By RON LANE
THE state lifesaving championships are over and once again Sunshine Beach and Noosa Heads have shown that there is plenty of talent among the young competitors; let’s never forget that these young ones are our future.
For Sunshine veteran senior member Warick Redwood said, “For us our U-17 boys have performed well in both team events as well as individual. The club came home with some 10 medals and are very happy. There have been many outstanding performances, but perhaps one that really stood out was Mick Sloman. This young man is someone that we think we will be hearing a lot of in the seasons ahead.”
Another plus for Sunshine was the fact that U-17 competitor Brock Redwood won a bronze medal in the Belt Race. This is one of the old traditional events and was always considered to be blue ribbon. There is an old saying – belt swimmers are born they are not made; definitely one of the toughest swims on the calendar.
While talking Sunshine, congratulations to their Supporter Club. At the recent Clubs Queensland black tie dinner, Sunshine Beach was named best Surf Life Saving Supporter Club, in the Small Clubs Division. This makes it two years in a row, so well done to all concerned. Noosa was somewhat similar in competition with some outstanding results from the young up and coming.
One name that comes to mind for Noosa was Cooper Williams. This young man competed in the Youth Championships and finished with an incredible four gold medals.
“This young fellow,” said coach Clint Irwin, “is outstanding. He has surf awareness well beyond his years. The way he can read surf conditions for someone so young is truly outstanding.” Interesting to note that on Saturday despite the fact that his titles were contested on the weekend prior, he came down to Maroochydore Beach to just help his club mates in any way possible.
Alexandra Nolan bronze medal in the U-19s Iron woman and Lana Rogers gold in the surf race, backed up by Jordan Mercers gold in the Open Surf Board, shows strength in the ladies division.
After a couple of seasons of struggle, the Noosa boat section is again on the rise. The performance of their U-23 men’s crew to win the gold medal was on Saturday the talk of the beach. Hit hard in the way out they were in last place, turned the cans in third place, and came home in the finish of the year to win gold. In the words of boat sweep/ coach David Tomba (the Pocket Rocket), “That row was all heart and guts one of the best I have ever seen.”
Not to be overlooked, the masters from Noosa also went well with Ross Fisher winning three gold medals and the 200 plus boat crew winning gold and the 160 plus winning silver; just to name a few. With competition playing such a vital role in our clubs, names such as Pettigrove and Redwoods at Sunshine and French, Mercer, Irwin and Tomba at Noosa, you can be sure that the future of our young is in good hands. Well done to all concerned
This week at the Bulli Surf Club in NSW, boaties from Queensland and New South Wales will gather to bid a sad farwell to surf boat legend Robby Meijer. Robby obtained his bronze in the Woonona club in 1968 and joined Bulli in 1978 and in 2001 joined Noosa giving us five great years. To his partner Cheryl remember us at Noosa and as always, we are just a phone call away. More next week on the legend of Robby Meijer.
