Bronte Surfboat News

Hi all,
I hope we're all feeling fresh and fast for the last month of competition.
With States and Aussies just around the corner, training is ramping up along with the pressure to succeed.
We've been training hard with Troy at the East Side Crew at Bronte, fine tuning our surf skills and putting in a massive effort to maximize our physical abilities.
After the many hard weeks leading up to this point, take some time to reflect on all you've put in. Countless hours in training, sacrificing time away from family and friends, money and pain have all gone in to you crossing that line before anyone else.
Enjoy these last few weeks with teammates, coaches and club supporters.
And when the time comes, enjoy racing. Very few people are in the priviledged position of lining up and giving it a red hot crack.
However, this is surf competition and is, by its nature, unpredictable.

So on race day, commit to a winning performance, stroke by stroke, stride by stride, because that's all you can control.

During an excruciating erg this morning, a thought occurred to me:
The question is asked of you in training so you know how to answer on race day.

How are you going to answer?

Welcome back, to a new start in 2012.

And a new start is what the Bronte A crew has to offer you all.

Ocean Thunder round 3 was held last week, and historically we have left the beach prematurely. Be it big waves, big nerves or a big letdown, we just can't seem to crack the event.

To reflect this, in the lead up to race day we started calling it Ocean Chunder. Keep it fun, low pressure and a place to really get this combination sorted. With young Justin Taylor at the helm for only the third time with us, we were keen to see how fast we could get our shiny blue hull humming.

After a few rounds, we had a fourth, third, second and first under our belt. With two more good results, beating North Cronulla for the win and robbing them of their extra point, we progressed through to the first elimination round. Needless to say it felt good to leave our boat on the sand while a dejected few packed up early and headed for the bar. 

The first elimination round saw us responsible for sending Cottesloe on their long journey back home.

Quarters were next, our 8th race of the day, where we stayed collected and smooth to cruise out to the cans, milk every runner home and sprint up the beach to knock our friendly rivals Elouera, sending them on their way.

We found ourselves lining up for the semi's, pumped to be there. It was our 9th of the day, but due to smart racing we still had some go left in the tank. Had a great run out, good rhythm and easy speed. Our weakness has been the first few strokes coming out of the turn and onto the first runner. This may have lost us some momentum, and wasn't helped by being in the smaller swell end of the beach, so we fought hard but ultimately came in one wave behind the rest of the field.

We didn't make the finals, but after 9 races and a massive improvement, I feel proud to present the new and improved crew of 2012.

Happy New Year

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.

Welcome to another installment of the Bronte Boaties archival footage.

Here we witness the ASRL Open down in Wollongong. from 2 years ago.
The event was shifted north one beach, due to the epic waves smashing onto the original location. As you can see, it helped.
A bit.

Enjoy!

To start this stream of communication rolling, and to give you all a bit of background on the Bronte Boaties, archival footage of our trials and tribulations will be uploaded weekly.

This video was shot up at Coffs Harbour, November 2008. The conditions were monstrous, but we left with smiles on our faces and stories to tell.
Don't let it put you off, they no longer hold competitions in these kind of conditions.
Please enjoy our first attempt at competition. If you are short on time, skip to 3:10, that's where the fun really starts.