
Combo just misses finals
BALLINA surfer Melissa Combo narrowly missed out on making the quarter-finals of the Swatch Girls Pro longboarding event on Hainan Island, China.
Combo needed a strong second wave to trump Japanese surfer Yuko Shimajiri's score of 9.85, but fell short on 9.15.
The Swatch Girls Pro is the final event on the ASP Women's World Longboard Tour in 2011.
Combo, an Indigenous surfer, is the co-ordinator of the aboriginal respite program at St Andrew's Retirement Village in Ballina.
She is hoping to encourage more young Indigenous people to follow in her footsteps.
"I love the places surfing has taken me and the people I've met through it," she said.