Surf lifesaving: Westshore dads capture gold

The Westshore surfboat crew which won gold at the nationals. From left are Jamie Thompson, Rob Robinson, Eric Forster, Aidan Charman and Jude Minor. Photo/supplied

For a bunch of fathers who followed their kids along to surf lifesaving the Westshore Red surfboat crew are doing themselves and club proud.

"That's all we are. Only one of us did surf lifesaving in their younger days and that gold medal is the result of four years of effort," Jude Minor said as he reflected on the crew's victory in the 160-180 years (the combined age of the four rowers, the sweep isn't included) at the national championships which ended on New Brighton Beach in Christchurch at the weekend.

The victorious crew consisted of Minor, who was in a Westshore lineup which won bronze in Ohope in 2014, sweeper Aidan Charman, who competed as a teenager, Eric Forster and Rob Robinson.

They recorded two firsts and a second to beat five other crews in two divisions at the nationals. This title followed a second placing to Fitzroy of New Plymouth in a national series which they won last year.

"The nationals is like our FA Cup and the series is like the Premier League," Forster quipped as he compared the crew's feats with those of English football teams.

Minor pointed out consistent hard work was the key to the crew's success this summer.

"We trained during the winter when it was dark and cold early in the morning. That's something we haven't done before but it paid off."

The national series involved events in Wellington, Waihi, Whangamata and Piha. They also travelled to Piha again for the Big Wave Classic which was called off after one race because of dangerous seas which saw two IRB crew members require medical attention.

The Trevor Miles-coached crew will be one of three surfboat teams from the Westshore club in action during the surf lifesaving segment of the World Masters Games which will be staged at Takapuna Beach next month.

"It would be nice to medal up there but we know it is going to be tough. The fierce rivalry between our three crews will be a challenge on its own. Trevor [Miles] will be competing for the club's 220 years-plus crew so I don't think we will be getting too many tips from him once we arrive in Auckland," Minor said.

Robinson collected a knee injury and will be replaced by Daniel Murfitt for the Auckland trip. William Colenso College principal Murfitt was in the same 2014 crew as Minor which won bronze and drew the short straw to miss out on the Christchurch trip.

The crew had Monday off to recover from the journey south but were out training again at 6am yesterday. They will continue to train twice during the week and once on weekends in the countdown to Auckland.

"It's not dark during our weekend training sessions. We do well to get five fathers together for that number of trainings," Minor added.

Ocean Beach Kiwi did the best of the Bay clubs at the nationals with an eighth placing. Waimarama were 26th and Westshore 31st. Mount Maunganui won the champs for the fifth consecutive time and were followed by Mairangi Bay, Waikanae, Piha and Orewa on the leaderboard.

No Hawke's Bay athletes were selected in the New Zealand Open squad named after the champs. However, Ocean Beach Kiwi sprinters Ben Lewis and Joshua Lee were selected in the New Zealand Development and Youth squads respectively.