"Surfboat Crew 1 - See How it ..." a Coogee Travel Page by aussiedoug

These photos are in chronological order from the way out to the way back in.

They almost seem boring after watching the excitement of the inexperience bordering almost on imcompetence of Crew 2 in their photos.

But take a moment or two to watch the perfection of these guys all rowing in unison like a well oiled machine.

And here you get a bit of the background scenery of the southern headland of Coogee Beach up to South Coogee.

But take another look at the form of these rowers. Enlarge this picture not just to enjoy the scenery (which is worth it in its own right), but to appreciate how well these young Aussies are propelling this boat along through, almost over, the water so smoothly.

Even in there stillness in this photo we can the synchronicity, the readiness of their oars, ready to dip back into the water when that line of swell, indicating an approaching wave, becomes evident & the Sweep says, "This is the one boys row!"

But it's not here yet. Soon will be though (yep, next photo as a matter of fact. lol!)

Look at those oars& the wave selcetion by the Sweep of Crew 1 shows Crew 2 one way they went wrong.

The wave isn't too big & not too small. With the right timing they'll be sliding down the face of this nice little wave ever so smoothly.

Let's see how they do it!

Look at how those guys, once again so smoothly, move to the back so their weight keeps the nose of the boat up.

No chance of this boat nosediving. Look how the nose is just a good height out of the water.

In all seriousness I've seen a surfboat come down a wave, albeit quite a bigger wave than this, nosedive & do a complete flip, with rowers being injured & one man's head split open necessitating stitches.

There was never any chance of anything like that happening with these guys because not only did the crew distribute their weight perfectly, but the Sweep is keeping them moving in the right direction down the wave's face, straight towards shore!

Gr8 stuff Sweep & Crew!

Yes just about at shore, but you can see there's still no time to relax.

You can also see the Sweep is still hard at work. Here close to the shore you can get all sorts of little bits of side chop & currents which needs the Sweep to not only be vigilant, but also use his strenght to keep that boat steering straight.

Great work Crew 1!