October
9th, 2004 - Surf Cross Muriwai
A
quiet start to the season with only seven boats available to enjoy
the thrills and spills of Muriwai Beach.
Several crews who could not get a boat in the water come
along and give support to few hard men from the north. (thanks guys)
The
weather, well what can I say! Not quite as forecast! It went
something like Good, Fair, Bad, Very Bad, Horrible, Good, Very
Horrible, Fair and See you at the Pub.
Sea
conditions two and half meters with cross winds gusting to 20km, the
waves had no regular rhythm and were often messy and unpredictable
catching out even most experienced crew.
Ten
out of ten for the rookie crew of JCF Dave Goodwin and Jody Carden
first race day, first race, first wave, FIRST FLIP, with help from
Mark Dryer and few others they were racing in the next heat.
Mark’s words of wisdom, be gentle on the throttle when you
hit a big wave, so how many times have you been upside down Mark?
For the rest of the day the rookies tried hard to stay out of
trouble.
Another
first timer Kings Drilling driven by Mark Taylor and co-piloted by
Lance Haycock worked well as a team finishing every race getting a
respectable 5th place.
No truth in the rumour Lance had a hand-break fitted to the
boat the day before racing, this was supposed to help on the
corners.
What
a day for Jungle Coffee they had nothing but bad luck, the first two
races there motor kept dieing on them then Co-driver Brian hurt his
shoulder causing Glen to call it quits for the day.
Steve
& Steve in the PlumbQuick boat had to miss the first heat with
motor trouble, it would appear they missed something in there
preseason check list. (Like start up the motor before the first race
day)
Waikato
Finance with Paul Collins & Kurt Hatchard were the only other
boat to go arse upwards, I’m not sure if it was unlucky or Paul
was just breaking in Kurt as his new co-pilot.
Heritage
Tiles father and son team Dave & Wayne Blackford who told me
they did not like big waves had no problems dealing with the
adrenalin both were buzzing after they finished each race.
Last
but not least Hydraulink Racing both Waz and Flash (Warwick &
Gordon) had a business as usual look about them coming first for the
day with three wins a second and a third place.
The
Club Points results for the day.
1st
Hydraulink Racing
448
2nd
Heritage Tiles
428
3rd
PlumbQuick
366
4th
Waikato Finance
280
5th
Kings Drilling
252
6th
JDF
92
7th
Jungle Coffee
--
Thank
you to all the official Kerry, Rodney, Judi also thanks to Larry for
towing us off the beach.
The
day was concluded at the Huapai Tavern with a few well-earned pints.
Just
a point of order, if the officials do not see an incident they
cannot call it. At the
Pub I heard several crew members fell out of their boats but managed
to get back in and carry on racing.
So the officials did not see any of these incidents but that
will not stop us penalizing boats if we see an infringement in the
future.
Alan Astrop: Race Director
See Race
Results for points & placings
