Well once again the Burleigh Boys (and one ring in girl from the Sunny Coast) made their way overseas for the annual Straddy Assault.
With most of our petrol-head members being lured literature review for dissertation away by the Super GP and a last-minute mystery virus sweeping through the club meant that burleigh sent its smallest ever contingent to the island.
Full respect must go to the crew who were willing to drop everything at the last minute for the club when getting there 11th hour call-up. Jed, Byron, Jesse and the Highlander clan jumped at the chance to represent the club when given the opportunity by our fearless team manager Jye “Fabs” Brazenas late on Thursday evening. Our lone (or loan?) female surfer, Talina made her way down from the Sunshine Coast, hitched her way aboard someones car at the Ferry and met us at Our Straddy house Friday night.
Much like a BCF ad, the boys made the most of what the island had to offer on Friday, 4-wheeling down the beach to find our own bank and put on some mock-up heats in anticpation of the weekends contest. After tearing apart the extremely small waves, the boys opted for the more enjoyable activity of a sand-digging competition, mainly round each tyre of my car as the incoming tide left us stranded in the soft sand of the dunes. Finally getting back to the house we retired for a quick nap, making the most of the peaceful Burleigh house – for some reason it was alot quieter this year? – couldn’t put my finger on what was missing..hmm.
We caught up with the Highlander crew and Talina for an afternoon team surf before heading to the Bowls club for $5 chicken pyjamas and a team-building strategy session over a couple of low-carb, lite beers – we are athletes after all. Trying to dodge the pub at all costs, Fabs and myself became white ninjas darting through a sea of rival-club surfers doing their best to attack our weak rubber-arms. However, with our eyes on the prize we got the heat draw and made a quick escape through the pokie room – good thing for us as Jesse was on 1st heat in the morning. We retired back to the house for a couple more sports drinks while Pete Highlander reminisced on his recent travels through South-east Asia, I tried out my latest stand-up routine and Timmy told us about recent articles he’d read from his Zoo magazine subscription all to the acoustic-music stylings of Fabs in the corner.
The next morning all the team members were up at the crack of dawn getting used to the strange feeling of not being hungover on a Saturday morning. Everyone was down the beach chipping in to ensure we got the best tent position to what looked like a scene from the greek isles – beautiful crystal clear water, bright sunny weather, hundreds of people on the beach and not a wave in site. All the surfers were plagued by wave starvation – even our seasoned cometitor and Burleigh Young Gun Thomas Woods was finding it hard to make waves appear in the short 15-minute heats. The contest was postponed for an hour on the high-tide due to the waves actually not breaking, bad-luck for us Talina had the heat before they decide to stop and I had the heat after they decided to start again so the contest would finish in time.
Although our results reflected the quality of the wave conditions over the weekend, The best thing that became apparent was the willingness of the team members that did show up, to put their other personal commitments aside and represent the club when they were needed most. We all had a great weekend on North Staraddy and even though the waves were less than ideal, everyone made the most of it – without whinging. We’ll be back next year a little wiser and a little more experienced as to what is needed to win heats – and most important of all we will be a TEAM.
Special mention has to go to Jed for putting up his hand to judge first thing Saturday moring, willing to give up his day with the boys so the club didn’t get penalised.Thanks you little legend.
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