Pye Australian Surf Ski Challenge

Personal display picture of the 1984 PYE Surf Ski Challenge.
Competitors of the Pye Ski challenge..
The Pye Australian Ski Challenge was a 271 km paddle from Forster to North Bondi. Two members representing North Bondi, Dean Morrow and Bob Irwin, competed the challenge in 1984 and then again 1986.
Morrow wrote, “We began our assault one week after the Australian Championships beginning with hour paddle and weight sessions. Slowly we increased the sessions and by the time of the race in September we were doing 6-hour training sessions. The hardest thing was trying to find a destination that took 6 hours to paddle to. Before we could put any of our training into action we had to have a land crew. Five people came to our rescue. They were Stewart Balley, George Shales, Peter Morrow, Stuart Marrow and Trish Gilligan. We left for Forster on 2 September in a Club bus. Disaster struck when just outside of Forster when Bob’s back up ski came off the trailer and could not be used. The first day of the race started at 4.30am to prepare for our 66km paddle to Hawkes Nest. The second day was a 61km paddle to Merewether Beach. This was by far the hardest day out of the four as there were no stops and over half the scenery along the leg consisted of monotonous sand dunes. The third day was a 68km paddle from Merewether to Avoca then a 56km from Avoca to Bondi with a stop at Collaroy Beach. Of the 65 people who started the marathon, 52 finished the challenge. I finished 25th and Bob finished 23rd.”