2017 Awards
The presentations were awarded prior to the 40th reunion. Age before beauty, we start with the Dukes division, that is our over 60 division.Dukes was a hotly contested division and the top 3 came down to a battle between Hans Bendl and the Ryan Brothers. Only 3 points separated 1st and 2nd, Hans taking it out from Jeff Ryan with Paul Ryan at distant third. Ryno is the danger man in 2018, but we have a few more members knocking down the 60th birthday door in 2018 and 2019 will see a few more joining the Dukes.
35 years after Danga’s his first Junior title, the perpetual grommet, continued recent years' form taking out our over 45 Masters division on 318 points, from Kel Batcheldor on 300 and Don McGaw. 2018 will be a harder task in the Masters as gun surfers, Fishkiller and Jarred Oriel enter the fray (and demonstrated that at the 1st competition this year). Past open champion Shane Simpson is also threatening a come back... Magoo says he is threatening along with Captain, we will see, watch that space.
Switching back to the grommets, who we hope are all still competing in 40 years time, our Mirco Girls division was taken out by Jess Hutchison, on 213 points, from Ava and Chynna Hardy 2nd and 3rd respectively. The girls did really well, all improving significantly over the season, in often tough conditions.
In the Mircro Boys division, another family effort prevailed, with Beau Wallace 1st on 223 points and Koby Wallace 3rd on 145 points, but they were split by Jett Hardy in 2nd on 174 points.
All the grommets surfed exceptional well last year and we have seen them steadily improve. Garie is not a beach for the faint hearted. All our grommets stepped up to the challenge in 2017. 2018 is shaping up to be a hotly contested year for our grommets.
In the Junior division, and for only the second time in the history of the Club, we had a tied 1st place with Mitch’Oloughlan and Cruz Mckee both finishing a strong season on 318 point. Joel Balmer was 3rd on 269 points and is on the improve and worth watching in 2018. The quality of surfing with our juniors is high and we hope that there are a few inter club events in 2018 where they can go up against the Cronulla juniors, noting that they do a bit of surfing around Cronulla as well. It was also pleasing to see Cruz out at Cronulla Point recently in 8-10 foot stuff.... Keep it up juniors.
In Opens, Mitch O’Loughlan, on 297 points, gave the older boys a hard time this year, backing up from his win in the Juniors, to take out a close 3rd place to Ian (Fishkiller) Spencer, on 309 points, in 2nd. It was Troy Wood who prevailed in 2017, as the clear winner on 334 point. Troy surfed at a consistently high standard throughout 2017 and was our deserving open champ.
Club stalwarts Hans Bendl (Life Member) and his wife Judy Bendl were awarded club member of the year for their fund raising efforts running the Bunnings BBQs (also a special mention to Shaggy for his efforts) and for the massive effort put into organising the presentation and 40th.
Cruz Mckee despite taking out the juniors was also awarded Wipe-Out of the Year after breaking both arms during the year. Stick to surfing, it is safer Cruz....
The NASA (Not a Surfers Arsehole) award winner was Dane Whiteside. Dane you have to find a good barber mate, we will start a collection to get you a proper hair cut. Just because you ride alternative boards doesn’t mean you need an alternative head. Thanks Dane for joining the committee for 2018, we expect that you will be organising a few parties this year.
40th Reunion
The 40th reunion kicked off with Peter (Westy) West (our 1st President) and Gary (Snake) Kennedy (our 1st Secretary-Treasurer) recalling how the club was formed in 1977, with its first competition in 1978.Peter proposed a toast to the club and to acknowledge the efforts of Danga, Hans and Captain for holding the club together over the decades since he and Snake left the Committee. Westy and Snake were stoked that the club they and their fellow founding members started in 1977, is as strong as ever. It was great to see so many founding and past members present.
It was impossible for everyone that has made efforts over the decades to be thanked. One notable omission on the night was the efforts of Alan Irwin, in the early years, as he was the Club’s very first grommet and an early committee member that made a big contribution during the 1980’s. Thanks Alan.
With the unavoidable absence of O’Cal noted, Petsy roasted many members (no poem) starting with Bumhead, Jelly and others, then spoke on O’Cals behalf stating that O’Cal will be throwing $20,000 at first prize in the open division for 2018 (yet to be confirmed by O’Cal.....). We are expecting a call from O’Cal not long after this post, as Pettsy has been known to be loose with the facts at times. There could be a few too many zeros quoted by Aaron, please call or email O'Cal....
Most life members were present and were called up to welcome a new life member, as Greg (Magoo) Mckee was inducted onto the life members board. Magoo was Treasuer in the 90s and recently took on the role as our 2nd public officer since our incorporation in 1992. Magoo has also taken on the Secretary’s role, after Denis Miller stepped aside mid-last season. We hope Magoo continues as Secretary for many more years to come as the club values those who do the heavy lifting behind the scenes to keep the club running.
Life membership is not the end of any members contributions to our Club, it is the start, and we hope to see more of our life and past members back this season, especially those such as Lex Barnett, and others, who still rip.
We thank the current Committee for pulling the event together, Bumhead for his work with the sponsors and Franko, Commodore of Cronulla Yacht Club, for hosting our 40th. We will be holding further reunions in the coming years and Cronulla Yacht Club is the likely venue, a unanimously successful venue and 40th.
Next Competition: Competition No.2 of 2018 - 10 March - Sign On is now open - Sign On - 10th March 2018
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