Torquay Boardriders 2017

This year was another bumper ride for the Torquay Boardriders Club as we continue to grow in size and strength, and we celebrated our year in great fashion at Bar 61 on Saturday night.

Again our largest challenge was increased participation numbers at events and I am really proud of the way we have adapted to this and the steps we have implemented to ensure our rich history and core values are maintained.

On the competitive front, our year has been highlighted with our 8th consecutive Victorian Teams Title, with a narrow win over our rivals in small conditions at Jan Juc. We also claimed our second consecutive Junior Teams title as well, showing our strength and depth. This is a massive highlight for me as President, seeing the way our community gets together and backs our Angels into battle.

TBC is also the only club in the country with two current Australian Junior Champions in India Robinson (U/18 Girls) and Xavier Huxtable (U/16 Boys). These two represented our club with pride at the ISA World Junior Titles in Japan, with India finishing 6th overall and Xav 11th.

This week 12 of our members will head off as part of Team Victoria for the Australian Junior Titles to be held at Culburra. We wish our Bells Angels all the best as they take on Australia’s best!

On Saturday night we crowned a total of 14 divisional winners from our competitive season, where a surfer’s best four results from the six event season count to their end of year rating. With divisions ranging from U/8 unisex to O/55 men, it was an epic gathering of our club community.

Our Open Men’s division saw a three horse title race going into the final event of the year at Jan Juc, with Harry Mann, Todd Rosewall and Xav Huxtable all in the running.

When the dust settled from “one of the best Open Men’s finals this decade”, we declared Xavier Huxtable (pictured right with Open Women’s winner Bella Wilson) the champion. This is an incredible achievement from Xavier, who at only 15 years old makes him the youngest Open Champion the club’s rich 39 year history!

Our Open Women’s division was taken out by the current Victorian Open Champion Bella Wilson who put on some blistering performances throughout the season.

Our two specialty events; the Australia Day Single Fin and Hells Bells, both ran in great conditions and received huge turnouts from our club family.

Our club would be nothing without the monumental support from our amazing sponsors and the incredible work done by our committee.

On behalf of the club I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to TBC in 2017 and I am really looking forward to watching our club continue to go from strength to strength in 2018 and beyond.

Key upcoming dates:
December 6th – AGM at Bar 61.
December 9th – Australian Boardriders Battle.

Cahill Bell-Warren
President
#GOHARDORGOHOME