By Ron Lane
Last Friday Alexandra Headlands Surf Club had the privilege of hosting the Annual Interstate Challenge Surf Carnival and happy to relate that the Queensland team, known as the Cyclones, successfully defended the title which they won last year.
The final result saw Queensland first, NSW second and Western Australia third.
Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of all was that both Noosa and Sunshine each had two of their members in the state team.
For Noosa, they were represented by Lana Rogers and Cooper Williams and Sunshine by Nick Sloman and Ruby Nolan.
Add to this Noosa head coach Darren Mercer was appointed state coach.
For Sunshine Beach and Noosa their overall carnival results, plus Branch and State team selections, over the last few seasons, have shown that they now have the athletes that can hold their own against the best in the nation.
In the words of Noosa Life Member Ian Young, “It (these results) has been a long time coming. I never thought I would see the day that our club would not only have two in the state team but also have our coach picked as the state coach. Sunshine is also going great guns, so well done to both clubs; keep it up everyone – keep it up.”
Then on the weekend, Maroochydore played host to the Murphy Builders Maroochy Classic Surf Carnival.
Over the years, Maroochy hosted an annual carnival which was at various times, sponsored by such as Peter Shearer, Just Jeans and East West Airlines.
In time, this event was to become one of the major carnivals on the national calendar, with teams coming from all over the country. ,
As if touched by the hands of God, on the majority of times these carnivals were blessed with big surf.
With a major sponsor now on the scene, it would be great to once again see this annual Maroochy carnival back as one that is not to be missed; great not only the Maroochy club and Queensland Lifesaving, but also for the Sunshine Coast in general.
At the fifth round of the Summer of Surf Ironman competition held in early January, Noosa’s Under 17 ironman Cooper Williams caused a sensation by not only winning the Under 17 division but also finishing in the top ten in the Open Division.
Following this on the weekend, this 17-year-old not only helped Queensland (as a member of the state ream) win the Interstate Competition, but also made the critics sit up and take notice by finishing an incredible second in the Open Ironman.
The event, which was won by the legendary Shannon Eckstein, has really made the lifesaving fraternity mark down the name Cooper Williams as a definite star of the future.
Another great performance for Noosa was Lana Rogers winning the Open Women’s Surf Race – always a good one to win.
In other categories Noosa’s Under 17 girls performed well, winning medals in the ironwoman, board, board relay, taplin and surf race.
The Under 19 males also did well to win medals in the taplin, ski relay and surf teams.
Not to be outdone, the Under 19 ladies boat crew and the reserve grade men’s both finished in second place overall and the 60+ age group finished first.
For Sunshine Beach the results were similar with Nick Sloman and Ruby Nolan competing for the state team on Friday, then backing up to represent their club on Saturday.
“Winning the Interstate Carnival was great, but what made it really good was beating NSW; we always enjoy that,” said Sloman with a grin.
Club president Craig Law said, “Our overall performance is what we always look at. Two of our people helped Queensland win on Friday and for the Murphy Builders Classic we were very happy with several of our team qualifying for the major state events. This plus the Patrol competition results shows plenty of depth in our competition calendar.”
Good luck to both clubs at the State and National Titles.
