WAUCHOPE-Bonny Hills Rogue Sharks bounced their way to a first-place finish in rounds two and three of the North Coast Surfboat Series.
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In challenging conditions at Scotts Head, the club’s reserve grade men’s crew emerged with eight wins from 10 races to finish first overall.
Boat captain Wayne Dickson said they also registered a second place and a boat full of water in the other two races.
It backed up their first-place finish in round one at Minnie Water on November 4.
“A few people told us they should be rowing in A-grade and while that is probably true, our current A-grade rowers are going very well themselves,” Dickson said.
“They’re knocking on the door and when they get that first win, they will take some beating.”
Dickson said the performances of the reserve grade crew ensured the battle was on for seats in the A-grade boat.
“We’ve got eight of the best rowers in the whole competition,” he said.
“We’ve got more depth than the big clubs and while we’re probably not going to win a club championship, what we do have is a lot of consistency across our divisions.”
A blustery nor-east chop on Saturday ensured it was a lot of hard work to get out the back to the turning cans before the race back to the beach.
Our A-grade crew are knocking on the door and when they get that first win, they will take some beating.
- Wauchope-Bonny Hills surfboat captain Wayne Dickson
“It meant you bounced all the way out to the cans, but it was a lot smoother heading back,” Dickson said.
“It was three minutes out to sea and 30 seconds home.”
In one race, Bonnies’ reserve grade men’s crew made it out the back, turned at the cans and caught a wave 400 metres from shore.
“It pretty much got them back to the beach and looked like a bit of luck on the sand, but good crews make their own luck,” Dickson said.
The club’s under-19 women’s crew also competed at their first carnival and after a baptism of fire on day one, showed vast improvement to finish third on day two.
“It was the girls first day out and they’re all 16 and 17 rowing in an under-19 division so they had to row against A-grade women and they did struggle a bit.”
It was three minutes out to sea and 30 seconds home.
- Wayne Dickson
Dickson was impressed with their performance, with only one of the crew possessing previous surfboat experience.
“Only one of the girls might have had a race last season, but the rest are new,” he said.
“I told them to stick with it because what we do is not everyone’s cup of tea and not to judge it on the conditions at the weekend.
“They probably won’t race in those conditions again; it was pretty heavy conditions.”
Under-19 girls coach and sweep Steve Monaghan admitted they were a bit nervous, but settled in and enjoyed their first weekend of competition rowing.
“They acquitted themselves well against the experienced open women’s rowers.”
