Where did you surf today ?

[steve shearer]

I'm pretending this isn't going to happen.

but if it does this last 2 weeks might be the last run of surf we get for months.

damm shame too, because this southerly push has laid down sand in all the right places.

[Beanpole]

Let that be a lesson to you.

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[Nick Carroll]

Or maybe I was just fcuken completely exhausted from being a super clubby the day before at Blacksmiths. Viz, you are now reading a post from the new NSW masters iron man champion!

Tell us about your competition Nick. Do you have a bitter rival?

Oh fcuk yeah. At that event it was Teddy Clifford. Teddy is one of the Maroubra original Bra boys, the Steve Wilson/Marty Lee/Mark Scott generation. We respect each other because we know neither of us is gonna go away in a race, like ever.

Teddy competes for North Bondi, he was there with his team, an epic bunch including Scotty Thompson who coaches the fantastic young Nutri Grain girl Lizzie Wellborn. North Bondi masters has an amazing group of women athletes too, they swear and laugh and carry on, they're insane.

I'm a tiny bit quicker swimmer than Teddy, and a bit faster on a board, he is a bit faster than me on a ski. So we are often neck and neck in races. There were some others in the race too but I knew we would probably drop them at some point.

So the surf was like 3-4', pretty clean, breaking on a succession of sandbars going out to about 150m offshore where the swim cans were. The board cans were another 80 or so metres out then a ski apex can another 20m out from that. The race order is swim/board/ski.

We go in, I fade left a bit to find a small rip to carry me out but instead I get blocked by a set of waves from nowhere. It's OK, everyone else is blocked too. I am not feeling that great about my swimming for some reason, just not relaxed and flowing, a bit choppy. But once the set backs off I get into open water and really focus on breathing. A guy from Palm Beach, Timmy Gates, is in front of me so I draft off him around the cans, then kick and get away on the way back. I am looking for waves and there's nothing! Bodysurfing a wave in the swim leg is gold but nup, nothing. I swim to the beach trying not to think of anything, get to the shoreline sand, get up, and Teddy is about five metres behind me.

So I think fcuk this, here's my chance. I run hard through the transition, I know I have stretched him even though I'm not looking, just sorta feeling. You know where your rival is. Grab my board and run hard to the water and get on and put the pressure on. Get a break. I am a good board paddler. I wasn't always but I am now. I know how to take weight off the board and push down and all the different knee paddling postures and how to turn a board just through subtle weight shifts, everything. So I get away. I turn the cans and I'm gone. I am halfway in and a set wave comes and everyone in the race catches it from behind me and makes up 40m of ground just like that. This is a feature of surf racing -- that you have to adjust to events as they occur, that sometimes a big effort does not pay off quite the way you hoped.

But what they all know is that I was faster than them, so this is a psychological edge I am determined to exploit. We ride the wave in together to the shore and I time my jump impeccably and drop everyone on the run to the ski. Everyone but Teddy god damn it.

So now we are driving out through foam lines on skis, side by side. And he is a better ski paddler, but I have this tiny advantage of that brief rest on the board that I took waiting for his wave to come to me. Maybe -5 beats per minute. I think: just hold the inside line to the cans.

I do that. Teddy creeps up on my outside. I turn inside him. He treads on it hard and picks up a bump of something. So do I but then it dies on me and carries him. He gets halfway through the channel and it dies on him.

I am relaxed, I know I have time now, I pick up the next wave and pull inside him, closer to the run finish. Teddy has to work to catch the wave I'm gliding on. He's done, I know it, he knows it, but fucked if he is going away. I drive the big ski to the sand, get off and run away from him. People are yelling their heads off. Teddy doesn't go away. He's just 30 metres off when I get to the line. Everyone else is still in the water.

Racing, I love this shit, it is primeval, deep communication with your rivals, you understand each other and you enjoy each other's company, and you will kill each other in the situation if you have to.

[foamy]

Very good! That's good storytelling, Nick!
Congratulations! Well done.

Mind you, I think Mark Bennetts will beat you in the Nationals. Up the maroons!

[ctd]

[godsavetheking]

Nick, don't you think it's a bit of a stretch calling it an ironman? It's only about 400 metres all up isn't it?

[black duck]

South coast reef. Two x 3 hr sessions. Morning at head high to head and a half high. And afternoon at head and a half high and bigger as the swell swung more east. Morning the conditions were better. Arvo it was pretty washy (as pictured below). Take offs in the arvo were late and tricky, with sidewash bouncing off the headland point. Not the best conditions overall for the given location but ok all the same with a light crowd. Plenty of opportunity to put the board on rail on the inside bowl. Surfed the 6'10 rounded pin single.

(Don't name the location if u know it)

Those last 2 shots look a lot like this spot but i'd be somewhat surprised if it was

[Beanpole]

Your shots look better..duck.

[black duck]

BTW, notwithstanding GSTQ's light trolling effort, congrats Nick. The description of the race had me wired. Sure as fcuk i would never, ever, train that hard but glad you enjoyed it.

Also Steve's Ox story. Fcuk, it's a thing getting worked when it's solid, especially after a night on the tiles.

[Beanpole]

Yep...who could believe a bunch of silly old clubbie would go so hard

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, don't you think it's a bit of a stretch calling it an ironman? It's only about 400 metres all up isn't it?

ah swim is 300m, board is about 450m, ski about 500m, run transitions about 150m, you do it all at about 85-90% effort, takes 12 mins or so.

This race has been done in Australian surf racing since the 1960s and the name "ironman" pre-dates those ultra triathlon races you've probably heard about. The thing with one of these races is having to make surf related judgements under elevated physical stress, that's where people break down and that's why good racers slowly become almost impregnable, like the top gun guy Shannon Eckstein, he knows the race rhythm better than anyone else so he can relax and get stuff right when other people are semi panicking.

[Trev]

Great story and great result Nick.

[marauding mullet]

Well done Nick.
You just reminded me how much I miss that stuff.

[foamy]

Yep, the traditional Aussie Iron comp is an awesome event. You have to be very fit, have great wave riding and duck diving and sand running skills, pickng the best line thru the break, reading ocean currents on the go, swimming and multi-craft, changing fortunes, a virtual sprint the whole way, unless you take the risk of a brief slow down because you can see a wave coming on the swim leg, is there one there? hard to see, are you in the right position, clock ticking.
One of the great race events.

[godsavetheking]

Oh I'm sure it's tremendous. It's just that, ya know, the clubbie version is 12 minutes long whereas the proper ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and then a marathon

[tootr]

It's gets real when you have to have to smash a beer and a pie between each leg.

[foamy]

Oh I'm sure it's tremendous. It's just that, ya know, the clubbie ersion is 12 minutes long whereas the proper ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and then a marathon

Yep, that one is longer. I think they might have taken the name from the Australian event.
But, for example, at the Olympics, are the best athletes and the most exciting events in the 50 kms walk or the 42 km marathon?