The Team Navy Australian Surf Rowers League 2025 Open is currently taking place at Coffs Harbour. Running February 13 to 16, this annual event is one of the favourites of surf boat rowers and sweeps from all over Australia, bringing together old mates and new friends for a long weekend of surf boat competitions which includes the Interstate Championship.
This action-packed weekend of racing, camaraderie, and competition, this year being held at Coffs Harbour, is a great lead into the State Championships and the SLSA Australian National Championships (Aussies) and a chance to fine-tune crews and get a look at who you may be racing against in the BIG carnivals of the surf sports calendar.
During the last months of each surf sports Season the work in training from the middle of winter on begins to pay off as everything starts to come together and good results can follow.
One instance is the crews from all over NSW who tasted success and enjoyed the challenge of the Inaugural running of the NSW Surf Boat Metro, Regional and Interseries Championships, held over two huge days at Ocean Beach on the Central Coast on 1-2 February, which the Sydney Noprthern Beaches Branch 'Rays' won.
The Metro & Regional Championships on Saturday was a showcase of the depth of surfboat competition in NSW from U19 through Masters categories, while the Interseries Championships on Sunday followed the current Surfboat Interstate format, featuring eight crews (U19, U23, Reserve & Open male/female division) representing the five NSW Boat Series.
Palm Beach showed its strength in the women’s categories once again with wins in the U19 Metro, U23 Metro and Open Female, and North Cronulla and Avoca Beach were the male winners of the Reserve Metro and Regional categories, respectively.
On Sunday, the Southern Penguins crew of Thomas James, Jacob Jones, Paul Jones, Hugo Perry Dickenson and Oscar Perry Dickenson nabbed a huge win in the U19 Male category, while their counterparts in the U23 Female category were winners there too.
Everywhere else it was Sydney Northern Beaches Branchs' 'Rays' wins across the board – capping a great weekend for teams from SLS SNB Branch after Palm Beach’s three wins and eight total podiums during the Metro & Regional Championships.
The event involved a Junior Relay, a Senior Relay, a heat of each Division and the final event was an All-Age Relay. The winner was decided by point score at the completion of all these events.
The SNB Rays Team consisted of the following crews:
Open Men – The Queenscliff A Rollers: Zac von Appen, Simon Gillespie, Connor Hopkins and James Mollloy, Swept by Damien Daley.
Open Women – The Collaroy Giants: Jess Layton, Rhiannon Lea, Alysha Lerond and Kelly Trim, Swept by Mark Anderson.
Reserve Men – The Queenscliff Major As: Louis Alston, Doug Bone, Nick Hampton and Callum Latham, Swept by Damien Daley.
Reserve Women – The Avalon Beach Chaos: Laura Anna Baierl, Tegan Bilson, Lauren Petersen and Sophie Valentine, Swept by Nathan Wellings.
U23 Male – The South Curl Curl Burley: Angus Campbell, David Campbell, Alan Perry and Jack Rivett. Swept by Mark Spiteri.
U23 Female – The Palm Beach Pina Coladas: Charlotte Cadman, Charlotte Donnelley, Abigail Skinner and Grace Tassell, Swept by Matthew Giblin.
U19 Male – The South Curl Curl Tickles: Logan Howes, Kaleb Mark, Jake Robinson and Dom Vassallo, Swept by Mark Spiteri
U19 Female – The Collaroy Cannons: Elani Plummer, Darcy Robbins, Chelsea Robertson, Aiyla Thomas-Smith, Swept by Mark Reece.
The 'Rays' team demonstrated exceptional teamwork, with each crew putting forth their best effort throughout the day. Their strong performance in the Final Event, the All-Age Relay contributed significantly to their overall success, securing the Gold Medal with a total score of 110 points.
The SLS SNB Branch 'Rays' Team
As can be read above, Palm Beach SLSC’s boat crews had a great weekend at the first running of this event.
Palm Beach SLSC has, for years, had one of the largest contingents of surf boat crews to turn up to all the local carnivals as they work their way towards the Branch, State and Nationals.
Known as the ‘Palmy Army’, with participants across all Age Divisions, some of these rowers have been team mates for years – with the results you’d expect from people who work for each other in the boat and have finessed their racing and have sweeps who can read the water. Others are just coming into the sport and learning how to get out over dumpers, how to catch a wave back in so you shoot past those who fell off the back of the swell.
Led by Boat Captain Peter Spence, who explains the Palmy Army has built its Boat Section up over the past 20-25 years, the love of this sport has been an integral part of Palm Beach SLSC since just after it was formed in 1921. That passion for surf boats translates to very fit and water-savvy people looking after others as volunteer Patrol Members on the sand each Season.
Although they are known for representing at State and National level, Peter explains it’s the work that goes in in training, and crews getting time to work on their form, as some of what gets medals by Seasons end.
You also, of course, need a bit of luck with the conditions you row in – whatever those conditions are when you turn up to the beach.
As we head into the final and BIG Carnivals of the Season; SNB Branch (Feb. 5 to March 1 at Newport and Palm Beach), NSW State Championships (Feb. 28 to March 16 at Freshwater and Queenscliff) and Aussies (on the Gold Coast, Queensland at North Kirra SLSC and Tugun SLSC from 29 March – 6 April) a catch-up with Mr. Spence.
Palm Beach SLSC has multiple crews racing in the 2025 ASRL Open in every division apart from the under 17’s?
Yes, every year we plan to have crews run in every Age Division at the ASRL Opens. The under 17’s event is only run at the ASRL Open so it’s not one we usually compete in as it’s not as yet included in the States and Nationals.
How many crews are competing this Season from Palm Beach SLSC?
We have 20 crews at present and around 18 have or are racing in all the carnivals – so we’ll have around 18 at Coffs Harbour for the Open and around the same for the NSW State Championships, which we might have 19 crews for, and at this stage we’ll be having 18 at Aussies up in Queensland this year.
How has the Palmy Army been doing this Season?
It’s actually been a very un-Palmy-like year – we’ve been very competitive in local carnivals but actually haven’t won a Division yet, which is probably the first time in 20 years that we haven’t had a carnival win. This year, for the first time in a while, we won’t have anyone in the State Team for the first time in quite a while. It’s not that the crews are any different it’s just a lot more challenging at present to get people all together – with people going on holidays or having work commitments or having children, we have people who have been injured; we’ve had a really disrupted start to the year and that’s persisted to a certain degree with getting crews on the water and training consistently.
The Surf Life Saving Sydney Northern Beaches Branch Carnival for surf boats is coming up and will be held on your home beach, Palm Beach, this year – looking forward to a row on home waters?
Yes – hopefully that will get us the results we richly deserve. Having the Branch Titles on the 1st of March at Palm Beach is something we’re looking forward to.
Having said that, it’s great to see local crews being selected to represent – Newport’s Stingers U23 women are representing in the State Team this year along with representing Australia in the Trans-Tasman. They’re the crew to beat this Season, with Michale King doing a great job as always.
A good 50% of Palmy crews are good competitive crews, but as you know in surf boats, you have got to have a little bit of luck at times; you need the lanes and not getting hit by a wave. We just haven’t had things go our way this year but the Season isn’t over yet. We’ve got a great Boat Section, a good bunch of people, 30 odd new rowers this year and hopefully have a good run of a few weeks leading into Aussies to build momentum.
Will there be a full Palmy Army going on a road trip to Aussies?
Yes; we’ll be taking some boats up there and everyone will enjoy the trip up, that’s all part of it. We’ll take two double boat trailers and have 4 boats up there.
Have you been enjoying your Season so far?
Yes, I’ve been enjoying it – we’ve got a good lot of people in the boat section – it’s probably been a little bit frustrating with our results but we’ve had fun.
We have a few new sweeps coming on board, and it’s really exciting for Palmy to bring in some new sweeps because I’m not gong to be around forever, I’ve a couple of young kids and I’ve got to start backing off. So we’re looking at our succession plan and to bring people through who can be that next generation of sweeps. We have a couple of new ones who are doing a really great job; Rory Egan, from internal at Palmy, he’s only in his early 20’s, he’s going to be a very good sweep. We also have Charlie Trotter who we got from Port Campbell in Victoria on the Great Ocean Road. He came to Sydney and has joined Palmy and has been absolutely fantastic for us.
Someone said to us when he came to Palmy and Sydney; ‘take it easy on him because your surf club is bigger than his home town’. In terms of population we have more members at Palmy than his home town has.
Who else is sweeping at Palmy this Season – and how many all up in the Boats Section?
Matt Giblin, Doctor Giblin, Steven Cox, Coxy, Hugh Polkinghorne has got one crew, Rory, Charlie and myself. We have 80-90 members from the Palm Beach SLSC that are active in crews, and we also have about another 18 that aren’t in crews but whom we call ‘super-subs’ who are able to step in and fill in. So close to 100 that are involved in the club and also in the Boat Section. If you look at Active Patrolling Members around a quarter or a third of Palm Beach SLSC’s Patrol Members at Palmy are the boat crews.
Last year I think we were neck in neck with Currumbin in terms of crew numbers, this year we may have slightly more. we’re certainly in the top crew in the country in terms of crews and participants, both in the surf boats and as volunteer patrol members on the sand.
And that would be a reflection of the culture of service to others Palm Beach SLSC is well-known for and the level of passion for surf boats within the club ?
Certainly we’ve been working over the last 20 to 25 years to build that within the club, and certainly over the last 10 to 15 years we’ve been one of the biggest clubs pursuing surf boats as a surf sport. A big part of that is all our sweeps collaborate very well; there’s no pinching other rowers, no internal politics – we work very well with the club to do this.
We self-fund our way to Nationals. This year, and for the last few years, we do trivia nights, raffles and contributions from the people attending, which comes to around 300 to 400 dollars each for the week; not an awful lot for attending the Nationals (Aussies). It costs the club nothing to send around 80 of competitors up to Nationals. Even our entries this Season will be 13 thousand dollars, and we’ll cover those so there is no cost to the club.
What are you looking forward to for the rest of the Season and Summer?
Getting all our crews consistently on the water when they can get some quality time together and get some deserved results that the crews in our club can get. There’s some very good crews from other clubs out there; South Curl Curl I think are the number 1 club in Australia at the moment in surf boats, they are lading the way in terms of the quality of their crews and their crews’ results. It’s a great tussle with them in our Branch, we love racing them and got a lot of respect for them. It goes in ebbs and flows; there’s years when we’re probably a bit stronger than them and likewise, years like this year when they’re probably a bit stronger than us this year. But, you know what, we’ll take them on and give them a good run.
We’ll get through this Season and review it and see what some of the challenges are to set us for next Season.
There is also a great heritage of surf boats at Palm Beach SLSC, including members looking straight towards Barrenjoey Lighthouse where the forerunners of today’s surf boats used to launch from the Broken Bay Customs Station from the 1860’s to rescue or help others. Are new rowers aware of that?
Yes; we have a long tradition of using the surf boat as a rescue device. Our club’s Centenary book is looking good to be ready for late May this year, and when you read about the formation of our club one of the first things they bought in 1922 was a surf boat. So it’s been ingrained in the club form the beginning and we just got o have the privilege of lifting that up in the last 20 years or so substantially.
Launch of Palm Beach SLSC's first surf boat in May 1922, Photo: PBSLSC - newspaper report on the same:
PALM BEACH SURF BOATWhat is claimed to be the most up-to-date surf-boat built in Sydney was launched at Palm Bench on Sunday. Built by W. Holmes, of Lavender Bay, at a cost of £93, it is 21ft overall, with a 5ft beam. It Is the only surf-boat in New South Wales with masts and sails.The launching ceremony was performed by Mrs. H. W. Meggitt. Mr. J. Craig referred to the liberality of the residents of Palmi Beach, and to their keen Interest in the Club. The spectators were treated to a first-class exhibition In the heavy southerly swell that was running, and the boat behaved splendidly. Mr. Fred Notting, ex-captain of the Manly Surf Club, took the steering oar.Although the Palm Beach Surf Life saving Club was started only in November 1921, it has now 35 active members, nearly all of whom are qualified life-savers. PALM BEACH SURF BOAT (1922, May 17). The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), p. 8 (FINAL RACING). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223949070PBSLSC -The First Shed and First Surf Boat: Left; Merle Loxton, Laurie Gallagher, Tim Gonsalves and Sydney Gonsalves. H.R. Ayres and Harold 'Midge' Gonsalves. Right; Adrian Curlewis, Len Palmer, M Ormsby...... Picture Courtesy Philippa Poole - daughter of Adrian Curlewis.
Palm Beach SLSC Surf Boat Crews taking part in the 2025 ASRL Open
Open Female Surf Boat
Palm Beach (NSW) - Pirates
Open Male Surf Boat
Palm Beach (NSW) - Plumbers
Palm Beach (NSW) - Phoenix
Reserve Grade Female (Boats) Surf Boat
Palm Beach (NSW) - Peastmode
Palm Beach (NSW) - Pterodactyl
Palm Beach (NSW) - Platypuses
Palm Beach (NSW) - Popsicles
Reserve Grade Male (Boats) Surf Boat
Palm Beach (NSW) - Pelicans
Palm Beach (NSW) - Peppers
U19 Female Surf Boat
Palm Beach (NSW) - Prosecco
U19 Male Surf Boat
Palm Beach (NSW) - Perenties
U23 Female Surf Boat
Palm Beach (NSW) - Pythons
Palm Beach (NSW) - Pinacoladas
Palm Beach (NSW) - Pistols
U23 Male Surf Boat
Palm Beach (NSW) - Phins
Palm Beach (NSW) - Penitokos
Palm Beach (NSW) - Pingu
Palm Beach (NSW) - Petrol
Photos: Malcom Trees - taken at Cronulla Dec 15 2024 carnival, Ocean Beach Carnival for Australian Trails, North Steyne Boat Carnival on the 11th and 12th of January, 2025 and SLS SNB and local boaties for the Inaugural running of the NSW Surf Boat Metro, Regional and Interseries Championships.
