KellyM said...

In the end hats off to surfing nsw i thought they run an awesome event over the whole 2 days, to there credit they listened to the racers, looked for the best conditions for the downwinder and the surfing(which was an amazing display of where stand up surfing is heading)

Ditto.

And anyone watching Pete Dorries (incl myself for most of the race) would have got a good lesson in surf skills and good decision making. Looking forward to his clinics in Sydney - TBC

A Bomber said...

kissa said...
My suggestion to him was to have the 2 races seperate next time as it was really impossible to work out who was in each race...OR have everyone go together to an initial buoy that is about 1km offshore.

Kissa, I have to disagree on holding one mass start. I thought the staggered start worked really well. It made it a bit harder to keep track of who was on which lap, but fulfilled the need for having lots of action for the whole race and all within easy viewing distance.
My only suggestion would be to keep track of the delay time so we could compare times across the classes.
As for holding the races separately, if the event grows and the racing is held at a reasonable time that would be great, however at this event I think the racers in the second start would have been pretty pissed with a start 45 mins later (after the open race had finished).

Easy to have one start for everybody as kissa said the 1st buoy far enough offshore.
Getting 2 races is ok as well if it has been planed before.
They did it for the girls in the queensland title and why not, at least it gave the men racers the opportunity to look at the girls battling.
It is useless to compare times with a stagered start anyway as a big set may have come up at the start of the 1st group or the 2nd group and then time does not mean anything because conditions were obviously different some minutes after so it's simply not the same race.

The hardest thing for me as an over 40 starting in the second group was to be able to see the start of the opens and to be told to stop looking to start my race.
I must admit that if I am not allowed to battle with these guys at least let me watch them and race after

Thanks supracer :)
I like the new results
Xx Angie

I dont think anyone knows the team for the ISA and Ang was just stoked with how she did and the excitment just flowed over to the keyboard!! cant blame her she has trained hard and loves every min of it!!

One would excpet her to be picked if they go on how they said they would pick the teams from what i understand of it She got a 1st and a 2nd and also had a good result from last year at the ISA the closest was a 1st and a 5th i think so if they go on Aussie tittle results one would think she should be there! Part of holding the Aussie tittles is to pick the team for the ISA

The guys could be harder with you Kelly foresure with a 2nd and 1st and then the big question is do they take a wild card like Jamie or Trav or someone like that or do they take someone else who has gone through the whole process like Beau or Lincon? IMO the wild card should be scraped and to get to the ISA you should have to do the Aussie events and support them! The whole goal is to send the BEST team possible.
If i was picking it i would pick Kelly and Beau both winners of the event in different races and it is about getting the guys and girls who are going to bring home the gold for Aus!! well maybe silver after NZ takes the gold this year!!!

If i where Kelly or Beau and they missed out , to let Jamie or Travis in id be pissed big time. Who,s to say they wouldnt have beat them anyway. The way Kelly smashed them in the bop , he probably would have beaten any one on that day.

You could argue Travis should get a crack seeing he's the defending World Champ and was injured. Then you could argue JM, seeing he's also the defending World Champ plus for all the work he put into captaining Australia last time.

But you couldn't possibly argue that Kelly or Beau should miss out. They're the Australian Champions, so they should be there no matter what. Would be very bad form if either of those guys didn't make the team I reckon!

However keep in mind that a team can send as many as 4x guys and 2x girls for the SUP racing events, they'd just be paddling one race each instead of both. It's obviously a lot easier/cheaper to send 2x men and 1x women and have them do both races, but it could be good for the sport to send as big a team as possible.

Can't see Angie missing out. If they send one woman, she'd be the obvious choice. Or if Surfing Aus has some money to burn and wants to send 2x girls, then you could say Karla in the BoP and Angie in the Long Distance.

So in theory the team could be:

----------------------------
TEAM AUSTRALIA
----------------------------
Technical Course Race
- Kelly Margetts (Australian Champ)
- Travis Grant (defending World Champ/injury wildcard)
- Karla Gilbert (Australian Champ)

Marathon Race
- Beau O'Brian (Australian Champ)
- Jamie Mitchell (defending World Champ/captain's wildcard)
- Angie Jackson (Australian Champ)

Either way, this is all based on the 2012 criteria (where it was 2x men and 1x woman from each country in each race). Could totally change in 2013!