Five members of local outrigging club Geographe Outriggers, Tony and Jill Johansen, Sharon Anderson and Kim and Marnie Davis attended the annual NOC the Rock Norfolk Island Challenge in January.
This five-day outrigging event attracted 138 paddlers from around Australia and as far away as Hawaii and featured a gruelling 26km iron race around the island, a 12km mid-distance race and sprint racing in beautiful Emily Bay. While the crew trained on Geographe Bay for eight months prior to the regatta, the ocean conditions around Norfolk Island were challenging to say the least.
"Our bay is quite protected while Norfolk is in the Pacific Ocean and has some rather massive swells. In fact, the ocean was that big the week prior the regatta, it was almost postponed as canoes couldn't be launched from Cascade Pier at that time," crew member Marnie Davis said. "Thankfully the swells dropped a bit and the regatta was able to proceed, albeit still in some pretty big ocean! One of the amazing challenges of the racing is paddling through the natural arch. This is only eight metres wide and in big swells, is a heart-thumping rollercoaster ride. Something this crew will long remember! One of the other crews didn't even attempt it so we are pretty chuffed that we not only got through, but finished the race in one piece!"
Team coach Jill Johansen said the crew were all keen to go again next year and hoped to get another mixed crew to join with them.
