ONCE, TWICE, THRICE FOR BRYCE AND THE MONA VALE BOYS

SURF LIFE SAVING, April, 21 2013: MONA VALE boaties just love matching SLSA records so when they came from behind to win their third consecutive open men’s Australian surfboat championship with the same crew at North Kirra on Sunday they had plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Forty-four reasons in fact because that is how many years it has been since sweep Max Sidney and his Ballina-Lismore Lighthouse boys wrapped up their hat-trick of open men’s surfboat championships with the same crew at Clifton Beach, 25k east of Hobart.

Other clubs have won the elusive treble but no with the same crew. Mona Vale’s sweep Bryce Munro has kept his crew of Wes Dose (bow), Sam Funch, James Davison and Jim Morisson together and they are keen to break their treble at Aussies 2014 in WA.

They won the world championship at Christies Beach and now the Aussie title to wrap up the double Munro was chasing. They won silver at the NSW titles at Umina.

“We knew we wanted to match Ballina Lighthouse’s record because they are the only other club that we know of that has won the title three times with the same crew,” said Munro.

In a tight finish Mona Vale Black beat North Steyne (sweep - Colin Stanford) and Batemans Bay (Neil Innis) with judges taking nearly 15 minutes to give their decision.

“We were slightly behind Batemans Bay coming into the cans but we managed to forge to the lead and knew this was the title we wanted so we went for it,”said Munro.

Second-stroke James Davidson said it was their goal at the start of the season to make the final and they had been blessed.

“Waiting for the final result was the same as last year but in these calm conditions close finishes are to be expected.

“We just wanted to build on our boat speed as the race progressed and when there are no runners you just have to keep fighting for the finish line. There was not much help out there and it comes down to who wants it most will win.”

Early heats and semi-finals in the open men’s surfboats championship provided some upset results.

Shock eliminations included Victorian champs Jan Juc doing their exit in an early heat and Ocean Thunder champs Currumbin Barbarians (Lyle Clark) as well as NSW titleholders Bilgola Gold (Don McManus) who were knocked out in the second semi-final.

Top sweep Brendan Western and his Mooloolaba A girls crew won the open women’s title for the third time in four championships.

They hung on to beat a fast finishing North Cottesloe and Kurrawa.

“We won in 2009 in Scarboro and then at the next championships at Kurrawa in 2011, my wife Sara and I had baby Kane in 2012 and we came back to win this season,” said Western.

His crew-Cheryl Beaumont (bow), Sara Western, Summer Callaghan and Leah McKenzie-had a narrow lead at the turning buoys with Western calling on his girls for extra effort needed for the victory.

“We knew we had a slight lead which we had to increase in case North Cottelsoe or another crew caught a runner and came over the top to run us down.” - GRAHAM CALLAGHAN

Issued on behalf of Surf Life Saving Australia by

Ian Hanson

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