Thank you to everyone who attended our season opening event tonight at Corsair Bay.  The conditions were perfect to launch what we hope will be our best summer of Surf n Turf racing yet.  Don’t forget to wear you Surf n Turf swim cap to the pool when you are training next time and if we see you wearing it we will leave something for you at the end of the lane to enjoy at the conclusion of your training swim.

The 3km open water swim was taken out by Andrew Black in a time of 37:53 and first women in the 3km swim was Jodie Lovell in a time of 45:18.

The 2km open water swim was taken out by Wayne Campbell in a time of 25:10 with the first women home being CArlyn Purvis in a time of 28:39

The 1km open water swim was taken out by Steve Marshall in a time of 14:09 (might be time to move up to the bigger distance Steve) and the first women home was Karen Hurley in a time of 16:29

The 500m open water swim was taken out by Leanne Ferry in a time of 9:26 with Quinton Hurley being the first man home with a time of 10:34

Full results are on our results page, go there by clicking here.

The Surf n Turf series kicks into full swing after Christmas with the first of our Wednesday evening Ocean Swim and Aquthon series events starting on January 25th at Corsair Bay with mid week racing every Wednesday for 8 weeks.  We are back at Pegasus Town again on Feb 5th for the second of our Endurance events with this being two weeks out from the State Le Grand Swim at Akaroa it is an ideal warm up event for the State Ocean Swim Series Event.

We would like to thank our sponsors that supported this first event this morning, these were 2xu, High5 Sports Nutrition, Pegasus Town, Sport Canterbury and House of Travel. 

Don’t forget about the trip to Rarotonga for the Air New Zealand International Triathlon which incorporates an Ocean Swim event as part of the week of events.  This trip is in May 2012 and we are aiming to have 20 of us going along this year.  For more information talk to Steve Marshall from House of Travel Barrington

These new events are going to be run completely separate to the regular Wednesday night Ocean Swims at Corsair Bay.

Entry for these events is now open so to enter click here.

The two events will be held on Sunday mornings, with one event being held before Christmas and the other event being held in early February.

Race Dates:

Race One: Sunday December 18th 2011 Enter Now

Race Two: Sunday February 5th 2012 Enter Now

Race Distances:

Race One: 500m, 1000m, 2000m or 3000m

Race Two: 500m, 1000m, 2000m or 4000m

Entry Fees:

500m & 1000m – $20.00

2000m – $25.00

3000m & 4000m – $30.00

Late Entry Fee – Additional $5.00

Entries close at 5pm on the Saturday prior to each event. Race day entries will be available for an additional $5.00

Group discounts will apply where three or more people from one household register together

Thanks to the team at House of Travel Barrington we are able to bring you a fantastic package to attend this great week of events in Rarotonga. You can download the flyer for the 2012 House of Travel package deal to the Rarotonga International Triathlon by clicking here. In the meantime why not get in contact with Steve Marshall and his team at House of Travel Barrington (you can find them in the Barrington Mall next to The Warehouse) and talk to one of their travel agents to book your seat on the plane!  If you are looking for a bit more information about the Air New Zealand International Triathlon and all the associated events you can check out their website here.

Order yours now by clicking here.

Despite the weather we had 114 people line up for the start of race one (one of our smallest fields in two years) and as one competitor pointed out to me, while it was cold if we had been over at Corsair Bay the weather would have been far worse! We hope that apart from the cold air temperature everyone enjoyed the chance to race in the warm fresh water lake.

Results Summary:
Long Course Swim 900m
Men: 1st Zac Barber 12:42, 2nd Jack King 13:37, 3rd Paul Brady 13:56
Women; 1st Kerry Newton 13:57, 2nd kath Atkin 14:00, 3rd Liz Beaglehole 14:30
Short Course Swim 530m
Men: 1st Steve Marshall 7:34, 2nd Stephen Gellen 9:31, 3rd Chris Hutchinson 11:57
Women: 1st Melanie Isherwood 10:46, 2nd Tessa shankie 11:53, 3rd Leanne Foote 12:22
Super Shor Swim 400m
Men: 1st Joseph Hutchinson 9:11, 2nd Scott Blair 10:02, 3rd Mike Pacey 11:47
Women: 1st Rebecca Kiesanauski 33:56
Long Course Aquathon 530m swim – 5km run
Men: 1st Rob Creasy 26:44, 2nd Heath Eckersley 30:40, 3rd Matt Mace 31:02
Women: 1st Julia Grant 29:29, 2nd Jaye Atkin 29:40, 3rd Laura Wood 30:12
Short Aquathon 400m Swim – 3km Run
Men: 1st Nigel Shatford 21:58, 2nd Noel Dew 25:46, 3rd Steve Hammond 25:55
Women: 1st Kiri Atkin 20:09, 2nd Melanie Jane 23:17, 3rd Ella harris 21:22
Kayak/Surf Ski 5km
1st hayden Lockie 29:10, 2nd Glen Menzies 29:41, 3rd Lisa Speirs 35:26
Multisport Aquathon 3.5km paddle – 5km run
1st Murray Johnstone 44:36, 2nd Anna Akers 59:00
SUP
Men: 1st Dan Smith 24:02, 2nd Andrew Taylor 24:42, 3rd Wayne Simmons 25:53
Women: 1st Lucy Hodgson 31:15, 2nd Sharon Pruton 32:35
5.5km Run
1st Rainer Pye 21:53, 2nd Peter King 28:09
3km Run
1st Jacqui Frizelle 18:24

We did have a box of Cadbury Crunchies which we were going to give to the winners of each race this summer, however some people helped themselves to these during the race so when we went to get the box there were only 3 left in there! So as a result there won’t be any Cadbury Crunchies to give to winners this summer!
A full copy of the results are available to download from our website www.surfnturf.co.nz/results

One final thing that might put a smile on your faces, after you all left last night and we started to pack all our stuff back into the trailer (in the freezing cold) just to top off the night all the sprinklers around us decided to turn on and soak us for 15 minutes!

Next weeks race is back at Corsair Bay where the course will be a simple triangle like we are used to! We would appreciate it if you are able to pre enter to save us time on the night. We have to manually enter all the late entries into our laptop before we can start the race so if you pre enter we can do this the night before. If you haven’t already entered for race two then you can do so now from our website www.surfnturf.co.nz/enter

This summer we will be offering all our old events, plus a few new ones. Our old events include an Ocean Swim series and an Aquathon series with distances for all levels of ability.

Our new events include three paddle options; a Stand Up Paddle race series, Surf Ski race series & a Kayak race series and for those who prefer to keep their feet dry we will also be offering a Run only race option with 3km & 5km race options.

Entering its fifth season the Surf n Turf series encourages participants of all abilities to enjoy a regular form of healthy outdoor exercise in a relaxed social environment.  The events this summer will start in December and run through to the end of February 2011.

If you have participated in the series before you will notice that we have a completely new look for this summer.  With the addition of two new event options we felt that our old logo and associated marketing material was no longer relevant to the wide range of events that we offer so we have been through a massive refresh, new logo, new website, new online entry system and new marketing material.

It been an exhausting exercise but hopefully it will bring a fresh new group of competitors along to the events this summer making our already successful series even more popular.  We would love to hear your thoughts about our new look, especially with the website we will be continually updating and tweaking the website over the next month or so to make sure that it is easy to find information and adding content.  Feel free to post your comments below!