30 Mar ASRL : GEOFF KING MOTORS BOATIES
Our Geoff King Motors Open Women’s and Masters men’s crews headed down to the ASRL at Elouera competing against the best crews in the country, this carnival is second to the Australian Championships in the surfboat world and is a great opportunity to test a crew prior to Aussies.
The “Trainwrecks” results spoke for themselves, the boys have been putting in the work in the boat, on the ergos, and in the gym and this translated into racing.
The boys finished on top of the point score with a Gold, tying with North Cronulla on a countback. Expectations are high for the boys leading up to Aussies, it is rare for a crew to gel to this degree in one season these guys are certainly an example of the right balance of personalities and physical abilities to create a great surf boat crew. We wish the boys all the best next week on the big stage!
The ASRL was the first carnival rowing together for our Open Women’s crew “Cheap as Chips”. The girls have geography against them making training somewhat of a challenge with the crew spread across Uralla, Kempsey, Macksville, and Coffs.
Despite minimal work together, combined rowing experience and good surf skills were the foundation of a good first carnival campaign.
On the Saturday challenging conditions resembled park beach with a testing shore break off the start and surf break to punch through, the girls relied on good technique and surf skills taking a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the rounds to make it through the cut. On Sunday the conditions eased (boooo !) the girls progressed through to the top 12 to the semi-finals, a little unlucky with Mother Nature throwing out a few stoppers to hold them back unable to catch the other crews in the flatter conditions. The girls were encouraged by the result given the work that had been done together as a crew and are motivated to put some consistent work together to give next season a good crack.