SOUTH CURLIE BOATIES AT ALEXANDER HEADLANDS FOR NATIONAL SLSA CHAMPS

Our Boaties started their campaign on Monday 18^th April with the surf a sloppy 4 foot for the Masters championship.  We sent three crews; ‘White Bread’ 220s crew of Bucko, Champ, Marko & Dave Hoy rowing in Bill’s seat, with Ribs, ‘The Supremes’ Craig, Steven, Graham & Andrew with Flea sweeping.  Flea also had a 200s crew, ‘The Short & Curlies’, Marc, Bryan, James & Mark.

Both of the 220s crews made the final, with White Bread rowing their usual race for Gold, and the Supremes taking sliver.  In the 200s final, Short & Curlies were on the same wave crossing the line, a desperate ploy by Flea not enough, North Cronulla snuck in the Gold, Curly – Silver.

On Wednesday 20^th, the action in the club relays was fierce, on a glassy sea Curly made the final.  Gus swept the senior crew and made a blistering run to give Termite’s ‘Lamp’ a good start in the chase after Palm Beach who had made a terrific start.  Lamp held on to 2^nd place for the ‘Straw Hats’ to carry on out and back, hitting the beach with North Cronulla.  Another exceptional run from Gus, but it was not enough and Curly had to be content with Bronze.  Gus was the standout individual competitor for the day, showing previously unimagined pace over the sand.

Thursday 21^st.  Today the surf was small.  We had the little girls, ‘What Happened’, that is Elizabeth, Lauren, Racheal and Daana; with a little bit of help through the year from ‘Straw Hats’, they’ve come along very well – a couple of rows today and through to tomorrow.  The Cols, ‘The Thunderbirds’, Ryan, Toby, Luke & Jacob with Termite.  And the Reserves, ‘The Indians’, Rob, Brad, Benny & Nathan with Gus were invited back as well.

Friday 22 – surf 3 foot.  The ‘Slickers’ under 19 crew; Rory, Thomas, Toby & Trent with Phil sweeping, were as fast as the res but missed out in the tangle across the line.  It was here that the ‘Lamp’ crew almost came unstuck; three boats hit a wave going out, our heroes sweep broke, uuuurrhh.  But it held together long enough to get them back to the beach in third spot to proceed on.

Sat 23 – Attrition Day.  Five on a wave finishes put paid to the hopes of the ‘Indians’ and the ‘Thunderbirds’.  Meanwhile ‘Lamp’ had progressed though the quarter and semi finals of the Under 19s winning those and line up for the Final.  They set off very well into a sloppy sea, went round the can in 1 or 2, but lost the race on the way home, being placed fourth.  Second in the State, fourth in the Aussies – not bad at all.  The ‘Straw Hats’ are through to their semis tomorrow.

Sunday 24^th.  This day came up with no surf to speak of, and no wind.  However about 10am a southerly came up and got stronger as time went on.  ‘Straw Hats’ were on-song, they were the crew to beat, taking two wins and a second in their semi.  The days action was being live streamed and it was here that there class was on display.  Sophie, Emma, Charlotte & Ellie with Gus, on a day of high stress, in a sloppy sea, going across a 20mph side wind were a pleasure to watch.  On full power, on automatic drive and it looked effortless.  However, on their way back the crew on their left got a private runner and took the lead and crossed with our girls taking second.  An Aussie open boat silver medal will look very fine in the cabinet with all their other shiny stuff.

I called Gus on Sunday evening about 6pm.  Woke him up, he was totally done.  He goes around the cans more than anyone counts, every week, and it had caught up with him a bit at the end of the season.

I guess that’s it folk.  Put the boats away for a bit.  You brought home some jingly stuff and lots of fun memories

CHARLIE CHICKA KUHN.

Well, we all went up to Pac Palms with good intentions but a dying cyclone out in the Tasman put an unapproachable mess of a surf on the beaches and so it was back to stillwater rowing for everyone.

There was a bit of racing on Saturday but then the rain came in again and we all went to our houses and chilled.    As usual, South Curlie did a fine job of self entertainment, as it happened Dana was doing her 21^st Birthday so things got a bit noisy.  I must say, Dana and her crew mates do scrub up well. They went out to see the lights while the rest of us settled down for a quiet evening and hit the sack about 11.30 .

Down on the Lake next day the action was, well, look, it’s hard to get enthused when you can’t see the action.  The end result for Curlie was that Termites Juniors finished 3^rd in their division, Gus’s men 3^rd in theirs, and Gus’s little girls missed making their Final by one point, and as they had missed their first race, well they rowed very well on the day. Zulu’s Juniors had a satisfactory day as well, and that little bit of action on Sunday will be in the memory bank for Umina .    CK

Sunday morning 7.30am 20^th March 2016

Lloyd Harrison was getting ready to do an early morning session of IRB training when one of the girls in café came and asked him to rescue the male public toilets…

…..there was unusually rich odour drifting into the café which was a bit ripe for first thing in the morning.

Lloyd investigated.

Lloyd could see someone had suffered a catastrophic failure of control and had left a trail of destruction before departing the scene

Lloyd was not fazed  – he grabbed the hose from the IRB shed, donned gloves and got to work

A particularly nasty rescue and very well done…

Happy patrons all round  J

Well done Llloyd  …

The Boaties at Palm Beach Branch Champs, 2016-02-25

South Curly went up to Palm Beach for the local Derby, the Branch Championships, full of hope, and as usual, full of beans.     It was a clear day, but a rotten Nor Easter popped up early, and made for hard work, in a boat.

We had seven crews in action on the day, here’s how they went.

Termites Juniors:   Sam, Chris, Brady and Owen – Well, they had a busy day, rowing in the As as well as the Under 19s, finding that they were very competitive, finishing 2^nd in one very strong heat. Didn’t make the semis, but they had a lot of fun. Their main game was the Juniors , where they took home the Silver in the Final.

Zulu’s Juniors: Trent Settree, Tom Fuller, Rory Adams and a new rower, Sophie Berry, who rowed Stroke –  they had a wonderful day, and made the Final.  Sophie is a most impressive talent, and fits the Curlie scene very well.

The Thunderbirds: Ryan, Luke, Jacob and Toby, with Termite sweeping – Did lots of rowing, two round robins and made the Final and took home a Silver Medal for their efforts.  Good stuff, fellers.

Open Women: Ellie, Buffy (filling in for Sophie), Emma and Charlotte, with Gus – worked hard all day and got fourth in the Final

Under 23 Girls: Buffy, Celeste, Dana and Rachel with Gus – are improving every time they get in the boat, and had a great day.

Reserve Men: Ben, Brad, Termite and Nathan with Gus – Were performing very well, but took a wave.  Just after the start in their semi, at the can Termite lost the blade from his oar, but rowing with the bladeless oar they still maintained position, but Termite crabbed  when they rowed for a wave on the way back in. He did very well to maintain rythm with the crew on the way home, the crab when it happened is not surprising.

There are no details about Flea’s Reserves Crew     Agreat days boating, now off we go to ASRL

ASRL  NATIONALS                              SHELL HARBOUR

On Friday Ribs and his 220s Masters Crew  of Champ; Bucko; Mark and Dave Hoy, who is sitting in for Billy for a while, showed their surf skills and went through the supplied difficult break a couple of times to carry off a fine Gold medal result; it was very nicely done.

The rest of Team Curly carried on with the following results:

Gus’s little girls: Rachel, Dana, Buffy and Sophie – Rowed well all Saturday, took a few hits here and there but made it through to Sunday, to their great credit.

Termites Colts: Ryan, Luke, Toby and Jacob – Rowed well all Friday and Saturday and got a start on Sunday but didn’t make it past the first round. This is a very tough Division, in which they performed well.

Reserve Crew (rowed as A Crew): Termite, Ben, Nathan and Chris Hughes (who filled in for Brad who was home looking after his wife and brand new baby, congratulations Brad) –  This Crew had five amazing rows on Saturday, and were sixth in their area against all the best Crews in Australia. They went through the first round on Sunday, but were put under one in the second race by the starter, but almost rowed back into it to get 4^th, but only three go through. Bugger. Well done guys, and I should not forget Gus who pushed them around the course. Has anyone ever counted the number of times Gus goes round the cans each day?

Open Women: Sophie, Emma, Charlotte and Elly, with Gus – They did all that had to be done to take them to the semis. At this stage a normal finish was five boats on a wave, and it was here that the new electronic finish line was proving it’s worth, allowing the judges to get as accurate an finish across the line. With five in a row the girls took a steep little curling devil and it speared them over the line to put them into the Final. There was a similar finish here and they came away with the Silver. Well done indeed, Straw Hats. A great crew with real surf skills.

Termites Juniors: Sam, Brady, Chris and Owen, with Termite Sweeping – A well planned and executed weekend by these guys who finished top of the points on Saturday, made the Final and took home the Silver Medal.   Most impressive, and at the right time of the Year.

I spent four hours on Sunday PM watching all this on-line, and it was GREAT, particularly with the electronic finish line. Look forward to seeing you all on Saturday at PAC PALMS           CK

One of our members, Lisa Sakashita, joined us after belonging to her local surf club in Japan and would like to invite any South Curly members travelling to Japan to visit her Japanese club.

The club is located in Tateyama on the Chiba Peninsula and they would love to welcome any South Curl Curl members and go for a paddle in the bay.  More information in the next newsletter but if you are travelling to Japan (July/August is their summer season) please keep a visit in mind.

Santa’s surf twin has been and gone and now we’re waiting for the real dude to come to town!  We’re running 2hr shifts for patrols on Christmas Day, so come on down and lend a hand.

No surf race this Sunday (27th), but it will be back, bigger and better on Sun 3rd Jan.  Nippers is also taking a break, returning on 10th Jan.

Ho ho ho…………

Congratulations to Jenny Drury on being made a Life member of Surf Lifesaving NSW.

Jenny has been recognised for her outstanding achievements to Surf Lifesaving as an official and Referee over many years. Jenny does this this work on behalf of South Curly helping us meet our obligations to provide officials at Carnivals. There are many competitors who have been able to compete at Carnivals as a direct result of Jenny’s work and on behalf of all our members.

The committee would like to thank Jenny for her past and ongoing efforts.

The latest Sth Curly newsletter (‘Pooh Bear’) is now available, lots of useful info and updates.  Check it out here

The story behind the naming of the newsletter is lost in the mist of South Curly history, remembered only by the club stalwarts – perhaps the subject of a future blog?????

The start of the season had us jumping off the stairs to reach the sand and negotiating rocks that are rarely exposed at South Curly, but we’re back to normal now. The annual cycle of sand movement has always meant that we have a skinny beach in winter which fattens up just in time for our nippers in summer.  This year was excessive (starvation diet???) but finally Mother Nature has done her stuff and the sand has returned.  We are now able to access the ramp and get IRB’s on the beach at last.

Come down to Sippers tomorrow night (Sunday 29th Nov 5pm) and check it out.