Lorne Mower March 2024
President’s Report – Easing into the end of the season.
Another season has come and almost gone, we’re all back to work and school. There have been some wonderful events over the summer and some exceptional people behind them. We’ve welcomed new families to the club, new lifesavers and have had excellent numbers on patrol most weekends.
The ASRL weekend was hugely successful for the club and the town. It was fantastic to welcome some many competitors from around the country to our little slice of heaven and to see how much they loved not only competing but cracking waves from the pier back to the beach!
Our Training and Assessment team have been busy yet again, delivering IRB courses. Thanks so much to our members both training and upskilling, your contributions are invaluable to our club. In some very exciting news, we now have a fully functional, online merchandise store! You can now buy all your favourite merch, or pre-order new releases from our website. Thanks to Alice for working really hard to put that together.
Easter is just around the corner. We’re looking forward to welcoming everyone back to the club for presentation night and club champs. With plenty to do and see, be sure to get around the club champs, into happy hour, dinner and then presentations on Easter Sunday.
We also have our ‘Captains Barrell’ event on Saturday night to thank all our active patrolling members, see details for all this below.
Finally, there are so many people to thank for making our club such a great place, whether you sit on the committee, our help turn snags on the BBQ, pack nippers bags for the intensive, help with the various working parties and so many other things, we are a better and stronger club because of your involvement.
Thank you all.
Cheers Heath
Active patrolling members keen to get along to Saturday night, book via this link: https://forms.gle/cCoGmBXibgdG2WnU9
Sunday Presentation night, if you’d like to come along for dinner, use the booking link below. $25 for adults, $10 for kids for a selection of pasta dishes. Bookings are a must please. https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1197575
If pasta is not your thing, see you from 7.30pm.
When the surf boats come to town
From the 15-18th February, we had the privilege of holding Australia’s biggest stand alone surfboat event on our own beach! The 2024 ASRL Open brought over 300 crews from across Australia to Lorne to try and win that elusive gold medal. The weather turned it on almost as much as our crews did on the water, and all we heard from other competitors and visitors was how lucky we are to have such a slice of heaven in our backyard.
The carnival got away to a flyer with the masters section held on Thursday bringing home a gold medal to the old men of the sea, Lorne Crusties, in the 280 men’s section (accumulated age of the crew 280 years plus). VSRL hall of fame members and Lorne living legends “the Growlers” reformed to take on the 160 men’s and only 1 crew was quicker on the day (they must have caught a wave) with our lads coming away with silver.
Our 23 men, “Lorne with the wind” and our open women, “Lorne Edge” swapped their black and white caps for the Victorian “big V” on Friday morning and represented our club admirably, state of origin style against the other state’s representative crews. Unfortunately the usual domination of the QLD and NSW teams continued this year with the Vics coming home in 4th place.
The crew with the best name in surfboats, “Lorne Flakes” kicked off their campaign with 3 wins in the first 3 rounds but came up against a hot qrtr final lineup (eventual gold and bronze medalists coming out of it) on Sunday morning dashing their hopes. “The Windies” (Lorne with the wind) as they are affectionately known came up against a similar quality qrtr final themselves, with all six boats being on 2 waves together, the boys unfortunately couldn’t get across the line to continue on later into the day.
In Reserves men competition we had the “Lorne Cutlets” pulling on the oars and with the most crews competing in this division (56 in total) the boys really started to show some form after a season that hasn’t allowed them to get in the boat much and they finished with a top 10 spot Our Open men, the “Lorne off shotguns” had a late crew change with one of our sweeps in Jackson Mcaffery jumping in. This coupled with a seat swap to accompany was a huge obstacle to overcome against crews who have been rowing together for years. To make a qrtr final under these circumstances was a massive effort and the boys left everything they had in the boat to achieve this.
What would an open women ASRL final be without “Lorne Edge” lining up in it? We don’t really know because there has hardly been one for the last decade! Yet again the girls performed on the big stage and made it through to the last race of the carnival coming home a wave behind the leaders in 5th place.
The highlight of the weekend for all those on the beach would have to be the reserve women section with our 2 crews, “Lorne Stars” and “Lorne Prawns” both making it through to the final with superb rows throughout the weekend. With all 6 boats turning within a boat length of each other at the cans it would be anyones race on the way home… On the line it was the Lorne Prawns victorious in a video reviewed finish to take home a rare gold medal on home soil! The Stars weren’t far behind in their first ever National level final and the love and camaraderie shown on the finish line between both crews (and the rest of the Lorne boat section) was a sight to behold!
Thanks to all the volunteers and officials that gave up their time to make the carnival the raging success that it was. And extra special shoutouts to Barry, Tamara, Pete and Frankie, not only are we lucky to have you as part of the VSRL, but part of Lorne as well. Without you all, none of us would be able to compete and do the things we love.
Luke Molan, Boat co-captain competition@lornesurfclub.com.au
Nippers on the competition circuit
Lorne Nippers Squad enjoyed some magical Friday night and Sunday morning sessions during Term 4, January and Term 1. Looking across the beach at sessions it is wonderful to see our three groups Squids, Seals and Dolphins confidently and enthusiastically taking part. Save the date for our Amazing Race Nippers Breakup Easter Monday.
Lorne Nippers Competition Team has had a successful season with a team of 80 nippers over the season (5 carnivals & Lorne Club Champs). Thanks to our team of parents and Youth – water safety, IRB, Officials, Setup/Packup, Team Managers.
Ocean Grove in misty rain at the start of the season. Cosy Corner a big team in great conditions. Lorne Club Champs in challenging but achievable surf conditions.
Mt Martha a flat paddle challenge. Pt Leo small surf beautiful day. Anglesea idyllic glassy surf conditions.Lorne u8s have had a great season taking home lots of ribbons. We look forward to next season when they join our State Team.
The long weekend just gone was the Lifesaving Victoria State Championships in Warrnambool. Lorne had a team of 48 nippers competing and we always make a great weekend of it with a group dinner. More details on that event in the next Mower!
Kirilee and Sharon, youth@lornesurfclub.com.au and nippers@lornesurfclub.com.au
Pics above: Under 10 competition team Under12 Club Champs event
Pics below: Under 11 competition team Under 8 competition team
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