"Big Wave" Beringer does the Business

By Alex Wade and Andy Cox

Expectations ran high before the inaugural UK National Surfboat Championships at Saunton Sands last Friday. Along the coast in Newquay, the Rip Curl Boardmasters may have been snapping up the media interest, but the surfboat fraternity couldn’t wait to see how the boys from the flat stuff – Marlow and Leander rowing clubs – would fare in the 2-3ft swell that made its way to North Devon. But cometh the hour, cometh the man, and he was a seasoned surfboat rower rather than a flat water pretender. Step forward Nick “Big Wave” Beringer, the President of the UK Surf Rowers’ League.

Beringer swept the Australian crew The Exiles to a narrow victory in a closely contested final. With the Porthtowan Penetrators riding the same wave as The Exiles towards the finish flags, the crowd on the beach held their breath. The bowmen sprung from their respective boats to begin the 20m sprint, with The Exiles’ Sam Scott just getting the touch from the Penetrators’ Adam Richards. The Penetrators’ sweep, JR Richards, held his head in his hands; Beringer, whose nom de surf was coined in the considerably heavier waves of South Africa, was elated.

Perranporth Tigers took third place from a fading Vikings crew made up of members of the prestigious Leander RC, the only flat water crew to make the final. The organisers also held a B Final, giving twelve of the fifteen participating crews a championship ranking down to 12th place. The older and wiser Marlow Bucks crew showed Marlow’s young upstarts how to handle the surf conditions, finishing in 8th place ahead of the Marlow Peacocks and the much fancied Marlow Barbarians in 11th.

Conditions were a little small for the experienced surfboat rowers, but for the four flat water crews the 2-3ft surf was a kind initiation into the art of rowing surfboats. Leander’s Josh Davidson admitted that he had found dealing with the unpredictability of surf “challenging,” but nevertheless, the surfboat cognoscenti had nothing but praise for the spirit brought to the event by Leander and Marlow. Early on, three rounds of randomly drawn heats saw the premier surfboat crews vying with each other for points, but they were hotly pursued by Marlow and Leander, whose crews proved fit, strong and capable.

In the Womens’ Championship, the Perranporth Swans bagged a convincing victory over the Portreath Dolphins and the much improving Bude Reds. Close racing through the round robin heats left the smart money looking at the final without an obvious winner. But with the Bude Reds out in front, Peter Gaisford, sweep of the Swans, stopped his crew rowing to catch a large wave from the turning buoy.  The Swans surfed the wave to the beach and caught the Bude Reds stuck in dead water, giving the Swans’ bow rower Anita Adams a fine sprint finish.

The flat water crews had more than earned their post-event beers, which went down as slickly as the event was well-organised. Everyone enjoyed the sheer fun of rowing in surf conditions where anything can happen and the race is never over until your crewman touches the finish flag. The only complaint of the day was about the sunburn on the thighs of the flat water crews, but if they will strut their stuff in some fine pairs of Speedos, they will pay the price.

Comments

[Smithy]

Well done to Nick and the Exiles! Great racing! However the real winner of this event has to be U.K. Surfboat rowing itself. This was a well-run event and equally well supported by the U.K. Surf and Still-water crews. Hopefully the success of the inaugural Championship will be spread far and wide. The sport of Surf-Rowing will continue to grow as more and more realise how much the sport has to offer.

It would be great if next year’s event had a little more of an international flavour with possibly more Australian, French, Portuguese and Dutch crews joining the action.

[Kingy]

From what I hear, great work by Pete and the organisers, a fantastic event. Sorry I couldn't get there this year (nursing a broken rib) but will make every effort next season. Go the Tigers and Swans!

[Smithy]

Full Official Results and a few photos can now be seen @ www.uksrl.co.uk

[ingenuous]

I think you will find that it was Steve Lydell that grabbed the flag for the Exiles.
Steve came from 2nd bow, it's an Aussie tactic to always have two runners in case the first falls, has a heart attack, whatever.
Aussies don't like to lose!
Especially against our good friends "the pommies".