The Saltwater Festival
Salt Beach, NSW, May 8th and 9th 2010
With much pleasure we welcome you to the first newsletter for the Saltwater Festival. The good news is, we are up and running and very excited about what lies ahead. As you are a valued friend of the Festival, I will be sending you through regular updates leading into May's first event. This one will be a bit longer than most as I have filled you in on the rundown of the event. Future newsletters will have updates about who will be performing and competing, new exciting editions to the festival etc. If you don't wish to receive any further updates, just reply mail with "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
If you don't already know, The Saltwater Festival, Salt 2010, is a collection of ocean sports, seaside sports, food and music rolled into one festival. Our first event is finally up and running, and after a couple of postponements we are set to go ahead on the 8th and 9th of May, 2010. As that is only a few weeks away, the team is rapidly putting the finishing touches together. Salt Beach, NSW will be our first venue and all the logistics are coming together for a great family event.
Building the momentum
Please feel free to forward this update onto anyone you wish and stay tuned also to the website
http://www.thesaltwaterfestival.com To make the event successful we need as many competitors, sponsors, spectators, support crews, families and volunteers as we can get. We are starting small to make sure we maintain the heart of the event and know that it is everyone who attends that will make it special and memorable. We truly want the flavour of "bringing people together" to shine through at the event and with so many fantastic races, great music and an the incredible back drop of the Far North Coast of NSW, we trust that you and your friends will come and bring you piece of magic for us all to enjoy.
Sponsors
We are very grateful for the fantastic sponsorship support we have received so far.
Thank you and welcome aboard to our confirmed sponsors and supporters-
RACQ Insurance
Nirvana Salt Health Products
Good vibes water
Invisible Zinc
Red Bull
Billabong
Hummer Limousines
Brian Usher Photography
LEPA
Aurora Community Channel
We are doing a sponsorship drive now and naming rights race sponsorships are now open. This means that any reference to that race and category, throughout event announcements, promotions, presentations and media coverage will bear the sponsors name. Given the calibre of our sporting champions, men and women who are attending, we hope that this an attractive option to businesses big and small, local and national, that would like to access this corner of the market and support our great event. Anyone who is interested can contact me on
[email protected]Music
We have built a fantastic line up of locally grown talent for the free music concert. Headlining and rocking us into the night will be The Mason Rack Band, with Mason and his hipnotic rocking sound and ocean loving background we will be entertained in a truly "surf" style. Supporting Mason will be Clay Blyth, Taylor, The Twine, and the explosive Samba Blisters who will be great entertainment for the young and young at heart. There will be plenty of other fantastic artists throughout Saturday and Sunday. We will be publishing the music program shortly. We are confident that there will something for everyone in our musical line up. The response from our local talent has been fantastic and there is no shortage of great musicians busting to get out there and perform. Also, don't let your children miss the 'Welcome to African' kids show on the Sunday afternoon. This will be a great interactive show for the kids to join in with the drumming, dress up, and dancing.
Registrations
We have some awesome challenges laid out for our competitors from under 15's right up to Masters, Mens and Womens. We have covered the major paddle sports in all ages, Beach Volleyball and Touch Football. Competitors can now register via the website www.thesaltwaterfestival.com <
http://www.thesaltwaterfestival.com> or can pick up a registration form from most Surf Life Saving Club coaches. Register now to take advantage of early bird prices. Saturday and Sunday will see Beach Volleyball being played on 4 moveable courts directly in front of the Salt beach foreshore. 4person volleyball teams will play on Saturday and 2 person volleyball teams will play on Sunday. Touch Football aficionado's will also be enjoying a fast pace tournament just around the corner at the Casuarina football grounds.
How the festival will roll out
Saturday's Long Course racing
Saturday will see Marathon Ski, Board, Stand Up Paddle Board and Outrigger races running over varying longer distances of 30km, 10km and 4km. The 30km (20km or 25km in case of northerly) race will start from either Brunswick Heads, Currumbin Beach, Qld, with a possibility of Rainbow Bay, Qld, if the weather is extreme and from the North. The 10km race will start from either Hastings Point or Fingal Beach. The 4km race will start and finish at Salt Beach, using a rectangular course. If the wind has a southerly aspect, the races will start from the southern start points. If the wind has a northerly aspect the races will start from the northern start points. The weather will be monitored closely and the start line will be announced the day prior.
Each category will have a staggered start with its paddling pace taken into consideration, the aim being that the leaders of each category arrive back at the Village at the same time, with one paddler winning line honours.
Prior to the longer race starts, there will be a 4km race for each category. These will be run directly in front of the Salt Village and these smaller races will give some less experienced paddlers the opportunity to test themselves against the conditions.
While the 10 and 30/25km paddlers are making their way up or down the coast there will be music playing in the park area directly in front of the Salt Bar with the trade stalls also providing fair and information for the local community. The music will stop for the arrival of the first finishers of the paddle races and will stay off until after the majority of athletes have crossed the line.
The paddle competitors will be made up of U/19, Open and Masters in both Men's and Women's categories. They will be required, upon their paddling arrival at Salt to round a turning can and paddle to the beach, dismount from their craft and then run through a finishing funnel that will direct them up through the southern walkway of Salt Village, with a right turn they will then run northward along in front of the Mantra resort and through a finish arch in the park area directly in front of the Salt Bar.
After crossing the finish line they will be directed to their left, where between the Salt Bar and the finishing tunnel will be an area set aside for the competitors to rehydrate, receive any medical assistance, mix and mingle together and re-unite with friends and family. Given the staggered starts, we expect to see a steady stream of people come through the finish line, making for an exciting spectacle. We will be attempting to announce the finish of each athlete from the music stage. The paddle finishes will also coincide with the completion of Beach Volleyball for the day. This will allow all of the athletes to be back in the village together to enjoy the music and each others company and to give the local community members a chance to mix and mingle with everyone involved.
After a short time, there will be a presentation on the stage of the top 3 place getters for each category. Then the music will resume and play on into the evening.
Sunday's Sprints
Sunday we will be running the sprint categories and the mixed discipline events. These have been designed to be fun to watch and participate in. Sprint races will be run in all of the above categories, beginning with heats, where needed, and taken through to finals.
The top Men's and Women's place getters in the sprint and distance events will join some wildcards for the running of the Men's and Women's Super Sprint Eliminator. This event will start with 30 competitors and will start with a 4min sand running race. The last 5 competitors will be eliminated. Then a 4 min Swim race with the last 5 eliminated. The order of the last 4 legs will be drawn, with the exception of the OC1 leg, which will remain as the 2nd last leg. Each time a race is run the last 5 will be eliminated. Until, the last leg, having been previously randomly drawn, will start with only 5 competitors and go through to a frantic finish. This is meant to be the premier event of the day and the winner will be the athlete able to be most versatile on the day. The men's and women's super sprint eliminator will be run as a package, beginning with Women's sand run and then Men's sand run, moving onto Women's swim and so on.
Throughout this time there will still be entertainment in the park and on the beachfront with stalls operating with a simple carnival-festival atmosphere being the aim.
After the completion of all the events, more music will play and presentations will be performed on the free music stage.
Given that this is a very open stretch of coastline, there is a minor chance that we may need to move Sundays' event, including paddling and Volleyball, to the foreshore immediately north west from the Kingscliff Bowling club. This would give us the best chance of avoiding damaging winds and swell and the best chance of ensuring the safety of everybody involved in the event. Ideally we would relocate a temporary music stage to the area and use a limited set up of shade tents and P.A. to run the event through to completion. The likelihood of this being needed for Sundays' event is considered minor to possible.
The likelihood of needing to do this for the finish of Saturdays' events is considered extremely rare to minor. If this is the case, we will simply finish races in the safest possible stretch of Kingscliff beach and then direct the athletes back to the Salt Village for presentations and entertainment.
The Start Lines
As stated above we have 5 possible locations for the 2 start lines. The start lines will be utilized with the slowest craft and age category starting first through to the fastest craft and age category, being the Open Men's Ski race. In the case of the Marathons, in the event of a southerly based wind the distance will be 30km, in the event of a northerly based wind, the distance will be 20 or 25km depending on the wind. This is to cater for non-optimum tail winds from the northerly direction.
The 2 Start locations that fall in the Gold Coast City Council Shire are the 2 possible 25/20km start lines. These are Currumbin Beach and Rainbow Bay/Snapper Rocks. Only one of these will be used, if at all, based on the weather, as stated above. We would expect, depending on the conditions, to start at either Currumbin or Rainbow at around 1.30pm.
The 2 locations that fall in the Tweed Shire are the 2 possible 10km start lines. These are Fingal Beach and Hastings Point. Only one of these will be used based on the weather, as stated above. We would expect, depending on the conditions, to start at either Fingal or Hastings at around 2pm.
The 5th possible Start location falls in the Byron Shire, at Brunswick Heads and is for the 30km race start. This will be used in the case of a southerly based wind. The first race here will begin at around 1pm. This is the most likely start with typically more southerly winds than northerlies recorded in May.
At all start areas, we will set up a shaded area for race check in and be using a small PA for race announcements. There will also be music playing in between announcements. We are allowing for people to start arriving 2hrs before start time to drop off their craft. They will simply check-in with the race starter and proceed to the start line for the beginning of the race. Once the races have begun, all support crews will then leave and head to the finish or one of the race vantage points along the way. At all start lines this will be a simple in and out, we wish to leave each area left in it's original condition.
Beach Volleyball
We are very proud to have our Beach Volleyball champ, Brett Richardson running the Beach Volleyball tournament. Brett has run many fantastic events already. He has joined the team with some great ideas and a presence as large as his towering height. As mentioned above he has put together a 4person tournament on Saturday and a 2person tournament on the Sunday. Anyone interested in playing can register through the link at
http://www.thesaltwaterfestival.comTouch Football
Touch Football adds another fast paced and exciting dimension to the festival and will be played just around the corner at the Casuarina football ground, Registrations are also accessible by following the touch football link on
http://www.thesaltwaterfestival.comFinishing Touches
Well, it is time for us to add the finishing touches. A new news column will be added to the website shortly and all information required for competitors, musicians, sponsors and spectators will be added to the website in the coming weeks. Any extra information needed or assistance can be directed to
[email protected] or
[email protected]We started out with an idea to bring people together around one of our favourite things in life, the saltwater, we hope you can join us and we consider you a part of the team. Without the team, we only have an idea, so if you're free and have some saltwater running through your veins come and join us and don't be scared to make any suggestions or jump in and give a hand.
Yours in Saltwater,
Trevor Hendy, Davina Drinan and Glen Thompson
Trevor Hendy
Mob +61433078715
Ph +61755767151
Fax +61755767073
[email protected] www.thesaltwaterfestival.com <
http://www.thesaltwaterfestival.com>
