The Word

And the word is ? Hey, that’s a bloody good question. What IS the word?
Is it ‘terrific’, or ‘fantastic’, or … should we curb our enthusiasm and just call it ‘enjoyable’. Everyone I spoke to certainly enjoyed the event.
‘ Fun’ is also a great word. We all had a lot of fun.
‘ Rooted’… yes, that’s how we felt after surfing in that gusty north-easter on Saturday, then partying like crazy at the Neanderthal night. Ooga Ooga !
‘ Fried’… Racing those SUPs in the heat of a semi-summer Sunday saw raw skin cop a real beating. Bet the competitor in the man-kini wishes he’d rubbed sunscreen over a place where the sun doesn’t usually shine
‘ Satisfied’… (did we all do our best?) Yes we saw to that. Tick that box.
‘ Apprehensive’… that photos on face book may reveal some drunken party animals burning up the dance floor at the disco. Send those amazing photos in soon please Joel.
‘ Stupid’ (did you really think that your boss would believe that you were sick, on the last weekend of November… again )
OK… Craig Thomson was back in town with his throttle flat to the floor. He didn’t pack his A.D.D medicine… that was the problem. Being a slight extravert doesn’t help, but he recently went ‘over the top’ with a special dance move. On his second crack at it he hit the spilled beer on the dance floor and wham…he ‘cracked’ his wrist. Slow down Craig. Your bones become brittle at your age, old buddie.
Speaking of old buddies…Dave Frame was in fine form. His time in New Guinea was revealed when he wore some amazing tusks to the party and gibbered away in Pidgeon English all night. Dave is 72 years young so we forgive him his trespasses. Lookem you later one-talk bro.

Joffa won a beautiful Surf Tech SUP for having his name drawn last on presentation night. Seems he was spiraling into despair (when he thought we’d lost his form), and then he couldn’t believe his luck when he found out he kicked a huge goal and won the fantastic ST prize. Go hard from now on Joffa, the tide has turned and you’re in God’s Pocket… 100% YES ! ( Joffa’s word is ‘ecstatic’)

The sponsors were more than generous. The prizes this year amounted to about sixty grand or so and Xmas once again came early. How can we thank all you dudes for this, is the big question. We are ‘humbled’ by your wonderful spirit of giving. In a world of ‘take -take –take’ we see in ‘The Classic’ a new world direction (in a ‘classic’ sense). Give give give is alive and well and happening whether we’re referring to a material gift or simply a smile or helping hand. I heard one guy drove a convoy of drinkers to and from the club… and how hard does Phil and his team work in the heat of the barbeque each year? Steak steak steak !
The word for Scotty O’Connor is probably ‘re-leaved’ (he finally dragged himself off his pleasure palace in the Pacific and took a little leave from having to surf massive barrels to come and see us). No, we certainly don’t do massive barrels here mate.
But hey, lookem me-fella, I’m slipping back into that word game. I just realized that the word 'bewildered’ comes to mind. Like, where was Evil Al ?
The rumour is that he has taken a bride who now does all the cooking.
Where were all the delicious slice cakes this year darling ?

What about this year’s theme? Our young artist, Stan Squire, was responsible for our poster, and it’s a pity he wasn’t there on Saturday night to see the ‘jungle boogie’ in full swing. Went totally OFF ! Thanks Stan… you’re the man! You guys are really starting to understand that those who go to the trouble of getting outrageously dressed have the most fun. (How wild was the ‘truck brothers’ ‘ape man’ drummer dude)

But what will we come up with for our thirty third. No… not the ‘dirty turd’ (as some filthy smutso has suggested.) I’m sure the creative juices will soon flow and we’ll all go ‘go go go’. Your suggestions are welcome for next year’s theme. John Smythe was well behaved. He has learned to pace himself and was not the screaming dancing freak he turned into last year on Saturday night when he accepted too many ‘bribes’. Very sedate mate. Just a wiggle and a shake this year. It might have something to do with the fact that he had to be in the shed each morning at six to relieve the security guard..and John’s not getting any younger. But some are. Warwick Lee never ages. His mum and dad don’t either. His dad’s ninety, and was dancing around like John Travolta, and his mum looked sweet, like our very own Olivia Newton John (before she became a tramp in skin tight black satin). God blessum youfellas.
How was the dance performance by that super-slick dude who cut loose in the circle and did back-flips and all that cool groovy Michael Jackson stuff. Sign him up…. Australia’s got talent !

OK, the word for me is… “stuffed” ! But I can take it. We in the Merimbula Sailboard Club are all pretty tough. You can bet with Robbie Waterhouse that ‘we’ll be back’ next year. (We hope.)
Oops…I forgot the word “awesome”.
When that dude paddled down from the gold coast for the Heart Foundation, my heart started to flitter-flutter as the SUPers paddled out en-masse to meet and accompany him back to shore. His name is Ryan Fulton and the hardest paddle is now in front of him as he leaves our beaches and gets down into the wilderness zone south of here. It was a ‘classical’ magic moment to witness his arrival and probably falls into the category of OIM. (only in Merimbula). Ryan was looking fairly exhausted, so we pray he completes his journey safely. Maybe you Melbourne SUPpers should meet him in the bay and make his massive effort more meaningful. Let’s make sure it becomes a big news item on TV so that he gets the finish to this epic challenge that he totally deserves.

I know you all did great, and went ape in the waves, but Ian Aldridge went King Kong ape in that gusty north east wind swell on Saturday. Now that was really ‘surfing’ with the full ‘wow-factor’… hey ?
And John was smart to give the ‘big-air’ money to the wind-surfers this year.
I heard they got some awesome jumps (and ripped some great waves to shreds)
The SUPpers sang for their supper. The song was ‘row row row your boat’… and they did row their boat into some pretty good waves.

So my final conclusion is that AWESOME is “the word”.
I might report more in the next few days… (or then again, I might have to mow the bloody lawn)… who knows ? Please add your stuff to our face book.
We’ve already got about 5000 photos to look at… and that’s an awesome task. SO… let’s start a competition.
Competiton Send us your best photos ( 6 is the maximum number of photos allowed) and we will reward some of you with a T-Shirt/poster at next year’s contest. These can be scenic shots, action shots, party pics or something quirky from around the contest.Get to it and we look forward to seeing your pics.

We thrive on the challenge that we can make this contest better next year, so thanks for coming, lookem you later, and rock up again next year to see just how tough we really are.
Warmly…
Henry