Once again our boaties did us proud, bringing home plenty of medals and plenty of smiles. We had a great contingent representing in the Master’s section this year too.

• Surf Boat Short Course U23 Male: Silver – Paekākāriki Bird Baths (Otis Hungerford/ Hugo Dinnan/ Heath Jordan/ Mac Van Den Heuvel/ Richard Whinham/ Matthew Adshead)
• Surf Boat Short Course U19 Female: Bronze – Paekākāriki Lulus (Ava Jones/ Harriet Jones/ Zoe Bailey/ Kaya McMahon/ Shane Radovanovich)
• Surf Boat Long Course U23 Male: Silver – Paekākāriki Bird Baths (Otis Hungerford/ Hugo Dinnan/ Mac Van Den Heuvel/ Heath Jordan/ Richard Whinham/ Matthew Adshead)
• Surf Boat Long Course U23 Female: Bronze – Paekākāriki Cicadas (Geena Pombo-Vermey/ Grace McCarthy/ Piper Cannell/ Abbie Bognuda/ Ethan Atkinson)
• The Oar (Tops Surf Boat) Club Trophy: 4th (out of 10 clubs)
• Allan Gardner Memorial Trophy (Top Club): 24th (out of 37clubs)
• Surfboat relay final. Team 1 4th, team 2 6th. 
• OG mums finalists short and long course. Other Mums, finalists long course.

Down in the craft and beach arenas

Our super coach Dave Jones kicked things off with some stunning results in the Master’s section:

• Iron (Masters): Gold – Dave Jones
• Surf Race (Masters): Gold – Dave Jones
• Ski Race (Masters): Silver – Dave Jones
• Board Race (Masters): Bronze – Dave Jones

An 18 strong craft/swim squad represent the club at Surf Nationals this year which were held at Mt Maunganui from 14 -17 March.  The size of the team reflected the growth in the squad for this season with last year’s Nationals attracting 12 participants.

The squad had held 5 trainings per week since late January with most members adding to this with a base of Swimming or Kayaking training.

Nationals was a good event with calm weather and no significant swell meaning that the racing was long, flat and fast so it was just as well that the teams had done the work. The team competed well and showed significant improvement on last year with a number of appearances in finals across all the ages and divisions. The standout was the Open Mens bronze medal for Alex Cecioni and Max Jones in board rescue. This is the second year in a row that Alex has medalled. It was also great to see us having the depth to have two teams in the Open men’s Surf teams race and fielding a 6 man Taplin team.

Training will now be on a break until August when we will once again start the season with winter training on the harbour. During the intervening period everyone is encouraged to keep their fitness and technique in check with Swimming and or Kayak training. Anyone interested in training with the team next year should get in touch with the coach Dave Jones – 0211909671.  

• Open Mens bronze medal for Alex Cecioni and Max Jones