River Festival Pig Island 8 Km Race

Sunday’s Pig Island 8 km race

12 competitors raced the 8km race around Pig Island – 9 on raceboards and 3 fearless SUP’ers on non-raceboards. Conditions were perfect – glassy and no wind, with the tide bringing the racers back to the finish line. View a stack of photos here.

1st to arrive back was Pirate Pete (who may have missed around 6 or 7kms of the course) – great effort though Pete. Have to get you on a raceboard next time!

Paul Mackie didn’t disappoint and “officially” came in 1^st quite a way ahead of the rest of the field (and winning the Raceboard Open Mens)! He then paddled back out onto the course to accompany other competitors and stayed out on the water to paddle home with the final sup’er – Good on you Paul!

Macka came in a close 2^nd, 8 minutes behind Paul (winning the Raceboard Over 50’s Mens) – Will he now be a convert from surfing events to the flat water?? Second in the Over 50’s was our Vice-President Loren Keller who flew for his first time on a race board – (usually he performs with a harmonica and guitar)!

Two brave girls competed against the 10 men and first across the line was the flying Lisa Cross (winning the Womens Open division) and 7^th overall, with Trish Mackie coming in a few minutes behind, (winning the over 50’s Womens) and 8^th overall!

Placings in the hotly contested Raceboard Open Mens division were: 1^st Paul Mackie, 2^nd Lance Milnes (who travelled down from Fairy Meadow to race), 3^rd Mason Keane (who left his bonsai business unattended for the morning and can usually be found in the surf), 4^th and 5^th were Mark Garthon and Scott Garthon, who were released from their duties with Hobie and Totally Immersed just long enough to complete the 8km.

Richard Butler and Steve Crumpton battled it out in the Non-Raceboard Open Mens, with Richard coming in 1^st and Steve 2^nd. Yes guys – 8kms is a long way on a non-raceboard – so well done!

A special thank you to our “official” photographer for the day, Maddie Cross who took some superb photos after backing up from the Doggy Dash the previous day – thanks Maddie!

View the photos here.