MOWING DOWN A DIFFERENT GOAL
IT was late April and the Aussies were due to kick off just a few hundred metres down the coast.
But instead, Northcliffe surf lifesaving coaches and staff found themselves downing handler vests and goggles for of a different kind.
End-of-season busy bees are nothing new for Northcliffe coaching staff.
But their most recent clean-up could stand for months after state and Aussie titles were cancelled in March due to COVID-19.
“We had a mini debrief among ourselves and, a lot like the athletes, we felt like we’d been ripped off,” said head women’s coach Naomi Flood. “We’re there every session with them and at the club every day so it was a sad end to the season.
“Instead, we’ve been doing a lot of maintenance work at the club, cleaning up, relabelling racks, doing a few tip runs and making sure things are in good working order when we get back.”
Flood, who has been forced to postpone her June wedding plans, said the hardest part of the global sport shutdown was not having an end date set. “We don’t know where the finish line is,” she said.
“There was a sense of emptiness when Aussies was cancelled but what followed was the unknown of how long the off-season is going to be.
“We’ll go back to the drawing board and see what events, if any, are going to run because when things do kick off again, it’s going to be busy.
“Every other sport in the world has been forced to adapt but it’s a good time for athletes to enjoy sleep-ins and upskill in other ways.”
And though she’d have preferred an Aussies campaign, Flood said the Shannon Eckstein Ironman Classic was a fitting end to the surf season.
“If that was the last event of the season then it was bloody fantastic,” she said.
“It’s important our sport goes back to what it was.”
IT’S A GOOD TIME FOR ATHLETES TO ENJOY SLEEP-INS AND UPSKILL IN OTHER WAYS.
NAOMI FLOOD