News
Newport were number 2 at Aussies 2022
2022 is the 4th time we have finished in 2nd place on the Opens club point score since 2015 – that’s a remarkable achievement!
Youth Aussies
The highlight was Bella Cox winning the Under 15s Champion Lifesaver event and earning framed cap number 92! Read other results in Edition 1 of our daily newsletters (link further down).
Masters Aussies
Every lifesaving, beach and water competitor came away with at least one medal!
Rebecca Capell, gold: 40-49 Champion Lifesaver (also silver in Open Patrol Competition)
Guyren Smith, bronze: 50+ Champion Lifesaver (also silver in Open Patrol Competition)
Brett Budd, bronze: 60-64 yrs Beach Sprint | silver: 200 yrs min Male Beach Relay
Stephen Hatch, gold: 40-44 yrs Beach Sprint | silver: 200 yrs min Male Beach Relay
Tristan Conn, gold: 40-44 yrs Beach Flags | silver: 40-44 yrs Beach Sprint | silver: 200 yrs min Male Beach Relay
Ted Smithies, gold: 70-74 yrs Beach Sprint | silver: 200 yrs min Male Beach Relay
Nick Carroll, gold: 60-64 yrs Iron
Luke Jones, silver: 35-39 yrs Double Ski | bronze: 130 yrs Ski relay | bronze: 130 yrs Taplin relay (also gold in Open ski relay)
Greg Tobin, silver: 35-39 yrs Ski | silver: 35-39 yrs Double Ski | bronze: 130 yrs Ski relay | bronze: 130 yrs Taplin relay (also gold in Open ski relay)
Ashley Brown, bronze: 45-49 yrs Surf Race | bronze: 130 yrs Taplin relay
Pat Quinlan, bronze: 130 yrs Ski relay
Darren Warrener, bronze: 130 yrs Taplin relay
Amanda Lehman, silver: 45-49 yrs Board Rescue | bronze: 45-49 2 km Beach Run
Jan Proudfoot, silver: 45-49 yrs Board Rescue
Opens Aussies
- Congratulations to Greg Tobin for earning framed cap number 93 and Harrison Taurins for cap number 94.
- Check out all other results and stories in our daily newsletters. Tip: Navigate to page 34 to see who won our 10 golds, 11 silver and 8 bronze.
- Aussies 2022 – Academy Daily Newsletters
Surf Boats by Michael King
Aussies started a week ago, Wednesday, 6 April, with the Masters and for a change, they had the best of the conditions. SLSA had seen what was coming, so the whole event was moved to Nth Kirra. Well, the water events were at Nth Kirra, and boats were further along the beach at Bilinga. Two very different venues, more of that later.
The OC; Jack, Bags, Otmar and Torro, with Rob sweeping rowed out and back three times, stayed relatively dry and got a couple of nice long runs. Just missed the final – perfect.
The first of the schedule changes were made on Thursday. They decided to run 23s and 19s all the way through, the problem we had was that our juniors weren’t arriving until 0930. Anyway, they made it and had an interesting day, Jake the bowman hanging by his speedos on the rowlock was a highlight. They did get belted in between some really solid rowing, just missing the cut. Ellis’ u23 girls, ‘the Nemos’, all managed to improve their swimming and rollover recovery technique and unfortunately from three races bothered the finish judges just once.
Friday morning the surf was bigger again. Magicseaweed had Nth Kirra at 2-3 ft, Bilinga at 5-7ft which was the same as Kurrawa. A gnarly first break, long gutter then a filthy outside bank – not very wide, but swells jacked up and dropped hard. Then, of course, there was the wind, 20-25 knots from the SE. A warmup and just one round for the open women ‘Thunder’, the race after ours only two boats finished out of five. The open men, ‘Hellfish’, got belted on the edge but still finished. Then the officials decided to wait until the tide came in, then waited again, then finally let us go home.
Saturday was bigger again and the boys were flying, getting through to Sunday. Open women held over and reserve women still twiddling their thumbs since Thursday. A nasty accident in the other area stopped racing for the day.
As predicted the swell dropped a bit and the wind swung around offshore on Sunday morning. The Ressie girls, ‘Catfish’, finally got a start and handled to conditions beautifully, making the top 12 before ending up under a block of flats. The Hellfish also came to grief in the round of 12, belted in the shore break not once, but three times, breaking the bow oar punching through the last one. Really disappointing – it was looking like their Aussies. The Thunder made the top eight, by way of a back shoot on the back bank, then breaking an oar out there in the next race. Unfortunately, in that semi, they got stuck in front of the back bank and couldn’t go while the other end snuck over the shoulder.
Another Aussies done. Thanks to all the crews for a great effort in what has been an extremely challenging season; covid, iso, storms, rain, wind and carnivals cancelled. Plenty of good vibes in the tent and plenty of help moving boats, great stuff Team Newport.
