Concerns have been raised for athletes while Ethan Callaghan’s Summer of Surf win has changed the game: The Shore Thing
A small detail in Ethan Callaghan’s stunning Summer of Surf win signals huge changes for the sport, concerns have been raised about the safety of athletes in some parts while there has been another development ahead of the 2024 Coolangatta Gold. This is The Shore Thing
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The first major race of the season has been held and it unearthed a young star who could shake up iron racing forever.
Sharks appeared in nipper clinics, concerns have been raised about the safety of athletes on the Gold Coast a legend of surf sports made his racing return.
Find out the biggest news of the sport in this week’s The Shore Thing.
WHY CALLAGHAN’S WIN SIGNALS NEW ERA FOR IRON RACING
The greatest ironman win renowned coach Michael King has ever seen could become the new norm for Ethan Callaghan and there is one specific reason why.
The 17-year-old has become the athlete to watch for the summer after announcing himself with a breakthrough win at the Hayden Kenny Classic Summer of Surf ironman final where he beat out the likes of Ali Day and Matt Bevilacqua to claim victory.
The Burleigh Heads athlete was with the leaders on the opening board leg at Alexandra Headlands last Saturday, took the lead from Northcliffe’s Auden Parish in the swim leg and extended the margin in the ski to win.
It’s his work in the swim leg that has put the surf sports world on notice.
Day has become one of the greatest of all time thanks largely to his ability to break the hearts of rivals in the swim leg of iron races.
Day looked set to do it again in the Classic when he mowed down Parish in the swim but Callaghan, who jumped in shoulder to shoulder with the Surfers Paradise legend, not only stayed with him, but put a gap on him.
“Swimming is my best leg and (Day) wasn’t coming up on me,” Callaghan said.
“I managed to pull away.”
The win could be the first glimpse of a new era of iron racing as another young athlete steps from the shadows to mount his case to be Day’s heir.
Burleigh coach King coached Day to his first Nutri-Grain Series win at Mooloolaba over Shannon Eckstein, mentored Matt Poole to a maiden win and has witnessed it all.
But nothing eclipses what happened on the Sunshine Coast beach last week.
“It’s the best win I have ever seen,” King said.
“For a field that was stacked with talent, for a 17-year-old to be so fearless and go out there and race his own race was incredible.
“It is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I had a few tears in my eyes because I knew he was progressing well but to say that he was going to do that, I could never do it.”
King said Callaghan had now proven he could match it with the best.
“He knows it now. If he dedicates himself and keeps putting himself in good spots then he is a good chance to win those races.”
It was Callaghan’s first Summer of Surf final but there have been multiple signs of the teenager’s rise.
He won both his heats at the event, made the final of the Nutri-Grain Ironman trials and is the first-reserve for the series.
Callaghan described the moment he knew he had sealed his career highlight.
“I went down the wave on the ski coming back to the beach and it started to sink in that I had done it,” he said.
“The whole beach was cheering for me and all my club mates came over. It was amazing.
“I went home that night and watched the race with my family and dad was my handler at the race. I think he was crying.”
Father Travis was originally from Western Australia but came to the Gold Coast to compete as a professional ironman while Callaghan’s uncle Aaron Bitmead was a highly regarded board paddler.
“It was nerve-racking and emotional,” Callaghan’s mother Nat said.
“When he went to the lead on the board I knew he could win it.”
SHARK IN THE WATERS
Over 800 participants turned out for what could have been the biggest nipper session of all time in Western Australia as part of Race Week at the end of November and they had a special guest join them.
Just 10m off shore was a decent size shark cruising in the gutter.
But despite the toothy friend’s visit the session was a raging success, with some of the world’s best iron men and women joining the coaching ranks for the event.
‘SOMEONE COULD DIE’
Northcliffe president David Shields has labelled the Oceanway footpath that now extends past the surf club as a disaster waiting to happen.
The path was extended to reach Northcliffe and north up to Main Beach and beyond this year but it has been causing havoc for clubbies ever since.
The influx of pedestrians hasn’t been an issue but the high volume of people on electric bikes and scooters has caused concern.
Northcliffe and others have a vast number of junior and senior athletes who have to cross the Oceanway while carrying large skis and boards from the sheds down to the beach.
“It is an accident waiting to happen,” Shields said.
“The people walking and running on the path are no issue but the speed at which some are going on electric bikes and scooters has made it so dangerous.
“We have nippers and open athletes carrying large equipment who could accidentally collide with someone on the path.
“Someone could die. I have spoken with (Gold Coast City) Council about it and we have put up signs in a bid to slow people down.”
PUT A CAP ON IT
Surf Life Saving Australia nearly had its own representative at the Summer of Surf Hayden Kenny Classic at Alexandra Headland last weekend.
For many of the athletes the caps they compete in are doubled-sided. One has the colours of their club and the other has the red and yellow SLSA colours used for beach patrol.
Surfers Paradise athlete Lucy Derbyshire, one of the most talented ironwomen coming through the ranks, nearly got to the line while having the SLSA design showing.
But some friendly participants pointed it out moments before the race and she was back sporting the yellow and blue of her club.
GOLDEN DOCUMENTARY
The Summer of Surf announced this week they were producing a four-part documentary series that will detail the journey of the athletes this summer and there looks to be a second in the works.
It’s understood Surf Life Saving Australia are preparing to produce a documentary for the 2024 Coolangatta Gold.
It will follow the training and preparation conducted by select athletes from early next year and film right up to the end of the race in October.
TOEING THE LINE
Ali Day has had his own injury troubles over the past couple of years but it was a couple of broken toes to his son Danny that interrupted his preparation for the Hayden Kenny Classic last weekend.
Day revealed Danny had broken a couple of toes in recent times and the toddler found himself in a moon boot.
It seems he shares the same sense of adventure as his father who on his heat and then placed second in the ironman final to go to the top of the rankings with $27,500 in prizemoney won so far in the SOS series.
LEGEND PADDLES AGAIN
Ky Hurst is a legend of surf sports. An ironman icon who shined during the cereal wars era, an Olympic swimmer and elite sailor.
It’s been over 10 years since he competed in an individual ski race but the Mermaid SLSC coach was back on the boat at the Hayden Kenny Classic.
Hurst came within one point of making the final after finishing third in his heat, sixth in the quarterfinal and 10th in the semi-final.
“I wanted to do the heat and I didn’t think I would keep getting through the rounds,” Hurst said.
“I hadn’t done the training and the more races I did the more fatigued I felt.
“There was this cool moment in the taplin as well when me and Ali (Day), were the first ski paddlers and we got tagged together.
“We raced together many years ago so it was great running up the beach together again.”
Mermaid’s Bonnie Palmer was also among the stars to compete and Hurst revealed she could have won the women’s ski if not for a secret injury.
Palmer won her ski heat and finished fourth in the final.
“She broke her toe about a month ago and got beaten up the beach due to a lack of running but her paddling was extraordinary,” Hurst said.
“She was the anchor leg in the taplin and pulled back a few places.”
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