Our year started with the election of Wez” The Prez” Moore for another 2 year term. Wez has been President since 2004 and in that time the club has continued to evolve and grow. Matt Lawson Club Capt, Pete Sgouras Treasurer/Secretary and Richie Cass Communications Mgr also returned for another 2 year stint on the committee.

 

Wave Wise comp 1, 2 and 4 were blessed with great waves and awesome days. After an epic winter in 07 it was back to a more typical Maroubra winter and early spring. Waves for comps 5-7 were held in smaller than small conditions with those southerly swells marching right on past us. Thankfully for those that travelled to Forster Huey turned it on and the guys scored some great 3ft waves when everywhere on the coast was dead flat.

 

2008 we saw a huge increase in fully paid membership from 131 in 2007 to 161 in 2008, an increase of 23%. In 2008 38% of our members were under/18 and 62% 18+. There was a massive increase in the number of cadet competitors (U/14) in 2008. Unfortunately there was a drop in the number of Junior (15-18) competitors as many made the jump up into the Opens but with O&E and ASL and Dripping Wet’s support in the way of prizes in 2009 we hope to see numbers increase again. This year saw a huge number in the Opens joining the club. In our 1^st comp we had 44 competitors and so the decision was made to split the group into Opens-A Grade and Senior Mens. Our Grand Masters competitors rose 27% and our Social membership rose from 25 to 37. It’s great seeing some old faces come back competing and supporting the club.

 

After a successful BBQ at Bunnings Mascot where the club raised $1400 our club was able to purchase a new sound system. Now all competitors and spectators are treated to pumping tunes all day long. We have also purchased new feathers which mark out our competition area and now no non competitor dares enter our area on comp days. It definitely has helped raise the profile of our club events over the winter.

 

The club has also continued in its mission to send a team to away to compete in any team related events in NSW. In Feb 07 our Open Mens team of Matt O’Reilly, Wez Moore, Jason Platts, Con Parris and Blake Thornton competed at the NSW Jim Beam Tag team Event in Cronulla. The boys narrowly missed out on advancing into the Quarters by a few points. Congratulations to our Open Women’s Team who placed equal 5^th at the inaugural National Women’s Jim Beam Tag event at Curl Curl in mid November.

 

Our next major team event is the O’Neill NSW State Gromtag Event at Avalon in a few weeks time. With 2 teams entered our Groms will be striving to go one better than their semi appearance in last year event and appear in the finals. We have a busy schedule over summer with our Men’s team competing at the Jim Beam State Titles on The Northern Beaches and we are in the process organizing a team comp against some of the biggest clubs in Oz in Feb 09 but we’ll let you in on that in the coming weeks.

 

 

Micro Boys                                                        Max McGuiggan

Micro Girls                                                        Tayla Buchan

Cadet Boys                                                       Hank Hartley

Juniors Girls                                                     Mia Wearne

Junior Boys                                                       Jake Nurmi

Open Womens                                                 Vanessa Richards

Open Mens                                                        Adam Seminara

Snr Mens                                                           Steve Attwood

Grand Master Mens                             Tom North/Andrew Williams

Clubman of the Year                                        Jim Gibson

Fish Buchan Opens Club Champion           Adam Seminara

Junior Club Champion                                    Hank Hartley

Most Improved                                                  Tom Kurz

 

This year we had 65 people compete in the annual Paul Baxter Tag Team Contest. The theme for the event was 70’s retro with most competitors strutting their stuff in some real bad outfits, bad moustaches and beards and some hideous wetsuits. Brad Koolis’s team that came away with the trophy. A great day was had by all in some fun 3ft waves in front of Southend Surf Club.

The Winning Team was

Brad Koolis (capt)

Aaron Smith

Adam Seminara

Dan McNaughton

Dave Murphy

Graeme O’Reilly

Jack McLoughlin

Jake Nurmi

Leanne Bonello

Luke Kennedy

Luke Twitchings

Paul Ross

Sean Daunt

Todd O’Brien

Wayne Baldwin

Congratulations to Graeme O’Reilly, who won the annual Sean Sweet, Maneuver of the day. A big beautifully controlled cutty then cruised into the shorey before ripping out a huge floating re entry with fins out and all on a very old twinnie.

2008 Southside Eliminations

The Southside Regional Titles were small 1-2ft waves in June. 25 surfers from Southend contested the event in which 85 surfers from clubs from Bondi through to Maroubra compete in to gain entry into the State Titles. 9 of our members made it through to the Semi Finals in their respective divisions with 7 out of the 9 contesting the finals. Only Con Parris in the 0ver 40 Men’s was able to win his final. Congratulations to the Yak.

Results of the other finalists were

2^nd U/14 - Hank Hartley

2^nd U/14 - Jackson Giles

4th U/14 - Harry Bartlett

2^nd U/18 Boys - Karl Richards

4^th Open Mens - Adam Seminara

3^rd Open Women’s - Kaya Strehler

 

The club would also like to acknowledge the support of all our sponsors. Without your help there is no way our season would have been as successful as it was.

Sands Hotel                             

And finally a big thanks to the committee for their hard work throughout 2008. Also a very big thank you to all those people who helped judge, pack tents helped on the BBQ. Every contribution large or small helped make 2008 an outstanding success.

2009 is our clubs 25^th anniversary and the committees have some big things planned to help celebrate. Keep an eye on the website for updates.

Have a safe happy and enjoyable festive season and hope to see you all in 2009