Sun, Surf and Success at Club Champs!

Following last year’s limited turnout in inclement weather, Club Champs 2025 was planned as a ‘pop-up event’, with organisers waiting for perfect conditions. The long-range forecast of sunshine and off-shore winds meant the call would go out – ‘be at the back beach and ready to race on Sunday afternoon’. As the Nipper Beach Championships drew to a close, crowds gathered at the patrol tent ready for the ‘man-on-man’ (or woman) gala surf sports event of the Portsea calendar.

As is tradition, the day kicked off with the Open Surf Race – all on the start together – males, females, juniors, opens and masters – gathering to see who would take the glory of line honours. The can was laid 300m out to sea, behind the break, for a test of skills and endurance. The whistle blew and the mass of flailing arms and bodies jumped into the gap in the rocks and straight into the racing diagonal rip where they flew out past the breakers. Next challenge was actually sighting the can on the horizon, as the IRB crew waved madly at the pack of swimmers heading wildly off course towards Ocean Grove!! First around the can was Robbe Dilissen, one of our new part-time bronzies, down for his first patrol. A recently retired swimmer and previous member of the Australian open water swim team, he was favourite to lead the charge back to the beach. Hot on his heels was open water swimming young gun Logan Brandi and Mackie Hunter, current AUSSIES Champion for the Women’s U19 2km Ocean Swim. As they headed back to the beach, drafting off each other, our beach patrollers lined up to form a finish chute. The three swimmers tussled as they approached the sandbar, when a solo body-surfer launched down the whitewash of a wave, breaking away, leaving the other two in the trough. As she ran up the beach, the crowd applauding, Mackie Hunter knew she’d made club history, becoming the first female to ever win our Portsea SLSC Open Surf Race!! Traditionally, the winner of the Open Surf Race won the Yencken Cup but since 2022, we now award two gendered trophies. The Nat Hood Cup for first female, and the prestige of line honours, went to Mackie, with the Yencken Cup to Robbe, as first male across the line.

Next up was the board race, out around the back can and into the beach down by Huey’s Reef. The Portsea lifeguards traditionally favour this race, with a chance to show their prowess, navigating the rescue boards through the surf and back on the biggest wave. As fate would have it, the seas glassed out on the return to shore and the long race distance saw fitness play its part. Nick Flockart, having sat out the surf race to save his bickies, was in green water ahead of Griffin Mitchell, Oscar Hunter and Nik Rathmayr. In the women’s event Steph Hunter backed up after her swim to take out the women’s category. Credit goes to our U14 competitors, Zara Barr and Sophie Hall, who took to foamie nipper boards in the interest of safety, for gutsy performances in the Bass Strait swells.

In the iron race, the buoy was moved in for a short course format, swim, then run, followed by board. Logan Brandi took out the event followed by Griffin, Oscar and then new-comer to comp, U17 Stirling Rolls. U14 Sophie Hall received a standing ovation as she crossed, first female, in 5th place overall, to show her potential as a future iron-woman.

Moving to the beach events, an exhausted cohort of racers voted for a shortened 1km long run, all in together. Stirling Rolls steaked the field followed by Griffin and Oscar. The beach sprint saw Tom Nelson redeem himself from his back-marker result in the Surf Race, to premier points on the sand track. Ed Brice, a recently requalified Bronzie, returned to the club after years in the wilderness, to win the masters sprint from Peter ‘Pickles’ Wilson and Dwight Harrison. Zara Barr gained a valuable twelve points with her U14 wins in the flags and sprints, and beach specialist Orlando Phanivong took out the double in the U17 men’s division.

As the sun set in the west, the boards were washed down, competitors waited anxiously and our event organisers Phil Harford, Andrew Regan, Anthony Purcell and Nat Hood enjoyed a quiet drink on the deck tallying up points to announce our winners…