A few more pics to make Simmondo happy
The overall idea was to promote safety in SUP, gain community engagement and most of all FUN FUN and more FUN!
All participants had to register and were issued with a yellow "Play It Safe By The Water" vest if they had paddled before and a blue vest if they hadnt. Everyone with a blue vest was provided a free lesson from Surf Session Professional Surf Coaching to maximise safety on the day. The biggest problem Cam, Matt and their crew of coaching staff had was trying to get the participants out of the surf and back to the beach.
The colored vests ensured the Surf Life Savers that volunteered could clearly see who was in our group from their RIBs. They know that beach like the back of thier hands and immediatly alerted our group in the water to dangers such as exposed reef when the tide was dropping and relocated people to safe areas. Huge thank you to Torquay Surf Life Saving Club for all thier assistance.
We literally ran out of boards we were allowed to use ( dont tell Matt but even his brand new catalina went for a a splash at one point) and had a queue forming on the beach waiting and it stayed that way most of the afternoon.
Rich all the planning and effort you guys put in really paid off, Huey even gave you superb condition you really couldn't have asked for more.
Thank you again to all the countless volunteers who gave up their time and especially to SUPVic for the BBQ travelling all the way from melbourne, Jay from PSH and Aiden from Naish for product support and answering about a million enquiries each, Surfing Victoria for equipment, rash vests and support in so many areas, huge thank you to Torquay Surf Life Saving you guys rock, Kevin (X makes the spot) the register man and many many others.
The real pleasure from yesterday was the beaming faces and the breadth of people who came along to show support for the SUP community, short boarders, longboarders, ski racers, OC1 paddlers and people who just had never tried before and wanted to give it an old fashion Aussie Go.
John Lane thoroughly tested out the PSH and Naish range looking for a weapon of choice.
Emma Webb current Aussie Womens SUP Champ
Once the board you wanted came available you had to hot foot it to the water!
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