Check it. I always beach launch my ranch boat, after watching this maybe I should get a sling.
i geuss everything is smaller on the east coast.
SICKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
Do they ever pull it off?
Do they ever get killed?
NJ, in avon or bradley beach this year during one of the lifeguard tournaments, the Spring Lake boat got rocked and one of our guards had to get stitches from being pitched. Serious injury can and has occured.
I’m sure injury must be quite common. For one thing these boats aren’t particularly surf worthy really once there is any size. Anyone whose ever watched them at it in anything over 3’ will see them come a gutser at some point, and when it’s 5’+ well… I was watching a surf boat contest at Freshwater in Sydney some years ago in solid 5’ waves and very few of them made the passage in without broad siding it. The highlight was when one team broad sided in front of another boat that had just taken off, the second boat then cut the first completely in half in a boiling mass of dumping wave, oars, bodies, and mangled boats. It looked well ugly. I say hats off to them, they must know what they are letting themselves in for once there is a good sided wave. On the plus side surfboats are great for fitness training and team work.
Did anyone notice the disturbing sight of some of those crews wearing thong type suits? That was enough for me to write the whole thing off. What’s the point of that? So their butt cheecks will slide better while rowing? Gross. And Wierd.
I watched 30 seconds of it!
Quote:
Did anyone notice the disturbing sight of some of those crews wearing thong type suits? That was enough for me to write the whole thing off. What’s the point of that? So their butt cheecks will slide better while rowing? Gross. And Wierd.
lol. They actually “wedge” their speedo’s up their crack to prevent grazing their backside from the sand and the seam of the costume. Most new people will refuse, then about half way through their first heat will try to pull it up as the pain is quite bad and getting worse! Most rowers aren’t proud of the look and will wait for the last seconds before the race before putting them in “position” others who really think they are some gift to us all will walk around the whole day like that!!
Once the surf hits over 4 foot, you will see good crews get in and out quite easily but the others will cop a flogging. You see a lot of broken oars, but no real serious injuries. It’s worse when its starts sucking up on a sandback. Worst I saw was a crew called Warilla Barrack Point coming in, the surf was about 7 foot. They caught a wave, it sucked right up, the boat slewed (went sideways) and the wave closed out on the boat. Most boats are fiberglass this was just “Exploded” and a guy ended up with a broken leg.
It’s a great rush going out in big surf. When its big at a surf carnival everyone will go straight to the boat area cause they know the will see carnage.
I know some of our guys go with assless bathing suits while rowing because they can slide on their ass and get that much more power(they lube up with petroleum jelly) and to avoid chaffing.
I find the austrailian surfboats to be quite interesting, as I am only familar with the two man Seabright skiffs.
You guys have a rudder man, we will “sea anchor” which is holding your self up on the back of the boat and acting like a skeg while coming in.
Ah. I see. Glad to hear there’s a practical reason for the fashion statement being made by the guys down under.
Still gross though.
thank you very much. you have just made my day!
clubby wankers are a classic…
Defintely gross :))))
Yeah it’d be interesting how many lives those “clubby wankers” save each year from drownng, particulary those cool surfers whose legropes snap and turns out they can’t swim that well without a flotation device!
Some of them are defintely knobs and up themselves, but the majority give up their free time and make the beaches a place my kids and friends can go to and be reasonably safe.
Bloody wankers…where do they get off!
sorry. right you are blue bottle.
sorry to all the clubby wankers that saved lives this year…
they truely are aussie hero’s.
god bless em…
Just for fun!
Apology accepted…
Hicksy - Water Safety for Nippers - Surfboat Rower - Protector of Idiots in the water - AKA Clubby Wanker…
I think some of those guys need to learn what between sets means. Not to mention that sort of thing could be damn dangerous. Imagine what one of those boats coming down on your head would do.
Hey great shot of freshwater Midget, ballsy take off for a boat. Can’t help wondering what happened next.
Wish I could say Brian O’Callaghan held it straight to the beach as he usually did however…
The wooden boat was old and flexible - a single skin design (not tanked) - so as the wave broke and filled it - the boat submarined and broke up underwater.
Rowing in the crew was recently deceased Billy Clymer who went on to build the same design in fiberglass/foam sandwich in the 80’s and 90’s.
Bill’s son Matt now builds the unsinkable tanked design that holds less water and uses 2 x 4000 lt per hour pumps to clear the wash in.
Not only does the current design stay on top of the water under a big wave - it prevents breakage.
MF
My father was a boat builder, whose family used to make sculling boats, but he also used to repair surfboats and build oars for them. He got out of it when fibreglass came in. He returned to boats in his later years and before he retired worked with the modern sculling oars which were no longer wooden.
Some of the surfboat oars would get snapped like toothpicks. I gather being sweep was pretty hazardous, holding onto a long lever, facing toward shore while everyone else was looking at what was going to hit them. For surfers, they are hazardous as well. I can remember a few times at Currumbin where a boat would get wiped out and come rolling through the crowd like a scythe. Haven’t seen that happen for a while now.
Watching footage of clubby carnivals is pretty dull - but the surfboats is usually exciting.
Bob