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Kai Ellice-Flint in the Juniors. All photos by Stuart Fraser
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Named for Australia’s oldest competitive surfer, the lithe and genial 83-year-old Barry “Magoo” McGuigan, again the annual Magoo Charity Classic on the NSW Central Coast has delivered a great weekend of fun and surf and raised a good wack of money to donate to cancer care and research on the coast.
We are estimating over the $40,000 dollar mark for 2012 and that will take the event to a staggering figure of over $300,000 Dollars raised since the competitions inception in 1999. Absolutely Amazing! And only possible through the generosity of the sponsors and dedication of all the people behind the scenes and the competitors.
The Saturday saw the Central Coast Malibu Club crew meet at Soldiers Beach at 6.00am, bleary eyed and without the bushy tails. The swell had picked up to a decent 4 ft plus and was reasonably smooth with a light, frosty cross-shore WSW wind. The venue was great with a huge grassed area now available in front of the newly built Soldiers Surf Club allowing plenty of room for the spectators, sponsors and organisers.
The set up was done at light speed and the event kicked off very close to the predicted 7.00am, with the Lions Club getting the food and coffee under way. The first few rounds enjoyed the smooth conditions but the wind kept creeping around to the south, and by mid morning it was a 20 knot SE gale making the conditions really testing with the prediction it was going to reach 25 knots. It didn’t disappoint.
Toukley Family Practice were doing their best to get a banner up on site, and the Tally & Judging tents were bulging like hot air balloons. Conditions went from bad to atrocious forcing the contest organisers to postpone the last 4 events of the day till Sunday morning, in the hope of better conditions. In the end it was great to get off the beach and start warming up for the Auction at the Norah Head Sporties.
The Auction was a top night with plenty of great items and an enthusiastic crowd getting rowdier by the hour thanks to the Sporties kicking in free drink tickets to lubricate the tonsils. Deb and Amanda did an awesome job of keeping track of all the goods flying around, everything from Boards to Fire extinguishers, and Sojo was breathing through his ears as he kept spruiking all the great items. Not sure when it all ended suffice to say a content and extremely sound nights sleep was had, as the echoes of chain saws rose above the crashing waves.
Sunday dawned and it was looking to be a cracker of a day with not a cloud in the sky, all we needed was Huey to come to the party. The Soldier’s check revealed a decent kick in the swell, jumping to the 6-8ft range and it wasn’t too friendly. The scouts were out checking Lakes and Little Bombie when the report came in it was going to be Little Bombie (Magoo's back yard) all this done in the space of half an hour. After a quick phone call to the president of the Norah Head Rescue at the not so pleasant time of 6.30am we gained permission to use their area to set up and without their good will it would have been a tough day, apologies for the phone call and many thanks for a fantastic setup area.
The high tide early was not doing the break to many favors, but with the swell direction and offshore wind predicted for the day, the lower tide would definitely bring in some good waves. The first half a dozen heats struggled in the full conditions with a few guys riding the righthander in front of the judging tent, definitely a short board and body board break but a some of the competitors in the Open 9 made it look easy.
By mid morning it was getting better by the minute and there were some cracking head to over head lefthanders shooting into the Bay with the Over 60s enjoying some of the best waves of the day.
It doesn’t get any better than this, sunny warm day, offshore conditions, great swell, food on hand from the lions club to assist with coming to terms with the auctions festivities (hangover I think), and all in Magoo's back yard, Saturdays conditions just disappeared from memory.
There was some absolutely awesome surfing happening in all the divisions with Kai Ellice –Flint in the Open 9s and Jason Livingstone in the Open 8s real standouts on the day, bagging doubles and taking out their respective divisions. Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to all the competitors that made the weekend such a great success.
A weekend such as this does not come together without a lot of effort and organization from the CCMB members, to all the committee and helpers Sojo, Amanda, Marshall, Greg, Simon, Phil, Paul, Ron, Tony, Hayzie, Debbie and Barry, thank you all for an amazing effort. To All the members that helped on the weekend thank you, and to Leanne we would have been lost without your amazing effort in the tally tent.
The Sponsors came to the fore again and helped us raise some amazing funds please support our major sponsors George Brand Toukley & Killarney Vale, Booths Hyundai, Buzza Boardshorts, Sea Fm and of course Macintype Design who design manage and run the amazing website, there are many more sponsors to thank so get to the website and check them all out and we hope to see you all back next year.
OH MAGOO YOU’VE DONE IT AGAIN
- report by Geoff Balkin, Central Coast Malibu Club President
Division winners: Sea FM Open Women- Debbie Allen / Over 60s- Danny Bond / Over 55- Ken Gardner / Macintype Design Over 50- Simon Smith / Over 45- Kevin Slattery / Over 40 – Jason Livingstone /Over 28s David Hayes / Under 18- Kai Ellice-Flint / Old Mal –Simon Smith / SUP- Andrew Cassidy / Booths Hyundai Open 8- Jason Livingstone / George Brand Open 9 Kai Ellice-Flint
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| David Witt in the final of the Over 28s |
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| Corey Buxton in the Open 8-foot |
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| George Haska and a solid one in the Over 45s |
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| Hugh Daugaard takes a long line in the Under 18s |
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