So yesterday I described the Surf Carnival, today I am going to share my own experience with Surf Life Saving.
Many, many years ago when I was living in Melbourne, I had a buddy from University try to rope me into joing the Anglesea SLSC Surf Boats team. I hadn’t the foggiest of what that meant, but I was a keen flat-water rower for many years, and it sounded fun. So with that brief conversation over, I joined the team.
In less enlightened times than today, or at least ones where motorized boats were uncommon, people faced a major issue. If someone is stuck offshore, and needs to be rescued, how best to do it? Well, the obvious answer is to swim, but what if you could use a boat instead? Boats are great in many ways for this kind of thing, but without a motor, how does one get the boat from its home (the shore) to the destination (the swimmer) in a timely fashion (before they drown).
Turns out there are two ways, both wonderfully absurd. The first way is you could row out, the second is you could SAIL out. Yep, there was a time when people would roll out catamarans to try and save those about to meet Davey Jones. Thankfully, those days are long gone. The row out has now been completely replaced by mechanized boats, but is still practiced as a sport to this day.
The event itself is very simple. Four rowers plus a sweep jump (literally) into a boat, row about 200m out to sea, turn around a buoy, and row back. There are, however, a few things to keep in mind.
Unlike flatwater rowing, surfboat rowing means you have to contend with, well surf. This is a double-edged sword, if you’re lucky, you can catch a wave in on the way back, and you can just sit back and relax, letting the wave take you all the way to the shore, smiling as you pass all your luckless competitors.
Equally, you can get completely wiped out, especially going out, which isn’t much fun, unless it’s happening to another team!
What I used to love about it was that you were always in with a chance. Perhaps you were coming last place round the buoys, but you were in just the right moment to catch a monster wave and ride it to shore and victory. Maybe you were fired up and had your eyes set on silverwear, but you get completely blindsided by a huge wave and end up swimming back.
I did two seasons, one in Aus, the other in NZ, and had a blast both times. Living inland means I won’t be doing it anytime soon, but I’d love to get back into it if/when I am back coastal.
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