MANY on the Far South Coast in the first week of the January may have noticed the progression of the George Bass Surfboat Marathon from Batemans Bay to Eden.
The race is held every two years and is a gruelling seven-day event covering 190kms
Bermagui Surf Life Saving Club was proudly represented, entering a women’s crew in the event.
Included in the team were two women from Narooma Surf Club who joined the team when Bermagui couldn’t make the numbers to enter.
With a brand new club-house recently completed, the Bermagui Surf Club really wanted to be able to enter a team in the race this year, so thank you to the Narooma girls for making it possible.
There were 11 women’s Surf Boat Crews racing down the coast this year, which was a fantastic show of support for the event – seven Open Women teams and four Veteran Women teams.
While Bermagui came in the bottom half of the field, just completing the race was a huge achievement, especially considering the number of new rowers in the team.
Even though the weather was kind for most of the race (unlike previous years), there were still some hairy moments…
Tuross beach presented the usual scary moments coming in and out thru the surf, with a bit of sideways action coming in and more than a couple of boats being tossed around and damaged on the way out; Narooma beach was kind to the Bermi girls this year, although not so kind to others – must have been the Narooma girls in the boat!
The water temperature on Day 5 on the Bermagui to Tathra leg started at a balmy 20 + degrees at Bermi headland and quickly went down to as low as 15 degrees in the cold current coming up from the south - the girls were doing water changes alongside penguins!
And Day 6 from Tathra to Pambula was a killer with a strong southerly wind – whilst it was the only day of full on headwind, it still didn’t help much on the day when it was akin to rowing through mud.
And shark alley outside Eden headland on Day 7 resulted in the fastest water changes of the race, for obvious reasons.
Training started back in June for most of the team, with the final team coming together in October.
A typical week of training involved 3 boat sessions, as well as various out of boat training such as Ergo’s, swimming, running and weights.
The crew started practicing their water changes once the water warmed up in November/December.
Of course, the rowers could not compete without the assistance and support from the local community. The club would like to thank Jenny Wray, from the recently opened Bermagui Medical Centre, as well as the Neilson family from Neilson’s Mitre 10 in Bermagui. They provided a major sponsorship for the crew this year.
Other sponsors included the Bermagui Country Club, Bermagui Fishermans Co-Operative, Bermagui Fishermans Wharf, Blue Wave Seafood, Horizon Credit Union, Bermagui Handyman, Truss Plus, Bermagui Excavations, Simply Spring Water, Narooma Sign Art, Bermagui Boat Repairs & Narooma Building Services.
Each competing Surf Boat team must also have a support boat following them down the coast every day, which holds the rowers between changes, keeping them warm, etc (4 rowers plus the sweep in the boat at any one time, with water changes at sea every 20 minutes or so).
The rowers would like to thank the various support boats, who not only volunteered their boat, fuel and time, but also their enthusiastic support each day.
Harry Cripps did Day 1, Dave Rhodes on Days 2 and 3, Greg Young and Stu Hull from the Nuvatu drove the fanciest boat in the fleet for us on Days 4 and 5, Dave Campbell and his crew (Ben and Fred) were great on Day 6 and Reg and Judy LaCompte escorted us all the way to Eden on Day 7.
Tony Lawson, from Narooma Building Services, was sponsor as well as support crew on Days 1-3 and our wonderful duck drivers included Warren and Vikki Marshall and Garry Cochrane from Tathra surf club on Days 5, 6 & 7.
There were also the amazing supporters that followed the race down the coast for every leg, driving trailers between legs, helping move boats, IRB’s, oars and the like, making food and drinks, and of course the requisite encouragement that is needed in such a big undertaking.
Big thank you to Kev Holzhauser, thanks John and Leonie (loved those grapes – especially the square brown ones), thanks Jackson family, thanks Zhoe’s mum and thanks to all others we may have missed.
Bermagui Surf Club was proudly represented by Peta Shaw, Lin Wilton (Narooma), Sue Lawson (Narooma), Jen Tedesco, the mother & daughter team of Christie and Jess Reid, Maddy Jackson, Ruth Thomas, Zhoe Hart-Lefel and Jade Scrymgeour.
Jess, Maddy, Ruth, Zoe and Jade are all new to rowing this year, so it was a big effort to complete the race, well done!
The all-important sweep was Rob Shaw, who not only steered the boat down the coast each day, but is also the team’s coach who put in countless time away from family each week to train both crews and keep the crew on the water.
- Jen Tedesco
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