I’m glad to see some of the participants wear helmets some of the time. It seems like a bonk from a boat could kill you dead.

Seeing those sweet cheeks reminds me of the good old days of triathlon.

Good luck!

Particularly Australian. I have seen them raced in the US, but it is rare. If Monty sees this he might chime in. The US races I have seen are two person sculls (2 oars per person) vs the 4 person sweeps in the video. And we call them dories, like the fish in Finding Nemo.

That was a great video of a dory race, and those are two friends of mine that dominated the circuit for over a decade. they are twin brothers and are still racing in their later 50's. I think one had a heart attack, so the other got a younger partner and raced in the nationals last year in Texas.

They are fun to watch, flat bottom boats that are almost designed to be as bad as possible in the surf. You can only control them with the oars and your body weight positioned in the boat. In the lifeguard ironman, you have to row this two man boat by yourself, which is really interesting in big surf..

But onto the surf boats in Oz, I have seen them in 20ft surf, and the guys are crazy. they actually take off on some of those monsters, and a few have died over the years. I was almost paralyzed from the neck down at nationals in the 80's, got hit in the neck by a broached boat coming in, while we were going out for our 3rd lap. Threw me out of the boat and I was underwater with no feeling, didnt even feel the need to breath, it was really weird. Got pulled out by a buddy and then backboarded to the hospital. Slowly got feeling back, apparently a very sever pinch of the nerve and hairline fracture, and not a compete spinal cord cut..

All fun and games until someone gets hurt, isn't that what mom used to say??

This video made my day.
One of my all time favourite tunes and some real Aussie beach action.

i would buy that swimsuit issue : >

Seems like a recipe for a spinal cord injury if not outright death'

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Agree. I think surfing is dangerous enough with a surfboard bonking you and breaking your nose or whatever.

Surfers try to maximize their time in waves. The video shows rowers going through the high surf, but they must spend most of their time in the water past the waves rowing on relatively calm water?

What is this sport? Is it a beach run, row , beach run?

.. No worries ... she'll be right mate

Crazy mofos

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RayGovett
Hughson CA
Be Prepared-- Strike Swiftly -- Who Dares Wins- Without warning-"it will be hard. I can do it"

Ok, so are the guys wearing g-strings too?

Side note, I want to be the guy who steers the boat. Much less work and it looks like they get to jump ship when shit hits the fan.

Maurice

Thanks for the encouragement!

Great stories. Yeah, pretty crazy. The video I posted is a promotional video, intended to make the sport look thrilling and fun. Most of the surf in it is < 2 metres. Once the surf gets much higher it starts to look less thrilling and more terrifying.

An old friend's Facebook profile photo is her upside down about 4 metres in the air being flung from from a surf boat. She is still racing at 61 years old.

So you raced in Australia? As a visitor, or part of international competition?

Not really. The distance is usually about 400 metres out to sea and return, nearly half of which is in surf.
All the surf lifesaving events are based on surf lifesaving skills. People drown in the surf zone or just beyond it. That's why the swimming events are likely to be a longer distance than the running events - you generally only have to run from your observation point to the surf. All events are about surf skills.

Surf boats are no longer used for rescues (rubber duckies are used for those types of rescues now) but the sense of tradition around them is immense. They have been raced competitively every year for more than 100 years.


No, it's just about the rowing. They start at the water's edge. The flag run at the end is just to provide a more definitive win (you might get several boats coming back to shore on the same wave, so you can't really say which of those was first, so the winner is the first to have the captain grab their flag a short distance back up the beach).

The boat seats are fixed. They are ultra-smooth, lacquered wood. By tradition, rowers wear traditional Speedos (capital S - Speedo was an Australian company that for years had 99% of the swimwear market). To row, they give themselves a deep wedgie, and slide bare-arsed on the seat. I notice in the US video, they wear jammers and are able to slide on the seat in those. But....tradition!


No kidding. That spot is earned, though. The "sweep" is usually also the coach who instructs the crew (as you can tell from the second half of the vid I posted). S/he would have crewed for years.

Pretty much. And they look good, which is so refreshing!

I said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m sick of the dad bods. As a country, we really need to do better. We have normalized big ugly guts and flabby asses on men. Plenty of people complain about heavy women, but we have as many fat men as fat women. In fact, according to NIH, 1 in 3 men is obese while 1 in 4 women is obese.

ETA: I’m sorry, bone idol, for talking about American bodies and sharing my current uncharitable views in this thread. Gah. That video is so pretty!

For an unknown reason, as I drove to work today I thought about the deep wedgie you mentioned above. I thought, “yes. That is fun and funny.”

When I first raced triathlon, I was in a co-ed triathlon team, and the guys and girls wore teeny tiny red animal print suits. I love to think about the guys (who were/are so cool) running and biking and whatnot in those teeny tiny animal print suits. What a scene that was!

How cool that you’re doing still doing it. Rowing through those waves with a deep wedgie is really living life to the fullest. Bravo!

A young lifeguard died in Cape May last year when his dory flipped on him..

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/death-teenage-lifeguard-surfboats-cape-may/2941923/

I was hoping this thread was about Bandy.

That is insane, so when do you start?

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.