Last weekend the IRB Racing team migrated south to the border to compete at Coolangatta Beach in the second and third rounds of the 5 race series,
Ocean Roar. The team arrived early on the beach Saturday morning to be greeted with perfect racing conditions. Two of our young team members were
racing their very first carnival and like the previous week when Faith took to the sport like a “Duck to water” with results to show, both Santosha
and Jessica were completely in their element showing the preseason training had well and truly prepared them for racing with both featuring in
the finals. Despite not all teams making it to the finals, all teams were strong competitors in every heat and semi they competed in with Coolum
only just missing out having 3 teams in the Masters Mass Final. Results from Saturday saw Shane & Frank with Faith and Jess finish 3rd in Masters
Mass with Alastair & Jason with Santosha & Kirra in 7th. Masters Teams Rescue saw Fred/Mark, Shane/Frank with Kirra and Faith bring home
another third place. Shane/Frank with Faith brought home the weekend’s best finals result with a second in Masters Surf Rescue.
Sunday saw the start of round 3 with a completely different set of conditions to contend with. Sadly a few of our competitors were unable to compete
for the full day on Sunday, so the team rallied very well under the leadership of James and still put up a great competitive effort with every
team making it to a final.
Perhaps the standout performance for the weekend was our Open Teams Rescue team of Alastair/Jason with Caleb/Dan and patients Santosha and Mark
(“Ill Do it”) who made it to the Grand Final and finished a creditable 7th in a field of arguably some the best IRB Racers in Australia. Fred/Mark
with Santosha came in 3rd in their Surf Rescue while Shane/Frank and Caleb brought home 4th place. Unfortunately, due to trip on the final
sprint up the beach, the Masters Teams Rescue missed taking second in their final on Sunday afternoon.
Thanks again to the team support crew of James, Rowland (Thanks Dad), Sharleen, Leah, Beryl, Jodi and Father Duck - Swanny, It was a most enjoyable
weekend with excellent results and we look forward to the two day carnival at Rainbow Beach in two weeks’ time when just about the entire
team will be competing.
Go the Red Ducks.
