The day started before the sunrise, the stars were out bright and clear. I was off to participate in the Masters Surf Lifesaving Championships for the Omanu Surf Club. I had been asked to join in the surf row boat competition, sometimes age plays to my advantage as being older than 30 allowed me a spot in the boat. We left at 6 am under the cover of darkness, arriving at Ohope Beach, a hour plus south of the Mount, as the day was beginning. A gorgeous cloudless day! It is a beautiful beach community with a lovely shallow beach allowing for nice waves. This day we found the surf to be minimal, almost nothing. We had been entered into two divisions in the competition, and before even starting we had won, being the only women's boat to enter. In order to win the points for the Omanu Surf Club team we had to row our boat in each event, and for this I was grateful!! Having rowed through surf two weeks prior under much more intense conditions with surf bigger than I'd ever seen, even watching one of our boats capsize under a wave, I was so excited to be in the boat, competing with some great women, having fun at the beach. It is not often as adults we get to play and compete in such ways!
In addition to the rowing, others competed in swimming, knee boarding and a form of kayaking events, as well as beach sprints and a running event called flags.
A brilliant AM at Ohope Beach
Getting the surf boat unpacked
Rowing in these boats are 4 rowers, each with one oar, and one Sweep who stands in the back of the boat steering with a larger sweep oar.
Setting up the scene, rowing and canoes at one end, men's teams in the middle and women at the far end.
My rowing teammates, Cara, Shar and Jo-a midwife, a cop and a retail saleswoman! All tough strong ladies who last year won the national title for the surf rowing short course.
Very small surf but here we are rowing into shore, I'm at stroke in front of the Sweep.
So despite the lack of female competition, we did successfully row against the men's crews six times, and had a blast!
Here we are with the men's team who also won first place!
Once our races were over, we moved on to watch our teammates take on the other clubs in the various events. Notice we all had to wear our team colors as beanies on our heads and pink vests to identify us in the water. and sometimes our club name on our bottoms! Here are the men preparing for the swim, board, ski (they call these kayak type boats skis) relay.
Getting ready for the ski leg of relay-they paddle out around the distant buoys and then back
Here are the women prepping for the flag competition. They have to start lying face down on the sand, hands crossed in front, chins on their hands. When the whistle blows they jump up and race for the other end to grab a "flag". There is one less than the number of runners so eventually there will be one flag between two runners, just a beach variation of musical chairs.
And here are the men racing for their flags!
Seems funny to us to parade around in Speedo togs and funny caps, but all a must for all men and women in good surf lifesaving competition.
At days' end, Omanu Surf Club won the Championship title for the year having more total points than the other 15 or so clubs. It was the 10th year in a row that the club took the title and grateful to us rowers who brought in the decisive 20 points. It was a glorious day indeed!!
Days' end wrapping up, a tiring ride home but what an exciting time we had!
Great job Omanu!!
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