Broulee Surfers Women's Crew

Ages Mixed
Sport Played Surf Boats
Years Played Varied

Name:    Gary Pettigrove
Age:    Too old to put it in here!
Photo:

Interests:    Catching large waves & developing capable rowers & lifesavers.
Rowing Career:    This will be my 3rd Bass as a sweep. The crew do all their training on Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra. I’ve had an extensive sweeping career in Torquay, Victoria.
Aim for the Bass:    To guide a novice crew into performing well enough to be in the place getters!

Name:   Pip Butt
Age:   25
Photo:

Interests:   Surfboats, surf lifesaving, studying accounting & rugby union
Rowing Career:   I started rowing 4 seasons ago after someone told me it was like rugby but in boats… they lied… but I’ve stuck with it anyway.
Aim for the Bass:   To complete the journey to the best of my ability and with out any major blisters.

Name:   Kat Waterhouse
Age:   30
Photo:

Rowing Career:   Started out as second bow in Bondi SBLS’s first women’s crew in 2000 (possibly 1999 – anyway, a long time ago) and still haven’t managed to escape the seat. Managed a Bass four years ago and swore ‘never again’…
Interests:   The beach—whether messing about in surfboats, trying to surf or diving; travelling without a plan (and often any clue); and
horse riding.
Aim for the Bass:   To avoid a bum like an echidna after all the anti-nausea injections and to improve on my last Bass where we placed 4th.

Name:   Sonia Domitrak
Age:   33
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Rowing Career:   I have been rowing for Broulee for three years. This is my first Bass.
Interests:   Rowing; travelling; bad teen movies; swimming
Aim for the Bass:   To finish the race without the aid of a defibrillator!

Name:   Candice Day
Age:   23
Photo:

Rowing Career:   I started rowing at school on still water and later joined North Steyne. When I moved to Canberra I thought my surf boat career was over but found the Broulee girls and have gone full circle rowing surf boats on still water.
Interests:   Politics, rowing, lifesaving.
Aim for the Bass:   To not have any close encounters with sharks and to place in the top 5.

Name:   Emily Paul
Age:   24
Photo:

Rowing Career:   A couple of months of rowing on the lake…not really sure what I’m getting myself into!!
Interests:   Anything that involves being outside…Water polo, beach, swimming, skiing, hockey and now rowing and lifesaving.
Aim for the Bass:   Finish it without too many hiccups along the way.

Name:   Alice Kerkham
Age:   18
Photo:   Not available
Rowing Career:   I row in the Broulee under 23’s 2nd crew down the coast.
Interests:   Lifesaving, rowing, fishing
Aim for the Bass:   This is my first Bass and I hope we can be competitive for every leg.

Name:   Kiralee Elkin
Age:   18
Photo:

Rowing Career:   I row in the Broulee under 23’s 1st crew down the coast.
Interests:   Rowing, the beach, lifesaving and living life.
Aim for the Bass:   This will be my first Bass (hopefully of many) and I hope not to let my crew down.

Profile not available for Amanda, however this will be her 4th George Bass marathon and she is aiming for a top 3 placing, taking advantage of the youth in the boat behind her to get her to the finish lines.

Tell us about yourselves

The Canberra-based Broulee surf boat crew has been competing since 1995. Many rowers have come and gone but the crew has always managed to be competitive whilst having fun. We train on Lake Burley Griffin and compete in the ocean so this makes our team very special as we are able to be competitive with coastal crews even though we don’t have the luxury of training in the surf.

As part of rowing surf boats we are all qualified surf lifesavers and spend over thirty hours each summer patrolling Broulee Beach as our way of giving back to the local community.

In 2009/10 the Canberra-based Broulee Surfers women’s crew will compete along the NSW South Coast in the Warrilla Bowls Surf Carnival Series, the Far South Coast Surf Carnivals and the George Bass Marathon:

The carnivals comprise of both male and female crews from all along the NSW South Coast and are regarded as some of Australia’s toughest surf competitions.
The George Bass Marathon first commenced in 1975. It is held every two years over 7 days and follows along 190km of the South Coast shoreline. There are competitors representing every State (and Territory) from Australia and even crews from New Zealand and Holland. The race starts in Bateman’s Bay and ends in Eden.

Proudest Sporting Achievements

Our crew members are not professional athletes but we are everyday athletes who work in our local communities and are heroes in the eyes of our families, friends and work colleagues. We are joining together to row a marathon and are role models as we prove that by training hard and working together ordinary people can achieve extraordinary feats.

What are you hoping to achieve

We currently have eight rowers who are all keen to give up their New Year’s Eve drinking sessions to compete in the 2010 George Bass Marathon. Six of those rowers (and the sweep) are from Canberra and two are from Broulee. The Canberra-based Broulee Surfers women’s crew last competed in the 2006 George Bass Marathon and finished first on Handicap and fourth overall in the Open female section. We are hoping to emulate that result or better it in 2010.

The race has the tagline of being the longest, toughest surf boat race in the world. During the marathon there are four rowers at any given time in the boat and four rowers ‘resting’ in support boats. Rowers will go flat out for around twenty minutes and then a change over will occur. A change over consists of two rowers jumping out of the boat (whilst two remain rowing) and a fresh pair of rowers who have been dropped off in the ocean in front of the surf boat grab hold of the boat as it passes and hurl themselves in, and then they start rowing hard until the next change over. It is expected each rower will do about 4 change overs each day and depending on weather conditions each leg of the race will take around 3 to 4 hours.

How does LineBreak help

LineBreak compression sportswear does six things which will assist us to be competitive during the entire marathon:

Helps us recover faster, this is important as the race is over 7 days and rowing 20 to 36km each day we need to be able to recover as fast as possible in order to be fresh for the next days rowing;
Improves our performance, as the marathon is over 7 days, each day we need to be improving our performance in order to remain competitive;
Controls our temperature, as the race is held in the ocean and weather conditions can be extreme it is imperative that our core temperature remains stable to avoid hyperthermia and heat stroke;
Reduces our risk of injury, it is essential that we minimise the chance of injury occurring as we need all eight rowers fit and healthy to row each day;
LineBreak is UV rated 30+ for sun protection, the marathon is held outdoors and it is vital to be sun smart to protect our skin and reduce the risk of skin cancer; and
LineBreak is unaffected by salt water, the marathon is held in the ocean and as rowers will be diving out and rolling into the boat from the ocean it is important that our clothing can withstand the effects of salt water.

One of our rowers has trialed various sports compression wear during our training sessions and swears by LineBreak as the best product on the market which is why our whole crew likes to use it as our team uniform.

Our Blog

31/01/12

All up in this year’s George Bass Marathon, we finished 5th (one point between us and 4th) out of 8 womens crews, and with our times we would have beaten a couple of the men's teams each day. Highlights of our race include:

Day 1 - 32 km: Catching waves off the bommy rocks (they were so big we nearly rolled the boat into the reef but the shortcut and the waves meant we stayed neck and neck with a really good men's crew, unfortunately after we turned a bouy and had to row back into the waves they raced on ahead) - we came 5th
Day 2 - 18km: was the really quick leg, last time we did it we came 7th (out of 9 when the day before we'd came 3rd) so I was really happy when we finished it in 4th place! We went through another bommy rocks (this time as a shortcut and trying to avoid waves breaking on us) - we got through it ok but Torquay (who won the leg) managed to get hit by a wave, roll the boat a bit & lost a seat in the ocean. Somehow they dumped a boat full off water, got a new seat on and still won the race!!
Day 3 - 22km: We still had northerly winds helping us so this leg was pretty quick but the beach we left from Tuross is horrendous, we were the first boat to leave the beach and made it out past the breaking waves ok, some other boats were not so lucky and one boat got damaged and they couldn't row it, another boat (Torquay) ended up on the rocks - but again still managed to win. We finished 5th by 1 second to Gerringong - heartbreaking
Day 4 - 24km: Final day of northerly winds and I think the only highlight from the race was I kept making up sharks in my head. When I was on the support boat I saw (I think) a gray shape in the water, decided it must have been a shark and then when I was rowing every sparkle or shadow on the water from the sun was clearly a shark!! Needless to say there were no shark attacks that leg so I am ok ;) Finished 4th
Day 5: 37km: This is the longest leg of the race - it took us just under 4 hours as we had no wind to help us. Usually when we row we do 20-25 minute stints (varies a little bit depending on whether its the start or your not pulling hard) but at the end of this leg there were only 5 rowers still capable of pulling a boat (the others were exhausted) so I had to do 55 minutes in the boat! It was horrible and I was pretty wrecked for the rest of the day. But the worst bit about this day was we thought we were in 4th position as we were about 15 boat lengths in front of the crew that we'd been racing for 4th/5th position, except Gerringong had gone closer to the rocks than us and got caught in a weird current going south and ended up coming 2nd that day!! So we crossed the line thinking we were 4th to the beach and then got told the people we thought were behind us were actually miles in front!
Day 6 - 27km: I was still pretty pooped from the day before and this day we were racing into a southerly wind. It took us 3.5 hours and the weather was freezing. We finished 4th
Day 7 - 21km: the finale!! We ended up crossing the line in 4th. We had a battle with a boat full of elite still water rowers for 3rd place, and just missed out on it (that would have meant we finished overall in 4th). But all up everyone was really happy with the race and we kept improving each day and got to finish the race with 8 fit rowers so all up it was pretty good.

And that was pretty much my race in a nutshell!! All up it is about 190km (though our coach keeps pointing out to us we really only do about 1/2 of that whereas he stands up sweeping for the whole race). One other highlight was that the winning boat - Torquay's sweep told our sweep that each day we started so quickly and were out in front over the 1st 2km that he thought on day 1 they were racing for 2nd position. Pity we couldn't physically keep that up but with a crew of 8 people where 5 of them hadn't done this race before and 3 of them had been rowing less than 6 months (one girl only for 1 month) it was a pretty good effort!

The other Broulee girls who were also wearing LineBreak came 2nd which is a great effort.

28/09/10
I just wanted to touch base with you and let you know that the Broulee girls were still rowing and wearing the Linebreak gear (it has withstood the test of time). After the George Bass marathon we rowed in a few local sprint carnivals which we enjoyed but I think the Bass had worn us out so we usually finished in the middle of the race group. Kiralee however did really well with the under 23 rowers and placed in quite a few State events.

Recently though we rowed in the Rooster River Run which is a 12km time trial down the Georges River in Sydney. There were 32 boats competing (9 in the open women's division) and we placed 2nd which was really pleasing. Our stroke, Teresa, is pretty new to rowing (Sonia is taking time out from the sport to start a family but kindly donated her gear so we'd look the same) but myself, Kat and Candi who rowed in the Bass participated and Gary is still our sweep/coach. Emily was unable to row with us as she was in a hockey grand final.

The race started in a wave formation with women's event starting out, followed by the men (under 19, under 23's, vets, reserves and open), 3 boats take-off each minute and we were in the final trio for the women's so we knew that if we overtook anyone in front of us we would be ahead in the time trial. We started strongly already gaining a lead on the other two boats and maintained the lead over the course of the race. We were also able to catch and pass 5 of the other 6 boats in front of us (Caloundra Met who won the event started in the 1st group and we were never able to catch them). We caught and passed all of the other boats around the 4-6km mark and then were able to hold that lead til the end. We tired over the last few kilometres so didn't really extend that lead until the final few hundred metres when some of the under 23s and 19s men's crews were catching us and we didn't want to be passed by them!

All in all the event was pretty gruelling as unlike the Bass we weren't able to jump out of the boat and have fresh legs jump in! We finished in 1 hour 7 minutes and 46 seconds which was 76 seconds behind Caloundra Met (who incidentally paired with Canberra Vikings to win the George Bass Marathon where we came 5th) and 90 seconds outside the race record. Since the open mens and open womens race is part of the NSW Endurance Championships we were awarded medals for placing 2nd (see attached picture).

I think Gary has now decided we are endurance athletes and perhaps not sprinters so watch this space as to whether or not we do some more events! Perhaps it will all be part of our training to improve on 5th in the next George Bass Marathon (held January 2012).

06/02/10
Thought we'd keep you guys up to date with how we're tracking since the George Bass. We've got a couple more small branch carnivals left and probably aiming to row at the NSW Branch Titles carnival. Last weekend we went up to Woonona Beach at Wollongong to compete in the final Warilla Bowls South Coast Surf Boat races. These are sprint races to a buoy about 700m out and then back to the beach.

Broulee Canberra girls (Kat Waterhouse, Sonia Domitrak, Pip Butt and Candi Day) managed to bounce back from their George Bass rowing to compete at the last South Coast Series carnival. The girls rowed hard in all of their races but some issues with the starts (the girls wanted to start in the ocean and heave themselves in like on the Bass) meant that we were always chasing down crews from the get go. The first race was a valiant row to the finish and crossed the line with another crew but we were given 4th instead of 3rd. This later on cost us a place in the final as we missed out by 1 point. Races 2 and 3 saw us come 3rd in both of those with at least one wave caught all the way to the beach. On a positive note the girls beat the Pambula crew in at least one of their races who they were unable to catch in the Bass.

Kiralee Ekin who was part of the Bass crew has been competing with the Broulee under 23's crew. Kiralee was part of the winning under 23 crew for the whole of the Warilla Bowls South Coast Series. Her crew also placed first at the Manly Carnival, the Best of the Best carnival and is competing this weekend for NSW at the Australian Surf Rowers League carnival. Good Luck Kiralee!!

04/01/10
Attached are our blogs from the George Bass Marathon! Hope you enjoy reading them!

Our marathon was completed yesterday much to the relief of the other girls as we didn't have to wake up at 6am this morning to start preparing for more rowing! We ended up coming 5th out of 9 crews and managed to be competitive on each day finishing within minutes of the of about 4 other crews (the top 2 or 3 crews were having their own race up front and the rest were having own 'mini' races behind them). It was definitely tough but all the girls kept smiling through the whole event and there was never any 'bitchiness' within our crew, just a really positive experience and all girls are keen to go again in two years time!

Linebreak was great, we were less bruised than we have been during training runs, no-one got sunburnt and we all were able to keep rowing for 7 days straight! We had pictures in a few papers, we were often told by friends that they had seen us on the news that night and there were also fairly decent crowds at each beach for the starts and finishes of each leg.

Thanks for all your support and we'll keep you informed of how we go in the sprint series or other events that we do throughout the year.

Day One: Kat
Our starting crew set off on the Navy George Bass Marathon from the bridge at Batemans Bay just after 9.00am this morning—against the incoming tide and hustling against eight other female crews with a predicted 35 knots of wind to look forward to…

There was an anxious wait and we cheered our girls as they appeared at the mouth of the river in fifth place. My bow buddy (Emily, a relative newbie with five months rowing under her belt) and I jumped in for the first change—all smooth. Unbeknownst to the rest of us, our stroke pair then jumped in straight on top of a fin…apparently a lone bottlenose dolphin—but it sure made for a very speedy change.

The first two crews then really let rip through the heavy chop, leaving three crews— including us—trailing in a tight bunch, with the remaining crews strung out along the river some way behind.

We spent the next three hours or so battling hard for fourth and then third spot en route for Moruya—with me and a couple of other crew members battling seasickness at the same time. We nearly lost our sweep several times when Gary seemed intent on checking out the water rather more closely than strictly necessary—though if I’m honest, it was usually due to one of us taking an air swing in the chop.

Our good deed for the day was ‘rescuing’ the boys from Longreef. Their support boat had thrown in the claw so our duck crew worked doubled time ferrying the Longreefers, as well as us, to and from the surfboats.

Once we swung past the northern headland of ‘our’ beach at Broulee, we knew we were on the home run—with 25 km behind us and six to go and Gary talking constantly to keep us focused. Within sight of the finish and secure in third place, we slowed up to conserve energy for the next six days and crossed the line to the excited cheers of our support crew and team members.

I, for one, was just relieved to finish up with no major bruises (thanks to the Linebreak capris!) and no blisters! Bring on tomorrow…(!)

Day 2: Pip
Day two started off eventfully with one boat (not ours) flipping as they tried to row out from the beach to the start line. We waited for a lull and then made it out safely over the breaking waves.

Today’s race was more of sprint and not a marathon with only a measly 19km (compared to yesterdays 31) to row. Our start was great and we were equal first for the first km, we tired a bit and so changes were made quickly. When I got out of the surf boat I was informed my Dad, who was helping out on the support boat, had hurt his ankle when the boat was hit by a rogue wave. Apparently they looked up and saw a wall of water and had to try and punch out over it—if it had hit side on they would have rolled. The boat kept climbing the wave and eventually reached the top which meant there was only air below. The boat could have easily flipped but somehow made it ‘safely’ to water below but unfortunately Dad broke 3 toes, an ankle bone and his fibula. He kept a brave face, sat down and let our support boat continue to work with us before eventually getting taken to hospital hours later. Fortunately the 4 rowers at the back of the boat were wedged into a bench seat and managed to weather the storm.

Back to the rowing and we were able to hold our own as the 2 top crews rowed past everyone and had their own mini race up front. The rest of us were left battling for 3rd. We were sitting in 3rd for the middle of the race but tired and had one bad changeover which, during a sprint section, was all the other boats (Moruya, Pambula and Wollami) needed to overtake us. We finished with a hard/quick row to the finish and completed the section in 6th place.

Landing back into the beach at Tuross was a bit hectic, we tried to catch a small wave into the beach but ended up catching one of the giants we let go before us and then ploughed into the sand bank as it was a massive shore dump. The boat filled with water but fortunately a lot of people grabbed the boat to pull it up the beach before another wave could hit.

Day 3: Candi
Today started out on a good note as we saw a pod of dolphins just before the start of the race. The conditions were the kind we like, with lots of big swells and runners for Gary to catch on the way down to Narooma. Unfortunately, along with Kat I suffered seasickness on the first day, so I was nervous about how I would hold up in the swell again. I was very relieved to be able to stave off seasickness with only a little bit of nausea during the trip down.

We had a good start , getting out with the leaders of the pack, and stayed up with third and fourth place fighting it out for the first 10 – 15 min. The other crews headed out quite far to sea, so it was difficult to tell where we were running for most of the day. Today the focus was technique and letting the boat run, and we certainly improved on yesterday. In the end we came home 7th – not exactly where we would like to have been but hopefully we set up a good base to improve on tomorrow. The aim is to maintain the technique, and hopefully with a bit more power we’ll be able to catch some of the crews tomorrow.

Day 4: Emily
The day started off relatively smoothly with a strong southerly making conditions tough, but eased off as the race progressed. All rowers were determined to make the day successful and achieve a better result than the previous leg.

At the first change we were placed in 6th position. The change was smooth and it was time to put pressure on the crews in front. We put in the hard yards and overtook Moruya placing us in 5th position. We were looking good, with long strokes and good technique, and widened the gap between Moruya. Third and fourth place were well in our sights and it was time to chase down Pambula who were just in front.

For the back end of the race it was a constant fight for Fourth place between us and Pambula. Each rower gave it their all, but unfortunately Pambula got us at the line coming in less than a minute in front. Overall it was a successful day and has put us in good stead leading into the back end of the race. Tomorrow will be the test with the longest leg (36km) to Tathra, heading into an expected southerly. All rowers are looking forward to testing their limits and aiming to get into the placing’s.

Day 5: Amanda
Today we started out feeling a little nervous as we had 36 km ahead of us—36 km into a south-easterly—it would be the longest and possibly most challenging day of the event.

Our starting crew wasn’t our usual one and had to be taken through the routine by our sweep, Gary. As nerves settled and we crossed the starting line to settle into a “drive with the legs and bodies”, “sit and pause” routine to let the boat run as far as possible before the next stroke. With such a long way to go it was important not to burn ourselves out too early in the race.

It wasn’t long before we fell into race mode, setting our sights on the crew from Pambula that had beaten us yesterday and we desperately wanted to beat today. Crew changes were called every 25 minutes and if we kept the estimated time to complete the day’s event this would mean each member of the team would have at least four sessions in the boat (Gary’s estimation of the race time was 3 hours).

As we progressed down the coast we closed the gap on the Pambula crew but they frequently responded by pushing ahead by 2 – 6 boat lengths. Both crews stayed in touch and pushed each other in racing mode for the entire event. Both our crews stayed close to the shoreline whilst all the others went wide hoping to catch a change in the wind—for us they were out of sight, out of mind.

When the two-hour mark was reached it was obvious that the north-easterly wind was not coming through. The crews that had gone wide to catch runners to the beach realised that it was not going to happen and began to move closer into shore. The seas became busy with crews and support craft.

At the three-hour mark the last crew change was called, the girls made a clean change and put it to Pambula for fourth place. Everyone gave all they had but again Pambula was victorious over Broulee by about five boat lengths. Thanks to the great race wear we look and feel like a team—and it’s helping to limit bruising, fatigue and sunburn.

So now we rest, eat and ready ourselves for day six of the competition: 27km from Tarthra to Pambula…Watch out Pambula there would be nothing so sweet than for us than to rob you of your victory on your home beach.

Again we thank our support crew for keeping us where we need to be, fed, warm, safe and—believe it or not—happy and still talking at the end of five days of rowing.

Day 6: Sonia
Today we started our relatively ‘short race’ of 27km row from Tathra Beach down to Merimbula. Our bouys at the starting line were a support boat on one end and the Young Endeavour (with all the crew on board cheering us along) on the other.

We got a great start in second position and led the way around the rocks on the start of our journey. The competition soon levelled out and we were holding equal fifth position with Moruya. Strong competition called from quick changes for me at stroke and my buddy Pip at second stroke. Our second crew powered through and rowed up to Moruya. With our crew rowing strong and catching runs, the next change by me and my buddy, Pip, saw Pip grab the boat while I completely missed the changeover and watch the boat float past me while I was trying to grab any part of the boat. Apparently I wasn’t supposed to be surfing behind the boat holding the sweep oar, (while watching Moruya row past!) so back I went into the inflatable support boat to be dropped back out in front of the boat for a second time. Thankfully my second attempt into the boat was more successful! We continued to row and catch a few more runs and we maintained a strong pace for the race catching lots of runs to help us to catch up to Moruya and easily pass them (after the race they asked if we had a motor on board). The rest of the row remained incident free with the girls rowing a strong race, surfing runs and we proved a threat to Pambula as we continued to row up to them. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite catch them, however we rowed well and finished fifth overall. Still impressive as we broke the record for that leg by 2 minutes 40 seconds (unfortunately four other crews had already broken it and the previous record was reduced by 20 mins)!

Day 7: Pip
Final Day!! Everyone said they felt more nervous on this day than any other of the race, which was strange considering it was a relatively short 22km from Merimbula to Eden. The race got underway and we took off keeping up with the top three crews. After about 15 minutes of sprinting Sonia and I were tiring in the heat and asked to be changed leaving the others with the task of holding off Pambula.

The top three crews then took off leaving everyone else a couple hundred metres behind and we had our own mini race with Pambula and Moruya in the middle of the pack. Pambula and Moruya got in front and at the next changeover Kat, Candi, Sonia and I had to work hard in order to catch Moruya, Gary kept telling us to give 5 more minutes in the boat and after what must have been about 30 minutes of sprinting in hot weather we overtook Moruya and were then asked to give 5 more minutes to get him past a couple rocky points and into the bay of Eden where the water was calmer. There was always “200 metres to go” and by the time we had gone through the rocks and into the bay we practically fell out of the boat and hoped our 40 metres lead we had managed to get over Moruya was enough for the other 4 girls to hold them off over the 2km to the finish line (Pambula was about the same distance in front and so we were also trying to catch them). Moruya put up a decent fight and came within a couple metres of our boat but Amanda, Gabbi, Kerryl and Emily were able to keep finding that little bit extra to keep them at bay.

We crossed the finish line in 5th place and ended up coming 5th overall out of 9 crews which was a great effort considering the crews finishing in the top 3 had rowers from the AIS and other international rowing programs in their midst and were composite crews with other clubs. We were happy to be competitive against Narooma, Moruya and Pambula who had all been training for many months at their surf clubs and pushed us to row hard each day. And congratulations to Anglesea and Avalon who completed the race with only 6 or less rowers as that is an epic achievement!!

We would just like to thank everyone who helped us to get across the finish line, unscathed, and not sunburnt! And to Linebreak who provided us with compression clothing to help us in achieving our goal as we couldn’t have done it all without everyone’s support. THANK YOU!!