Cudgen Headland competitors starred on the last two days of the NSW Surf Life Saving Championships held at Kingscliff last weekend.
Jarrod Cain and Scott McCartney combined to win the Open Male Board Rescue while the club’s women competitors stepped up with Ashlee Spence, Kendal Fitzgibbon and Alice Hurt all medalling.
Club captain Scott McCartney said the club had traditionally been stronger in the men’s events but had been working hard to improve the women’s side of the club and this had obviously paid off.
But while the home club took a swag of medals away from the titles, it was Sydney’s Wanda SLSC that won the weekend.
The club are the new state Surf Life Saving Champions after narrowly beating Terrigal and Cronulla in the overall pointscore at the Allphones Championships at Kingscliff.
The last time the club won the title was back in the mid-90s. Defending champion Manly finished in fourth place.
The 80 strong Wanda team was consistent over the three days, with a lot of the younger competitors competing up an age group and to maximise their chance of defending a top three result.
Team manager Deacon Spicer said the fierce competition between the Bate Bay clubs of North Cronulla, Cronulla, Elouera and Wanda, spurred the team forward.
“The kids have worked really hard as a team and done more than what we asked of them,” he said. “They set themselves a goal and even though many of them were exhausted after racing so many times today, they wanted to press on for the club’s sake.”
Terrigal SLSC almost claimed the top spot, with great performances by Joanna Baxter who won the Open Ironwoman title and Jack Moyes who won the U19 Board and Surf Races which also meant he was presented with both the Saxon Bird Memorial Trophy and the Jacob Lollback Memorial Trophy.
