Australian Champion Club - 14 Years in a Row!

BMD Northcliffe Surf Club has taken out the Australian Surf Life Saving Champion Club title for the 14th consecutive year, despite a heavily reduced program due to extreme weather caused by ex-tropical Cyclone Debbie. Many competitors were left devastated after being informed by SLSA that all remaining water events were to be cancelled on Friday night due to anticipated poor water quality and deteriorating surf conditions. 

Despite this disappointment, BMD Northcliffe had some fantastic results in the oceans swims, surf rescue events and board riding which were all held earlier in the week as well as some team events that were held on Wednesday before the cancellation of the remaining water events. In the 2km ocean swims the club amassed a staggering 55 points with special mention to Laura Taylor taking gold in the U19 Female 2km. Our Surf Rescue team also contributed a massive 43 points with Callum Breetzke, Jarrod Shute and Georgia Moore all taking out their respective Champion Lifesaver events and our U17 Patrol Team also claiming gold.

With a handy points lead heading in to Wednesday, the club took a clean sweep of all the surf team events that were contested winning the U17, U19 and Open Female as well as the U17 Male Surf Team. Our open girls also claimed victory in the Board Relay.  The only events to be contested on Thursday were the 2km Runs with Ella Coates defending her open title to claim gold for the second year in a row. 

In Masters Competition, our small team of ladies led the way with Lee Vrolyks taking 9 gold medals and Tiarne Smith and Anna Ballara taking home 6 golds each. Stephen Fry also took home an impressive 5 gold medals. BMD Northcliffe ended up in second place overall in the masters pointscore behind Bondi. 

Click here for Open Results

Click here for Masters Results

Click here for Youth Results

Courtney Wins Coolangatta Gold

Courtney Hancock has claimed her second Coolangatta Gold victory in an emotional win yesterday. After a disappointing season last season, Courtney refocused in the off season and was in great shape leading in to the event. Courtney led the initial ski leg but really made her move in the swim leg where she surged away from the rest of the field. After the board leg and final run home to Coolangatta, Courtney had a comfortable margin, winning by almost 4 minutes.

In the men's race, we had two top 10 finishers with Taddy McDonnell in 8th and Jake Nicholson rounding out the top 10. Tiarne Smith continued her dominance of the event taking out the 30 - 39 masters division. Bruckner Chase claimed silver in the 50+ male category with Scott Oxenford finishing 3rd.

In the short course event held on Saturday, Ben Cochrane finished 2nd in the elite male category.

BMD Northcliffe Results

1st Elite Female Long Course - Courtney Hancock
1st 30-39 Female Long Course - Tiarne Smith
2nd Elite Male Short Course - Ben Cochrane
2nd 50+ Male Long Course - Brukner Chase
3rd 50+ Male Long Course - Scott Oxenford
5th U19 Female Short Course - Kate Taylor
6th 50+ Male Short Course - Andrew Botha
7th U19 Female Short Course - Grace Rosato
8th Elite Male Long Course - Jarryd McDonnell
10th Elite Male Long Course - Jake Nicholson
10th U19 Male Short Course - Bayden Botha
16th U19 Male Short Course - Harry Crouch

Click here for all results and split times.

BMD Northcliffe Retain World Championship Crown

BMD Northcliffe have defended their World Championship status with a dominant victory at Rescue 2016 in the Netherlands. The club amassed a total of 928 points, winning 16 gold, 11 silver and 7 bronze medals to claim the overall title by a staggering 271 points. 

Competition began with 3 days at the beach at Noordwijk with BMD Northcliffe dominating most of the water events. Shannon Eckstein won 6 gold from 6 events taking a clean sweep of all of the male individual water events. Harriet overcame her major setback of breaking her jaw in the off season to secure her biggest win of her career to take out the Ironwoman. Courtney Hancock won the Surf Race and Danielle McKenzie won gold in the Ski Race. Kristyl Smith and Maddy Dunn claimed gold in the female Board Rescue with Shannon and Caine partnering for the first time to claim gold in the men’s event. BMD Northcliffe finished on a high note at the beach winning both the male and female Taplin Relays and the Ocean Pointscore.

Competition then moved to the pool in Einhoven where our success continued. BMD Northcliffe had not won a gold medal in the pool since 1992 but after day one of competition we had won three. Gold to Samantha Lee in the 200m Obstacles, with Amy Levings claiming silver, another Gold to Samantha teaming up with Danielle McKenzie in the Line Throw and our girls also won the 4 x 50m Obstacle Relay.  Samantha went on to win the 100m Manikin Carry and the 100m Rescue Medley for a total of 4 gold, 2 silver and a bronze in the pool – a fantastic effort considering these events are normally dominated by the Europeans. 

In the Youth Championships, Mitchell Coombes won gold in the Youth Board and Ironman, silver in the Youth Surf Race and Bronze in the Youth Ski Race.

For all BMD Northcliffe Results click here.

Caine Eckstein breaks Guinness World Record

Congratulations to Caine Eckstein who broke the Guinness World Record for most pull ups in 24 hours performing a staggering 7620 pull ups.

When Caine started the attempt, it was thought that the World Record for 6844 but 12 hours in to his attempt it was confirmed that a 17 year old from America had beaten that record the previous month but it had only just been recognised by Guinness World Records. Andrew Shapiro had actually completed 7306 pull ups on the 14 May. Caine was forced to adjust his plan to ensure he completed the additional 460 repetitions. Caine went on to beat that mark by 314 pull ups deciding to finish 45 minutes prior to the 24 hour time limit.

It was great to see all the support Caine had throughout the 24 hour period to help him through the tough times. Caine assures us that he will not be making the attempt again and we don't blame him!

Australian Champion Club 13 Years in a Row!

BMD Northcliffe has won the 2016 Australian Champion Club Trophy continuing its unbeaten record for 13 straight years! The club came away with 21 gold medals, 14 silver medals and 11 bronze medals to win by 86 points from Currumbin.

After becoming the greatest Ironman in history last year surpassing the great Trevor Hendy, Shannon Eckstein this year became the greatest surf life saver in history surpassing Clint Robinson on 36 Australian titles. Shannon now has an astonishing 38 Australian Championships to his name after winning the Open Ironman, Surf Teams and Surf Race for 2016.

After a disappointing Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Series this season, Rebecca Creedy returned to form to take out the Open Ironwoman.

Another standout performer was Nikolas Green who won 4 gold including the U19 Ironman for the second year in a row. Nikolas was also named male competitor of the championships. 

We also created history in the boat section winning our first ever gold medals with both our U19 and Reserve grade claiming gold, swept by Damien Clayphan.

The weekend prior our U15s and U14s competed in the Youth Championship. There was some hot competition led by many of the NSW clubs. The club won 4 bronze medals with Jordan Sergis - U14 Ironman, Eve Lutze - U15 Surf Race, our U15 Board Rescue - Madisyn Armstrong and Zoe Hughes, and our U15 Cameron Relay team - Madisyn Armstrong, Lucia Fildes, Bella Fildes and Zoe Hughes. 

Earlier in the week, our small team of Masters narrowly missed out on retaining their Australian Championship Title with local Club Alexandra Headlands just pipping us by 17 points. The women led the charge with Lee Vrolyks claiming 7 golds, Tiarne Smith with 6 golds and Anna Ballara with 3 gold.

Click Here for Seniors Results (1-6)

Click Here for Masters Results (1-6)

Click Here for Youth Results (1-6)

QLD Champs - 13 Years in a Row!

BMD Northcliffe took out the QLD Surf Life Saving Championships for the 13th consecutive year at North Burleigh on the weekend.

The 3 day event saw the best of the best from QLD in the U17 - Open age groups as well as Masters competition (30+) which was held on Friday.

BMD Northcliffe tasted great success in the major finals package on Sunday with Lucas Allan taking out the Open Male Surf Race, Cory Hill the Open Male Ski Race, Rebecca Creedy the Open Female Board Race, Harriet Brown claiming gold in the Open Ironwoman and our open men taking out the final event of the competition - The Taplin Relay.

Our boat section had a successful carnival with our U19 crew winning gold and our Reserve Grade crew winning silver.

Standout competitors were Alyssa Koenen (4 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze), Nik Green (4 gold, 1 silver), Hannah Sculley (3 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze) and Harriet Brown (3 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze). 

A small team of masters took on testing conditions in competition on Friday to finish 4th overall on the pointscore. Lee Vrolyks won 5 gold and a silver and Allan Nicholls 4 gold and 2 bronze. Hopefully we have a full strength team to defend out Australian title in a months time at Maroochydore.

Click here for Seniors Results

Click here for Masters Results

2016 Youth Champs Wrap Up

The 2016 QLD Youth Surf Life Saving Championships were held on the weekend in testing conditions at North Burleigh. BMD Northcliffe sent a team of 84 nippers to compete against more than 1,750 other nippers from all over QLD in the event, which is the pinnacle sporting event each year for Queensland nippers aged 11 to 15 years old.

Not only were our nippers battling tricky conditions in the surf, they were also faced with blue bottles on the first day of competition which eventually led to the suspension of water events. Prior to water events being postponed, BMD Northcliffe won 2 golds in the U12 Male Cameron Relay and U11 Female Surf Teams. Eva Parish also went on to win gold in the U11 Female 1km Beach run.

Water events resumed on Saturday morning with the blue bottles disappearing overnight much to the relief of our nippers. The majority of races held on Saturday were heats and qualifying events for Sunday’s finals but we added another two gold to the haul in the U15 Female Cameron Relay and U14 Male Cameron Relay.

Sunday saw the under 11 and under 12 water events relocated to North Kirra in the interest of safety. Another 5 gold medals were won on the final day of competition with Caitlyn Miller taking gold in the U13 Ironwoman, Jordan Sergis in the U14 Ironman & Surf Race along with golds in the U14 R&R and U14 Male Board Relay.

Stand out competitors for the carnival were Jordan Sergis (4 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze), Eva Parish (2 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze) and Emily Gauld (1 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze). BMD Northcliffe finished 3rd overall in the pointscore behind Sunshine Coast Club’s, Maroochydore and Alexandra Headlands.

For Results, Click here.

Thank you to all our age managers, assistants, officials, water safety, IRB and parents who enable our nippers to compete.

Good luck to our U14s and U15s who will go on to race at the Australian Youth Championships in April.

Shannon Eckstein Dominates Kellogg's Ironman Series

Shannon Eckstein has taken out his 9th Nutri-Grain Ironman Series in a dominant performance at North Cronulla on the weekend. Shannon took out the final two rounds to make it 5 wins from 6 starts this season, his worst performance being a 2nd place. He finished on top of the pointscore by a staggering 29 points! 

Eckstein’s series loss to Surfers Paradise ironman Ali Day by 1 point last season put fire in his belly and has been at least partly responsible for his resurgence and at 32 years of age he is not ready to retire just yet.

Shannon's performance cements his title of greatest ironman in history.

In the women's series, Maddy Dunn was our highest place athlete in 5th place overall with Harriet Brown in 7th and former series champion Courtney Hancock in 9th.

For full results go to https://www.facebook.com/SurfIronmanSeries/

Round 1 of the Nutri-Grain Series will be aired on Channel 9 at 10:30am (QLD time) this Sunday 24 January.

Photo courtesy of Harv Pix

BMD Northcliffe - 2015 Australian Champions

BMD Northcliffe has won the Australian Champion Club Trophy continuing its unbeaten record for 12 straight years. The club came away with 16 gold medals, 24 silver medals and 14 bronze medals to win by 151 points from Newport.

Shannon Eckstein cemented his place in history as the greatest ironman of all time by winning his seventh Open Ironman Title, overtaking Trevor Hendy's record of six titles. 

Our surf teams dominated with the Open Male teams winning and claiming bronze, our Open Female teams finishing 1st, 2nd and 5th and our U19 and U17 Female teams both picking up gold and our U19 male team claiming silver.
 

Megan Kreuter and Danielle McKenzie both had a great carnival coming away with three gold medals. Nikolas Green claimed 8 medals and Hannah Sculley came away with 7 medals including two gold medals each.Other top performers who claimed at least 2 gold medals were Shannon Eckstein, Eliza Smith, Jordan Harrison, Rebecca Creedy, Greta Petersen and Devon Halligan. 

 

The weekend prior our U15s and U14s competed in the Youth Championship. Our young members did the club proud coming away with 6 medals in total, 4 of them being gold. Georgia Moore and Jarrod Shute were our stand out performers coming away with two golds each.

Earlier in the week, our Masters retained their Australian Championship Title with a convincing 114 point win over Noosa. The women led the charge with Lee Vrolyks claiming 9 golds, Tiarne Smith with 7 golds and Anna Ballara with 5 golds. 

Click Here for Seniors Results (1-6)

Click Here for Masters Results (1-6)

Click Here for Youth Results (1-6)

Click here for All Aussies Results (all clubs)

 

2015 QLD Surf Rescue Championships

Congratulations to our Surf Rescue Team took out the overall pointscore at the 2015 QLD Surf Rescue Championships at Alexandra Headlands on the weekend. Our U17 Patrol Team led the charge claiming gold in their event. Our two open teams both finished on the podium with a silver and a bronze and our U15 Patrol Team claimed bronze.

In the individual events Jarrod Shute took out the U15 Male Champion Lifesaver with Jack Moore in second place. Zach Brown claimed victory in the U19 Male Champion Lifesaver and Trent Rowe took out the 30-39 event. Other individual medalists included Kathryn McKenzie - Silver in Open Female, Laura Brown - Silver in U17 Female, Lucas Allan - Bronze in Open Male and Georgia Moore - Bronze in U15 Female.

For full results Click Here.

2014/15 Nutri-Grain Series Wrap Up

Shannon Eckstein did everything he could to claim his 9th Ironman Series title, taking out the final round of the Ironman Series in Newcastle. All he could do is wait to see who filled the minor places to seal his fate but unfortunately Ali Day followed in 2nd place which was enough to secure him his maiden title with Shannon trailing by just 1 point in the overall standings. Tanyn Lydon finished in 9th place overall just missing out on automatic qualification in to the series next season on a count back. After missing 2 rounds of the series with injury, Caine Eckstein will be hoping for a wild card in to the series next year or he will have to qualify through the trials. 

In the women's series, Rebecca Creedy had her best series to date with a race victory in Round 4 along with consistent results throughout to finish runner up in the overall standings. Harriet Brown also showed her consistency finishing in 3rd place overall with Courtney Hancock in 4th place and Maddy Dunn in 6th place. All of these girls have earned automatic qualification in to the series next season. 

For more details go to -

http://www.nutrigrainironman.com.au/

https://www.facebook.com/SurfIronmanSeries

Nutri-Grain Series Update

After 4 rounds of the Nutri-Grain Ironman Series, Shannon Eckstein is still in the hunt to claim his 9th Ironman Series win. After a disappointing start to the series with an 8th in Round 1, Shannon has clawed back the points with three podium finishes including two wins. Shannon currently sits in second place, only 2 points behind Mooloolaba's, Ali Day, heading in to the final two rounds at Newcastle.

Rebecca Creedy is having a fantastic season following on from her 2nd placing in the Coolangatta Gold a few months ago, claiming her first ever Series race win in round 4 at Surfers Paradise on the weekend. Rebecca also sits in 2nd place on the pointscore heading in to the final two rounds. Harriet Brown's consistency across the first 4 rounds has her sitting comfortably in 3rd place overall with Maddy Dunn in 5th and Courtney Hancock in 6th.

The final 2 rounds of the series will be held at Newcastle on the 3rd and 4th of January, 2015.

For more information go to, http://www.nutrigrainironman.com.au/

2014 World Champions

BMD Northcliffe has defended their world crown with a dominant performance at Rescue 2014 in France. Competition started in the pool with European clubs showing their dominance in these events as expected. We picked up 3 silver medals in the pool - Chris Dawson in the 200m Obstacles and the girls claimed silver in both the Obstacle and Medley Relays. Christina Ruiz picked up a Bronze in the 100m Rescue Medley and our boys also picked up a bronze in the Obstacle Relay. BMD Northcliffe picked up 219 points in the pool events but trailed Italian Club, Aqvasport Rane Rosse by 356 points heading in to the ocean events.

On day 1 in the surf (although there wasn't much of that in sight), our girls picked up maximum points in the surf race, claiming the top 4 positions with Kristyl Smith in 1st, Courtney Hancock in 2nd, Rebecca Creedy in 3rd and Harriet Brown in 4th. In the male Surf Race it was Dev Lahey defending his title taking the Gold and Shannon Eckstein the Silver.

On day 2, Kristyl Smith and Cory Hill both claimed silver in the ski races with the girls then filling the podium in the Board Race with Harriet Brown taking Gold, Rebecca Creedy silver and Maddy Dunn Bronze. Shannon took out the Male Board Race with Max Beattie claiming Bronze.

The final day of competition, Harriet Brown and Rebecca Creedy claimed Gold in the Board Rescue and then the girls once again claimed maximum points in the Ironwoman with Kristyl Smith claiming another gold, Rebecca Creedy in 2nd and Courtney Hancock in 3rd and Harriet Brown in 4th. Shannon Eckstein defended his Ironman Crown with Cory Taylor in 3rd, Stefaan Demopoulos in 4th and Max Beattie in 5th. To top off a great few days at the beach, the club also took out both the Male and Female Taplin Relays.

In the Youth Competition, Alyssa Koenen won 2 Gold in the Surf Race and the Super Lifesaver.
 

For all of BMD Northcliffe's Results, Click Here.

Australian Champion Club - 10 in a Row!

BMD Northcliffe has collected their 10th consecutive Australian Champion Club Trophy in the most dominant performances in history winning by 300 points. The club claimed 26 gold medals, 27 silver medals and 22 bronze medals.

Our Surf Rescue Team & Board Riders got us off to an early lead as usual with 56 points on the board. Special mention to our Open Patrol Competition Team who claimed their 13th consecutive Australian Championship and to Tiarne Smith, her 5th consecutive Open Long Board championship.

From there, the points just kept accumulating led firstly by our Under 15s in the team events who had some fantastic results. Gold & Silver in the U15 Female Cameron Relay, Gold in the U15 Female Board Relay, Gold in the U15 Male Surf Teams, Silver & Bronze in the U15 Male Cameron Relay, Silver in the U15 Male Board Relay and Bronze in the U15 Female Surf Teams. The U15s also excelled individually with Laura Taylor winning gold in both the Surf Race & Tube Race, Elly Wikaire won gold in the Ironwoman and 2 bronze medals in the Surf Race & Tube Race, Jarrod Shute won gold in Champion Lifesaver and silver in the Tube Race, Silver also to Toby Wilson in the Surf Race, Scarlett Fahey in the 2km Run and bronze medals to Georgia Moore in Champion Lifesaver, Toby Redler in the 2km Run & Kobe Schulz in the Board. In all, our U15s claimed 112 points!

It was another dominant performance by Shannon Eckstein to claim the blue ribbon Open Ironman event with brother Caine joining him on the podium in 2nd place. Shannon now has 6 Australian Open Ironman titles to his name, equaling the great Trevor Hendy.

Alyssa Koenen also had a fantastic carnival winning both the U17 Female Surf Race and Tube Race. She also picked up 3 team golds in the U17 Taplin, U17 Surf Teams and U19 Surf Teams. Other top Medal Winners were Courtney Hancock with 4 gold and 2 silver, Shannon Eckstein with 3 gold, a silver & 2 bronze, Laura Taylor with 3 gold & a bronze, Kristyl Smith with 3 gold & 2 silver.

To top off the carnival, we claimed gold in the final two events of the carnival - the coveted Open Female & Male Taplin Relays.

Earlier in the week, our Masters were thrilled to retain their Australian Championship Crown with only a very small team led by Anna Ballara who won 4 gold, 2 silver and a bronze.
 

For all of BMD Northcliffe Open Results, Click Here.

For all of BMD Northcliffe Masters Results, Click Here.
 

Photo courtesy of HarvPix

BMD Northcliffe Nippers Retain QLD Championship

The 2014 Queensland Junior Surf Life Saving Championships ended in a thriller with our Nippers taking out the event by the narrowest of margins. We finished on 210 points to claim overall honours by just one point from Maroochydore on 209 points. Maroochydore was always going to be tough to beat with both clubs neck and neck throughout the 3 days of competition.

Cyclonic seas limited water events to the gutter with a reverse course set due to a strong sweep. The rough surf conditions continued on Saturday disrupting the water events with conditions deteriorating further on Saturday night, prompting officials to move the third and final day of competition to the calmer waters of Currumbin Creek.

Top performers of the weekend were Mitch Coombes who took 2 gold, a silver and a bronze and Jarrod Shute with 1 gold, 4 silver and a bronze.

Congratulations to everyone that competed and a big thank you to Coaches, Age Managers, Officials & Water Safety.

Click here for BMD Northcliffe Results.

Qld State Champion Club 11 Years Straight

BMD Northcliffe took out the the QLD State Championships by a massive 318 points at North Kirra on the weekend. The Club finished with 36 Gold, 22 Silver and 26 Bronze. Standout performers were Lachlan Sergis with 4 gold and Dev Lahey, Stefaan Demopoulos, Shannon Eckstein, Maddy Dunn, Tate Smith, Murray Stewart, Elly Wikaire and Laura Taylor all with 3 golds each.

Our Masters also came away with a victory on Friday winning the pointscore by 8 points ahead of Noosa Heads.

The Australian Surf Life Saving Championships will be held in 3 weeks time at Scarborough, WA, where BMD Northcliffe will be going for their 10th consecutive Australian Champion Club Title.

For Seniors Results Click Here.

For Masters Results Click Here.

Eckstein Claims 8th Ironman Series Crown

The final round of the Nutri-Grain Ironman Series was certainly full of thrills, spills and plenty of action all round yesterday at Coolum Beach. The competitors were met with very tricky conditions with big seas and very strong wind. 

BMD Northcliffe athletes fared better than most with our girls filling all 3 podium spots in the final race. It was a sprint finish between clubmate's Harriet Brown & Maddy Dunn but youngster Maddy Dunn had the legs in the final sprint to take the win. Maddy's win helped her secure an automatic qualification in to next year's series. Courtney Hancock was 3rd on the day which was enough to claim the overall series for a third time in her career. The series nearly slipped from her grasp after nearly being eliminated in the first race going in to final swim leg in 13th place with only the top 10 going through to the final. Courtney remained composed and put in a gutsy swim to come out of the water in 10th claiming the last spot for the final. Kristyl Smith's 7th place and Rebecca Creedy's 9th place was enough to secure them automatic qualification in to next year's series.

In the men's race, Shannon "The Professor" Eckstein put in a dominant performance to claim victory on the day as well as seal an unprecedented 8th Ironman Series crown. Shannon only had to complete the first race to secure the series but that wasn't enough for him going on to win the race very comfortable allowing him to enjoy the moment with the crowd and his family as he crossed the line. This would have to be one of the most dominant performances in history with 4 wins and 2 runner ups over the 6 round series.

 

Young gun Tanyn Lyndon cemented himself as a star of the future with his 4th placing securing him automatic qualification for next year's series. Caine Eckstein didn't have a great day being eliminated in race 2 but his 9th placing was also enough to keep him in the top 6 for automatic qualification.