2007

Southend Boardriders Club enjoyed another successful year with huge turnouts at all competitions. It was great seeing so many little kids enjoying the waves and it's great seeing so many families coming down and enjoying the atmosphere on comp days. The Sands Paul Baxter Shield event again was a huge success and all that attended the annual presentation held at Byrne Reserve enjoyed great laughs, great food, beer, wine and DJ.

This year there was a slight drop in membership numbers at the club - 130 fully paid members compared to 150 in 2006. This was due to the drop in numbers in the Cadet Boys and the Grand Masters division. 

On the committee front 3 new board members were voted in for 2-year terms

John Seminara - Junior Rep

Matt O'Reilly    - Opens Rep

Stephen Attwood - Tech Nerd

Unfortunately after a golden run of running comps for 3years straight Huey didn't do us any favours in 07 and only provided surfable waves for 5 out of 7 comps. This meant that to determine the overall champ only competitors best 4 results would count to their final tally. Without a shadow of a doubt the level of surfing that is going down at each of the comps is unbelievable All divisions in 2007 were so tightly contested that it came down to the last comp in Forster to decide the eventual champs for each division.

The club has also realized another dream by sending teams to compete at the Jim Beam Tag team Event in Feb 07 (Opens) and the O'Neill Gromtag event in Dec 07 (U 20). It’s was the 1^st time since the late 90’s that Southend had entered a team of any kind in a teams event and both teams put in great efforts. The Opens team unfortunately couldn't handle the 1ft conditions at Wollongong and were knocked out in round 1. On the other hand the grom team surfed really well and just missed out on making the finals. They finsh equal 5^th overall, making them one of the most successful teams ever in the club.

Congrats again to Adam Seminara, Josh Ku, Luke Fletcher, Karl Richards, Jay Barron and Troy Reardon. The club will continue it's push to build its reputation as a competitive force by entering teams into any tag team event that is held in NSW again in 2008 and are looking at sending a team to the 09 Kirra teams challenge.    

Towards the backend of 2007 the new look Southend website was launched and it looks fantastic. The site is more interactive which will enable all members to actively contribute to help mould the contents on the site. Thanks to Richie Cass for putting in some massive hours to get the site up and running. The poor guy didn't sleep for 3 days whilst it was launching.

With help of a Federal Government grant the club was able to purchase a trailer to store all our competition gear. The club also purchased a new competition timing system similar to which are used in all national and international events. Surf Dive & Ski chipped in with new competition vests for our Cadet and Junior competitors and Triple X who looked after the XXS rash vests for Micro divisions which the smaller kids appreciated.

Season Highlights

2007 Southend Champions (from club competition)

Micro Boys                                                      Ben McLoughlin

Micro Girls                                                       Kirra Lowlett Richards

Cadet Boys                                                      Callan Vella

Juniors Girls                                                      Mia Wearne

Junior Boys                                                      Karl Richards

Open Womens                                                 Lisa Brodie

Open Mens                                                      Luke Kennedy

Grand Master Mens                                         George Black

Fish Buchan Opens Club Champion                  Luke Kennedy

Junior Club Champion                          Karl Richards

2007 Sands Paul Baxter Shield – Tag Team Event

This year we had 65 people compete in the annual Paul Baxter Tag Team Contest. The theme again for the event was 70’s retro with most competitors getting into the spirit. Notable mentions to Josh Ku, Sheppa, Todd O'Brien and Rich and Kate for their goldmember outfits at the pub. Whilst conditions were only 2ft the surfing was awesome. Little Jackson Barron was on fire and he helped Tom North's team take the trophy this year. A great day was had by all

Winning Team

Tom North (Team Capt)

2007 Southside Eliminations

The Southside Regional Titles were held in 3-4ft waves at Maroubra in May. Approx 30 surfers from Southend contested the event in which surfers from clubs from Bondi through to Maroubra can compete. 17 of our members made it through to the Finals in their respective divisions. Out of the 10 finals contested, Southend surfers took out 5 of them. Congratulations to the following 5 surfers who won their divisions on the day.

• U/18 Boys:  Karl Richards
• U/18 Girls:  Lisa Brodie
• Open Women's: Carlie Thornton

Southend Boardriders would like to acknowledge the support of the following sponsors for making the 2007 season so successful.

Surfing NSW                            Surfing Australia

Randwick Council                    South Maroubra Surf Club

And finally big thanks to the committee for their hard work in 2007. They helped raise  $4300 by doing raffles every Friday at the Sands Hotel. Also a very big thank you to all those people who helped judge, pack tents helped on the BBQ. You all helped make our 23^rd season a memorable one. Let’s hope that 2008 is bigger and better again.

Pete Sgouras