Pittwater Online News

2022 IRB Australian Championships; Avalon Beach, Newport, Queenscliff Head Back To Mollymook To Compete

Local IRB Teams from Avalon Beach SLSC, Newport Surf Club and Queenslciff SLSC keen to notch up more results after the mid-July NSW Premiership and NSW State Championships. The local clubs all came home with medals and were keen to add to Winter swag.

The 2022 Australian IRB Championships began in challenging conditions at Mollymook on the South Coast of New South Wales with the heats of the open event held on Thursday July 21st.

All up 32 competing Surf Life Saving Clubs from across the country and one crew from New Zealand (Sunset Beach) hit the water in windy conditions and a two-foot swell. 

“There were 81 races completed in tough challenging conditions and it was just so great to see racing back after a three-year absence due to COVID-19,” said SLSA National Sport Manager, Wayne Druery. “Today was all open racing, males, and females across four disciplines: mass rescue, rescue, tube, and teams.

“Tomorrow we will start with the quarter finals and all medals will be decided in the open competition with the interstate competition scheduled to start after lunch”.

On Friday, July 22, 59 races contested including eight of the nine Open finals and heats of the U23 and Masters competitions in tricky and choppy conditions fuelled by an easterly wind.

Queensland Clubs collected five of the eight gold medals on offer, with the Gold Coast’s Kurrawa SLSC collecting three and Broadbeach SLSC and Kirra SLSC collecting one each. Caves Beach SLSC from the Central Coast of New South Wales and Victoria’s Ocean Grove SLSC and Williamstown SLSC collected the other medals.

“It’s been such a big day today, it’s just been race after race and the surf has been massive, our bodies are getting hammered and it’s just so awesome to get a race that went our way, and so cool to come home with the gold,” said Kurrawa SLSC Open female tube rescue driver Taylor Shrimpton.

“It was good to just hold on and actually get through that one and to come away with a win is really cool,” added Kurrawa SLSC Crew Person Abi Chapman.

“We were pretty hungry to bring gold back to NSW this year so we’re pretty stoked,” said Caves Beach SLSC’s Oliver Kleyn after winning the open male tube rescue, “It was certainly tough conditions and it feels great to get the win”.

Newport won a spot in the Open Male Tube Rescue Grand Final but didn't finish among the medallists. The crew for that event was; Keelan Smith IRB Driver,  Thomas Doyle IRB Crewman and Geordie Smith  IRB Patient.

The competition continued on Saturday, July23rd, with the Open Relay, the final event in the open competition, followed by the finals of the U23’s and Masters competitions. Day three saw 90 races contested across Open, Masters and U23 competition in three-to-four-foot swells and a light off-shore breeze.

There were 17 finals in total contested throughout the day, won by nine clubs across three states, with Broadbeach SLSC from Queensland the most successful, collecting six of the nine gold medals.

MORE HERE

The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever Held At Mona Vale For The Women's Resilience Centre

The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever is an event held at locations around the world where participants recreate the music video for musician Kate Bush's 1978 song "Wuthering Heights". The event's inspiration is Shambush's The Ultimate Kate Bush Experience, which took place in 2013 in Brighton, United Kingdom, as part of Brighton Fringe, created by performance collective Shambush! who attempted to set an unofficial world record for the most people dressed as Kate Bush in one place, with hundreds attending.

In 2016, The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever event was proposed to be held in at least 16 places worldwide including Adelaide, Perth, Northern Rivers, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Montreal, Atlanta, Copenhagen, Berlin, Uppsala, Wellington, Hobart, Amsterdam and Somersworth. Shambush! who inspired the event hosted an event in London and helped organise the largest event in Melbourne.

Since then the annual July event has grown, with another to be held in Sydney Park at St. Peter's on July 30th, this one aiming to set a record for Sydney's 'Wuthering Heights Days'.

The Women's Resilience Centre was founded in 2020 as a place of hope, healing and recovery for women who have experienced or witnessed domestic abuse and trauma. 

Their About section on their website states:

Whilst many government and voluntary services provide housing and support for victims, most are short-term and through desperation, many women return to unsafe environments thereby perpetuating the tragic cycle of abuse and trauma.

The WRC is positioned to fill the gap between short-term crisis care and longer-term recovery. We provide a Resilience Program supported by a lived-experience peer-to-peer Mentoring Program, delivered nationally online and face-to-face. Through partnerships with housing providers, we are planning a national network of residential accommodation for up to 12 months, providing a safe space for women to reset their lives.

Simone Allan, Director and Founder Women’s Resilience Centre Ltd, and Director of The Mentor Evolution and Mondo Search, gave the following address at the inaugural Most Wuthering Day Ever for our area:

''The Women’s Resilience Centre is a northern beaches initiative. It is a service to provide hope, healing and long term recovery for women and their families who have experienced or witnessed domestic abuse and trauma.

The statistics state that one women dies every 8 days in Australia and on the Northern Beaches over 130 + DV incidents are reported each month. Trauma is Ike a cancer that pervades if not dealt with and it presents itself through dysfunctional behaviour. 

It is estimated that 75% of Australian adults have experienced a traumatic event at some point in their life (Productivity Commission estimates using ABS 2009). International studies estimate that 62–68% of young people will have been exposed to at least one traumatic event by the age of 17.

The key to a road to recovery from trauma is a non judgemental empathic and supportive community.

If we do not repair we will repeat. 

For women stepping out of domestic violence on the northern Beaches there are some Incredibly supportive short term crisis care shelters where women can go, but they can only stay in residence for 12 weeks and then where did they go? Who is there to support them? Usually a case worker is assigned to them for a period of time. How do they navigate stepping forward as dealing with trauma that takes about 7 years to recover.

In Australia women on average return to unsafe places  7-11 times, as they have no clear pathway forward. 

The Women’s Resilience Centre provides the support and community care between short-term crisis care and longer-term recovery. We provide  capability building Resilience Programs  supported by a lived-experience peer-to-peer Mentoring Program. Currently we are already delivering  a national financial well being online program, with mental health practitioners in attendance to support participants. 

Enrolments for the winter series of the Financial Wellbeing program have reached nationally, proving the good will of the a Northern Beaches Community.

Exciting news we open our first hub in Mona Vale very close to this location in Spring the centre and will allow women a place to come and breathe to find programs of support and community to learn new skills and to learn to play and smile again and connect with a supportive non judgemental community. 

We are asking for support for the Women’s Resilience Centre as it is completely Volunteer led and all our funding to date has been through the good will of this community, we have raised $250k but need more support to operate our centre, prove the model of long term community support and care and roll our service out nationally to regional areas of Australia. 

Many people like myself came to the sea to heal and and we are blessed in this community to have a playground of mother nature combined with incredible giving well-being experts to prove the model that we want to offer of long-term support for families who have suffered domestic violence and trauma.

If you have time to volunteer to offer well-being services - whether it be health or recreational learning programs  - singing classes, yoga, meditation, cooking etc or financial support please get in touch with us come and talk to us or reach out to us through our website www.women’s resiliencecentre.com.au

Resetting Lives! Positively impacting generations ahead!

The Women’s Resilience Centre is a not for profit organisation and has charitable status. All donations are tax deductible.

Today is about dancing and celebrating that we are worthy of peace, finding our agency and receiving the bounty of this life. Enjoy the dance! Dance to the lightness and goodness of our community, celebrating this beautiful amazing part of the planet! 

Thank you for joining us today.