Pittwater Online News

2016 New South Wales Surf Life Saving Open Championships

Open Surf Champs Heats Up

Friday 11th March, 2016
Day one of the 2016 NSW Surf Life Saving Open Championships, proudly supported by ClubsNSW, brought the best swell in three consecutive weekends of State Championship competition staged at Umina-Ocean Beach.

The swell influenced early results when the front runners were able to beat the breakers, leaving those less quick to be hammered by the foam. On the swim and board legs back to the beach the waves generated the opportunity to close the gap.

Sydney has recorded 34 consecutive days above 26C and the run of warm and dry weather continued on Friday March 11, 2016, light nor’easters and club tents providing some relief from the extended summer.

All the big names expected to feature come finals time on Sunday began their Open medal chase strongly; Dane Farrell, Georgia Miller, Nathan Smith, Lizzie Welborn and Jemma Smith.

In the younger age bracket Cudgen Headland SLSC’s Under 15s achieved early success, Anthea Warne gold medalling in the Rescue Tube event & Josh Jones picking up silver in the Male event.

Wanda’s Mia Ross and Kiera Warn won the Under 14 Female Board Rescue at last weekend’s Age champs and again today, this time competing up in the Under 15s. Warn said they couldn’t take too much from last week’s win to today’s Age victory due to the fact conditions were so different. “Last week there was a really big sandbank and it was really flat, today it was deeper and we had waves.”
The pair scored a comfortable first gold for the championship when they paddled furiously and found themselves riding solo on a timely wave. “I said to Kiera ‘don’t nosedive’”, Moss laughed.

Avoca Beach’s Under 15 Male Board Rescue gold medal winning pair of Levi Kasun and Finn Flaherty enjoyed the chance to race in the event that was called off last year due to poor conditions forcing a timetable reshuffle.

“The weekend should be good. This year’s been the best for weather, the waves help on the way back but not on the way out,” Flaherty said.

Tahlia Kollen and Sophie McConnachie from Sawtell SLSC are two among a small team of North Coast competitors who have travelled to the Central Coast to face the much larger Sydney clubs.

The talented Under 17 surf sports competitors took out the Under 19 Board Rescue final then lined up immediately after for the same event in their age group, still trying to catch their breath. A strong paddle by McConnachie put the Sawtell teammates among the lead contenders then they opted for the same strategy that reaped them the gold medal in the age above, only this time the water wasn’t as shallow.

“We got off the board too early,” Kollen admitted. “Conditions keep changing each race with the tide,” McConnachie chimed in. “For the 19s we got off our board early to run and it worked. Only 15 minutes later in the next race it didn’t!”

Keep an eye out for these two in the board, swim, ski and iron individual and teams events.

For four years the event has been well supported by the Gosford City Council and local community and today Umina Public School visited the competition arena, swelling the numbers already estimated to be around 2500 athletes plus their supporters.

The forecast for Saturday is for more sunny weather thanks to a slow moving high pressure system over the Eastern Tasman Sea directing sea breezes, 15-20 knots, onto the Central Coast.

The 2016 NSW Surf Life Saving Open Championships are proudly supported by ClubsNSW and will continue Saturday and Sunday 12-13 March at Ocean Beach-Umina.

Home Straight for State Champs

On an even track right out the front of Umina SLSC, heats turned into semis and semis turned into finals and gold medal winning performances.

Elouera’s Elly Graf scored the rare double, state gold medallist in both the Flag and Sprint events. She has her sights on way more than States; as well as gunning for her sixth national sprint title at next month’s Aussies she’s working hard for the chance to make the Australian relay team at the Rio Olympic Games in August.

“I’m hoping to make top four for a relay spot in the 4 x 100m and will have to see how my times go for individual selection for the 100m sprint. I’m keeping calm; I’ve got nothing to lose, I’ll just give it my all.” Graf qualified fourth for London in 2012 however the relay team wasn’t sent. Between now and potential Olympic team selection at the end of June she has track nationals as well as Aussies.

Collaroy’s talented Katie Williams was the runner-up in the Open Female Flag final and the bronze went to Helensburgh-Stanwell Park. 

In the Sprint final, silver medallist Siobhan Dibley from Helensburgh-SP was one of four finalists running for the strong Illawarra club.

Cronulla made a noticeable impression on the sand this weekend, the hard work of new beach coach Mark Redrup and his team of 35 making inroads into HSP’s long running dominance. 

Avoca Beach Olympians Riley Fitzsimmons and Lachlan Tame showed their class with a number of outstanding performances in the ski events.

Despite the pair not having competed together at a state championship previously, they were pleased with their efforts. “It’s our first carnival together so it’s good to come away with the results from today’s events,” Fitzsimmons said.

The two final Open events for the day were the ski and board relay where powerhouses Newport and Manly claimed line honours.
Jay Furniss, who is a key to Manly’s success, was the final board paddler for the club and after winning the relay is excited for the final day of competition. “Going into Sunday we have a number of teams in finals so it’ll hopefully be a great day of racing, not just for us but every club,” Furniss said.

On the sand Cronulla’s Sam Stonestreet, who came second in the U14 Flags last weekend backed up with a win competing up in Under 15s. “Competing at the Open championship is a great challenge. They’re harder and bigger and I’m very happy to come away with the gold medal,” Stonestreet said.

Michael Kember (Collaroy) was first in a photo finish in the Open Sprint in front of Newport’s Jake Lynch while Blake Drysdale (HSP) dominated the Open Flags.

In the surfboat competition the crews slogged it out in the flat, shallow conditions and it was a fight the whole way back to the beach in all divisions.

Aside from the usual suspects dominating, including many of the large Sydney and Northern Beaches clubs, there were a few unfamiliar faces taking to the warm waters off Ocean Beach on the NSW Central Coast.

The well-travelled crew from Darwin SLSC could have been easily mistaken for an Avoca team in their similar cap colour and particularly given the fact they were rowing a borrowed Avoca boat.

Aptly-named the ‘Box Jellies’, the women’s crew and their sweep Paul Hardy rowed in the Open Women division and said they were very happy not to have to contend with crocodiles! “We have been training since October and had this carnival as our goal,” said Ellie from the crew.

A sight not often seen at State Champs was not one, but two boat crews from Era SLSC, in the Royal National Park. While most people don’t even know where their club is, the two Reserves crews, one of them taking out the recent Sydney Branch champs, left their mark.
A partly cloudy final day with a top temp of 29 degrees is expected to round out the three day carnival as organisers farewell Umina and Ocean beach after a successful four year hosting. Next year the State Titles move to Swansea-Belmont.

Overall Pointscore after Day 2 
1 Newport SLSC 332
2 Manly LSC 200
3 Wanda SLSC 181
4 Cronulla SLSC 164
5 Helensburgh-Stanwell Park SLSC 117
6 North Cronulla SLSC 105
7 Umina SLSC Inc 100
8 Elouera SLSC 94
9 Coogee SLSC 83
10 Freshwater SLSC 63

Umina-Ocean Beach Farewells State Titles

Mon 14 Mar 2016
Over the three-day 2016 Surf Life Saving NSW Open Championships, close to 2500 beach and water athletes ranging from Olympians to professional surf stars through to rising under 14s competing up in Opens for the first time were whittled down to the finalists, and then the ultimate gold, silver and bronze medallists.

For the third year, powerhouse club Newport won the state carnival on overall points, this time by a huge margin from rivals Manly, thanks to the efforts of key athletes including Hannah Minogue, Mitchell Trim, Georgia Miller and Dane Farrell, backed up by a strong squad across all age categories and disciplines.

“NSW Titles are great because everyone gets behind it, every club want to get their team across the line and that’s what makes it exciting,” Minogue said, adding, “this is one of my favourite carnivals.” For her paddling prowess the part-time high school teacher finished the long weekend with a staggering five gold medals plus a bronze.

A large crowd gathered early Sunday afternoon to cheer on their favourite in the blue-ribbon Ironwoman and Ironman events and as always both finals produced a thrilling display of power and technique in mostly flat seas and light sea breezes. Miller went back-to-back for the third year and Farrell was too good for the star-studded line-up.

“Newport is like a family, we all support each other and want each other to go well,” Miller said having taken out the Ironwoman plus six additional gold in team and individual events. “You can expect a strong Newport presence at the Aussies next month and the next Summer of Surf. Bring on the next four weeks of training!”

“It’s great to be competing with Newport and I’m just stoked with my win today in the Open Ironman,” Dane Farrell added.

Ollie Signorini from Newport won the Under 19 Male Surf Race and in doing so became the newest recipient of the Saxon Bird Memorial perpetual trophy, to the delight of the late surf life saver’s parents, Dana and Phil Bird, who were on the beach watching the event play-out.

“It’s pretty special, Saxon was a local Northern Beaches boy as well and I’ve been doing his ocean swim for a couple of years,” Signorini said. “I know his parents are here watching and it was special to win the surf race in his honour.”

Dana Bird has watched Signorini compete in every Swim for Saxon, held annually at Queenscliff in Sydney, and said today’s victory was well-deserved. “I’m so happy that he won, he’s so good at ocean swims and has come to every Swim for Saxon. We’ve known Ollie since he was really little. Last year I said to him ‘please try and win next year’ and today I willed him on.”

Club mate Charlie Brooks took out the Under 19 Board Race and the Jacob Lollback Memorial trophy, awarded in memory of the late Yamba competitor.

Another emotion-charged moment came when Queenscliff’s Callum Lowe-Griffiths took out the Under 17 Ironman then broke down after the finish.

“My grandfather passed away last Thursday. It’s pretty hard racing this weekend, I was thinking about him all the time. He obviously looked after me for that race and I dedicate that win to him.”

Short-term the talented Northern Beaches teenager is trying to make the Australian team for the World Championships in September in the Netherlands and long-term his goal is “to go the whole way and become a professional ironman”.

Surf Life Saving NSW Sport Manager, Rob Pidgeon is thankful for the efforts of the dedicated team of volunteers over the Championships.

“The 2016 NSW Championships has been an outstanding success thanks to Ocean Beach and Umina SLSCs and it’s a fitting end to four years of hosting the event,” Rob Pidgeon said. “I would also like to thank ClubsNSW and Gosford City Council for their support of this great event.”

Surf clubs from as far north as Cudgen Headland (Kingscliff) and as far south as Narooma enjoyed superb conditions as Sydney’s long hot summer continues well into autumn. Spectators and competitors made the most of the fine weather, declared the best of the fourth and final carnival to be held at Umina and Ocean beaches before the event moves to Swansea-Belmont in 2017.

Open Championships Top Ten
1 Newport SLSC 509
2 Manly LSC 292
3 Wanda SLSC 221
4 Cronulla SLSC 212
5 North Cronulla SLSC 157
6 Umina SLSC 134
7 Helensburgh-Stanwell Park SLSC 126
8 Elouera SLSC 122
9 Avoca Beach SLSC 121
10 Redhead SLSC 96

Full Open Championship results can be found on the Event Page

Surf Boats Opens Wrap will run next Issue - Branch and State Results and New Boats launched this Season

 Reports and Pictures by Surf Life Saving New South Wales, 2016.