekend.”

When all the excitement of the carnival was wrapped up, the Geraldton club hosted events for visitors including a sundowner on Friday and a Hawaiian themed party on Saturday.

“(Friday) night we had our first function, which was our sundowner following the events for all ages, and that was really busy,” Ilich said.

“We had heaps of people down there, pretty much all the food sold out.”