Bronte Surfboat News

Greetings wave lovers, 

The Bronte Boaties have had a whirlwind few weeks of racing, results and revelations.

Below is a shot from Ocean Thunder Round 1, on the 12th November. 

We raced hard, started fast and headed out to sea with the rest of them, but turned slow and were still coming to grips on how to best run the chop. So we left the beach with only 6 rows under our belt, first off the beach. We were disappointed but we had plenty to work on for the upcoming week.

The next week was dedicated to turns and running chop. We started to get a hang of how this boat best turns, and ran chop the best we have this season. With a solid week of concerted effort under our belt, we headed in to round 2 of Elouera quietly confident and excited to see what we could do.

First race we were off to a cracking start, neck and neck with North Cronulla, turning together, running chop together, and crossing the line a nose in front. A great start.

Second race began with another solid start, a great relaxed run out, and an easy run back to claim first place by a few lengths.

Third race was close, but resulted in another win, allowing us the points to claim victory for the day.

Our thanks to Cam Allison for replacing Tom for the finals due to a back twinge. He slotted right in, and held on for a close second.

I later found out that we had amassed enough points to become Branch Champions, and to represent the Sydney Branch in the upcoming Inter-Branch competition!

This news came just in time to make us look good at the boat christening...

I present to you, our new boat - The Bluey Graham.

Bluey himself sat in the boat for it's christening run. He had a few pointers for us, as well as a massive grin.
If anyone has some shots from the day, send them through to me and I'll put them up: josh_sch@bigpond.net.au

A few weeks have passed, and we've since discovered that although we fulfilled the agreed criteria to represent our branch, the branch convener kindly notified us that we weren't considered good enough to represent the branch, and that North Cronulla would take our place. 

By a happy coincidence, the convener is a North Cronulla member. Good times.

We've also raced at Mollymook. It was raining sideways & the sea was pumping. It was a toss-up whether to head down, but we persisted as I was sure we would learn something. 

And learn something we did, as the video below shows:

a few good starts, a few big waves and a few bruises to take home.

We've got ocean thunder this weekend, and we're ready to give it a red hot crack. 

After last weekend's technically & physically demanding sessions, we're confident, relaxed and feeling pretty damn good.

I'll post our results and a wrap-up of 2011.

Until then, my good friend Bruce Lee once told me: "If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them"

As promised, here is the rundown from our first carnival of the year.

Upon arrival, the surf conditions were starting to draw a crowd. Boats were being unloaded very tentatively, or not at all, as everyone was waiting to hear from the officials. Would it be cancelled?

After two North Cronulla crews headed out to sea, and made it back in one piece (in style), all gear was unloaded in earnest. If the crash test dummies made it, we can too.  

We were armed with brand new gear and our long awaited brand new boat. What a beauty! Our thanks go to all in the club, Graham & Basil, and our sponsors who made this boat possible. Thank you, we'll do you all proud.

So with the unveiling of our cleanskin boat, we were ready to race!

The first race was a very very close second, with both us and North Cronulla on the winning wave.  A good start.

The second race had us out by 3 clear lengths, which we built on, to win convincingly. 

At this point, the wind started to pick up, the already cranky sea was getting rougher.

Both our third and fourth races, in lane 2, were hindered by a sand bank. Lanes either side of us had a rip, to take the rest of the competition straight out. However, this is surfboats, and no excuses can be made for the surf conditions or anything else out of our control. We move forward, and look towards Ocean Thunder round 1, next week. 

Until then, enjoy a little slice of yesterdays action.