2011 Australian Surf Lifesaving Championships

AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONS SINCE 2004!

BMD Northcliffe continued their unbeaten Australian Championships streak by winning the 2010/11 Titles at Kurrawa with its biggest ever winning margin, 171pts over Mooloolaba and Kurrawa in third.

Competition started with the Lifesaving section having their best season yet collecting 4 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze, accumulating 44 points.
Stuart Snell took out his third Male Champion Lifesaver title with Kathryn McKenzie winning her first Female Champion Lifesaver event. The Open Patrol Competition wrote their way into the record books with their 10th straight win. (Damien Moffrey & Trent Rowe members for all wins).


Shannon Eckstein won his forth Ironman title in convincing style while Courtney Hancock's come from behind victory in the Ironwoman was a highlight. Coming 2nd in the Ironwoman was Elizabeth Pluimers who also took out the Female Board Race and with a Gold in the Womens Surf Teams (with Kristyl Smith, Courtney and Bonnie Hancock), Elizabeth's Gold medal winning tally hit 19 (the highest of any female at the Australian Championships). Ayla Dunlop-Barrett won her first gold in the Female Belt race with the Open Females also winning the Board Relay, Double ski and Long board riding.

Shannon also had a victory in the Restricted Surf Race aswell as teaming up with Dev Lahey, Pierce Leonard and Dan Moodie to take out the Male Surf Teams Race and the Male Taplin Relay with Dev, Pierce, Joel Simpson, Tate Smith and Mark Bint.

Our U19s dominated their age group winning the U19 pointscore and coming away with 8 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze. Tanyn Lyndon (U19 Ironman), Riley McGregor (U19 MaleChampion Lifesaver), Jack Murphy (U19 Male Ski) and Anna Notten (U19 Female 2km run) had wins as well as the U19 Male Board Relay, Ski Relay, Rescue Tube Rescue and Board Rescue.

The U17s also had success with Jordan Harrison winning the U17 Male Surf Race and then combining with Lachlan Feather, Jordan Cooke-Lablache and Stefaan Demopoulos to win the U17s Male Surf Teams. Jordan and Stefaan also teamed with Michael Barnett to take out the U17s Male Board Relay.

Our U15s came away from the carnival with 2 Golds, 3 Silvers and a Bronze. Brodie Smith, Jerry Dennis teamed with U14 members Zach Brown and Ben Bannan to win the U15 Male Surf Teams and Jess Byrne, Susie Greenwood teaming with U14s Abbey and Christie Short to take out the U15 Female Cameron Relay. Special mention to Zach and Christie who both won silver in their U15 Champion Lifesaver events - still with another year to compete.

In the boat arena, BMD Northcliffe won the overall boat pointscore with 4 crews making finals. Open Male 4th, Open Female 3rd, U23s 3rd, Reserves 4th.

After being beaten at the State titles, the Masters claimed the Australian Masters titles in fine form with a win over Noosa Heads. Terri Sullivan lead the medal tally with 8 gold, followed by Tiarne Smith with 6, Anna Ballara 5 and Gavin Hill 4.

For full results Click here.

For the Open overall Pointscore Click here.

For Masters Overall Pointscore Click here.

2011 QLD State Surf Life Saving Championships

BMD Northcliffe Surf Club took out the 2011 QLD State Surf Life Saving Championships on the weekend at Kurrawa. Despite missing a few key members and several events being cancelled due to time constraints, BMD Northcliffe accumulated an impressive 499 points, 189 points clear of nearest rival Mooloolaba on 310.

Our Open Female competitors had a fantastic weekend with a clean sweep of the individual female water events. BMD Northcliffe's Elizabeth Pluimers claimed her first State Open Ironwoman crown ahead of club mate's Courtney Hancock and Harriet Brown rounding out the trifecta. (pictured right) Elizabeth also won the Open Female Board Race earlier in the day ahead of club mate Kristyl Smith. Courtney Hancock took out the Open Female Surf Race ahead of her sister Bonnie in 2nd. In the Open Female Single Ski race, Kelly Jury took gold with club mate Kathryn McKenzie in 3rd place. The open girls also won gold in the Ski Relay, Surf Teams and Taplin Relay. 

Our U17 boys had a similarly impressive weekend with Daniel Coleman taking out the 2km Beach Run, Michael Barnett the Board Race, Lachie Feather the Surf Race and Stefan Demopolous the Belt Race. The boys also won gold in the Taplin and Board Relays.

On the Beach, it was great to see Aaron Stubbs back racing in the maroon and white taking out the Open Male Beach Sprint event.

In the boat arena, our Reserves took Gold while our Open Males and Open Females both claimed silver in their events respectively.

For a full list of results Click here.

For the overall point score Click here.

For Masters Results Click here.

Clubs QLD Awards 2011

BMD Northcliffe Escapes Carnage at the QLD Cup Final Round

The final round of the QLD Cup Boat Series was contested in wild seas at Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast on the weekend. The treacherous conditions caused grief with plenty of wipeouts. 

BMD Northcliffe emerged relatively unscathed with a 1^st placing for our Reserves and Under 23's and a second placing for our A Grade Men. 

These crews also featured in the results of the overall QLD Cup Premiership with our A Grade Men & Under 23's taking out their premierships and our Reserves named runners up in the series.

As if one day of battering wasn't enough, our crews came back for more punishment on Sunday for the Sizzler Oceans 38 'Best of the Best' Surf Boat Carnival. Dangerous conditions at Coolum forced organisers to relocate the event to Mooloolaba. The BMD Northcliffe Saints Open Men crew continued their good run of results with a comfortable win and in the Open Women our girls stepped up on the podium with BMD Northcliffe Novas securing 2nd.

ASRL QLD - Round 4

Close to 90 Surfboat crews hit Mooloolaba beach yesterday, from between far north Queensland and northern NSW, near flat surf and forceful cross winds. BMD Northcliffe secured 4 of their crews into the surf boat finals. 

In the Open Men's final, Drew's A Grade crew finished 2nd to the much bigger Currumbin crew who are all still water specialists at national level. Drew's women's crew finished 5th in their final. Our big win of the day was Matt's Reserve Grade, won all their races only to secure the worse end alley (7) in the final which was 2 boat lengths longer, crossed the line one boat in front  - huge row in flat conditions. Matt's Under 23 Crew finished 4th in their final, good result considering they also rowed 4 x tough Open Men's divisional races (missed that final by one point getting into that final) all up they completed 8 races all day, compared to everyone doing 4 - 5 races, in a half day. 

Another big thank you to Trent Keily who rowed as a fill in stroke seat in the A Grade then backed up to row in his regular stroke seat in Reserve, that's 9 hard flat water rows at 100%!

QLD Cyclones Victorious at the Interstate Championships

The QLD Cyclones put an end to NSW's four year dominance of the Interstate Championships yesterday, taking victory in the state team competition held at Homebush and Queenscliff. Not only did QLD take out the overall Championships, they also took out the Pool, Ocean and Handicap pointscores.

BMD Northcliffe Members Kristyl Smith, Liz Pluimers, Dev Lahey, Stefaan Demopoulos and QLD Cyclones Coach, Barry Newman, all contributed to the success with some impressive results.

In day 1 of competition at Homebush Aquatic Centre, Stefaan Demopoulos took out two individual events, U17 100m Manikan Tow with Fins and U17 200m Super Lifesaver. Dev Lahey won the Open 200m with Obstacles and the Open Line Throw.  

In day 2 of competition, the ocean specialists hit the beach with Liz Pluimers claiming victory in the Open Board and Kristyl Smith with victories in the Open Ski and Ironwoman events. Dev Lahey also backed up with a win in the Open Male Surf Race.  

For all the results from the Interstate Championships click here.

BMD Northcliffe Duo Claim KNG Crowns

BMD Northcliffe's Shannon Eckstein & Courtney Hancock took out their overall series KNG crowns at Noosa Last weekend. While both finished with only a 5th placing in the final round at Noosa, it was enough to secure Shannon's 6th KNG Ironman crown and Courtney's maiden Ironwoman Series crown.

Noosa Beach provided small clean waves which allowed for fast, close racing.  Despite torrential rain and thunder storms, thousands of brave spectators stuck around for the action packed racing.

In the Men's race, which was reduced from 5 races to 3 races due to lightning, BMD Northcliffe's Zane Holmes became the only male this season to notch up 2 race wins after also winning round 4 at Portsea. The win also gave him 3rd place overall for the series.

In the women's race, BMD Northcliffe's Elizabeth Pluimers claimed her 4th race victory of the season. In the overall in the series Elizabeth finished 2nd behind Courtney with club mate's Kristyl Smith finishing in 4th and Bonnie Hancock in 10th. The top 10 in both the mens and womens gain automatic qualification into the 2011/12 series.

For detailed results go to http://surfironmanseries.com/