Thankfully, the tears were happy ones, after keen oyster shucker Gerard Doody Dennis, of Batemans Bay, proved victorious in the final of the mens contest on Saturday, May 5.

The event, which is a crowd favourite at the annual seafood festival, was quite the family affair, with mentor Jim Yiannaros handing the crown to Mr Dennis after a three-year reign.

Mr Dennis put on an exciting display in the heat and final, shucking 30 oysters in an impressive two minutes and 40 seconds.

The 30-year-old has known the Yiannaros family since he first moved to the coast 18 years ago. In that time, the grown to become one of the familys own and risen to the role of Oyster Processing Manager at Australias Oyster Coast.

Speaking after the event, Mr Yiannaros was clearly proud of his former mentee.

He is family, hes like our son, Mr Yiannaros said.

Weve taught him how to open oysters, hes worked up on the river and hes been challenging us at opening oysters and he finally did it this year.

I said to him before we started the race, if anyone beats me, its gotta be you, and it was.

Mr Dennis said his win was proof of a great teacher and said the secret to his speed was keeping the knife down, as my teacher taught me.

I came down here (to Batemans Bay) when I was 12, my brothers introduced me to (the Yiannaros brothers) and they became family immediately, Mr Dennis said.

The friendly rivalry between the pair can be traced back to the 2017 final, when Mr Dennis was runner-up to his former mentor.

But a dropped oyster was all it took for Mr Dennis to trump his rival and claim the crown this year.

Youve got to just switch off from your surrounds and get into a rhythm and once you get into the rhythm, then you just go bang, bang, bang, Mr Yiannaros said.

Doody was right in the zone and he didnt drop one oyster.

Coming in third place was Greg Carton of Broadwater Oysters at Pambula Lake.

Disqualified after winning a previous heat was Jim Yiannaros twin brother John, who was thrown out of the competition with a bloodied thumb.

John Yiannaros joked the event was sabotaged.

I reckon that was a poor excuse to throw me out of the competition, he said.

Last year, I was given a screwdriver instead of a knife and this year it was scissors, they changed the rules.