Wauchope-Bonny Hills SLSC boat rowers staged an unforgettable round of the North Coast Surfboat Series at Rainbow Beach on Saturday and have lifted into first place in the overall point score. The weather was fantastic with sunny skies enticing hundreds of supporters to the beach to watch the best surfboat rowers on the North Coast compete. Roughly 300 people attended.
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North Coast Surfboat series officials confirmed this was the biggest carnival of the season with over forty crews competing on the day. Wauchope-Bonny Hills SLSC boaties were buoyed by the home carnival and large crowd of supporters and turned out the best team points result for a club this year. Wauchope-Bonny Hills SLSC won the day and lifted them into first place in the overall point score with only two rounds to go. This was a great result for our boat series and our club said boat captain, Tony Kee.
Kee highlighted that it took a full club effort to host the annual carnival with boaties, clubbies and volunteers helping to set up the competition area, transport surfboats onto the beach and run the canteen and BBQ.
"I would like to thank everyone who chipped in to make the day such a big success. From the president to the water safety crew and the boaties and families that came to support. This is why I love surf lifesaving and surfboat racing. It was great to see so many people down at the beach helping out and having fun."
North Coast Surfboat Series representative Bec Mitchell said, "Wauchope-Bonny Hills outdid themselves with the officials catering, fantastic food and all the officials felt well-loved and appreciate the effort".
The rowing commenced at 10am after a moving tribute and guard of honour by all the boaties for Max Ward who passed away. His son Paul and granddaughter Kendal were in attendance and rowed on the day.
In the rowing our open men's crew, 'the Clingers', are just off the top pace but produced their best racing of the season since introducing new rower Ben Dickson and have plenty to look forward to over the next few years if they can stay together. Swept by Wayne Dickson the boys are training hard and are starting to again challenge the top crews.
In the overall point score our open men have slide down to fifth position in the top division which is disappointing after leading the competition for the first half of the season but is part of the rebuilding process and the boys represent the club well.
"Gilly's Girls", our under 23 years women's crew rose to second place overall in the open women's division with some classy rowing and were swept by Wayne Gill and a mysterious and beautiful Brazilian Lifeguard named "Scary Mary". Continued page 16
Kee said that Gilly went missing around lunchtime when he found out that the seafood trays weren't coming and we were lucky to notice a stocky well-built and unusually hairy woman on the beach who jumped in to sweep our champion girls crew. Scary Mary nearly held the wave of the day in the open women's final but her golden locks must have gotten in the way as our girls crashed down over the finish line in third place for the day.
Our junior men's crew, "The PP's" are absolutely dominating in the under 19s division under the expert sweeping of Steve Monaghan. They have a firm lead in the overall season point score. This is a result of some hard and smart training and between sun baking and winning surfboat races the boys seem very relaxed. We encourage any teens or parents of teens to come and give surfboats a try. Now is the time to get involved in our training program during the summer months and to see what surfboats is all about!
Our 200 years master's men, "the Pippis", were swept by Wayne Dickson and had mixed results during the day including a come from behind win when the other crews finished outside the competition area but also experiencing plenty of carnage on the way in and out through the break. Rower Rob McCue said he hadn't copped this many bumps and bruises all season but the boys rowed well and continue to improve.
Our beautiful master's women's crew, "the Vets" were swept by Steve Monaghan and had a very productive weekend.
The girls have been improving all season and on Saturday produced their best result so far and made the final in the open women's division.
However the Wauchope-Bonny Hills crew of the weekend was our 160 years masters' crew, "the Telletubbies", swept by Manfred Sonntag. Sonntag has had the crew on a secret training program of beer, prawns and oysters over the Christmas break and the boys were well rested and firing for our carnival. The crew consisting of Brandon and Jason Armstrong, Boyd Hetherington and Russell Eichmann rowed in the masters 160s and reserve grade and won both divisions convincingly. They boys rowed 8 races on the day and won both finals which was an amazing effort as well as helping to set up the competition area and tow boats on and off the beach. We are very proud and grateful to have these great rowers back on the beach with us! Well done.
This weekend our crews will head up to South West Rocks to compete in the NSW Country Championship Titles against the best regional crews.
See you on the beach,
Tony Kee
