NIPPERS EAST CAPE CHAMPS FEBRUARY 2009

NIPPERS EAST CAPE CHAMPS
28TH FEBRUARY 2009.


Thursday afternoon I had been in Kingwilliamstown for the day. On my way home I was so tired that I had to stop at Nanaga for a short sleep. I phoned Warren to ask if he needed my help for loading the trailer as I really did not feel like going out again. But once I had a wash and changed to shorts and T shirt, I was in a better frame of mind and joined the others at Summies. It was Warren, Clint, Johan, Roger, Shareen and I who loaded the Penny Pinchers trailer. Once Terry had arrived we completed the task of loading the Summies trailer.

Friday afternoon I attended a level test with three young Nippers from Summerstrand. Matthew and Jordan were U10’s and there was an U12 as well. Liesel is doing a great job for Summies. It is great to see how someone like her who is new to Nippers is prepared to take on an administrative job like this.

Level tests is a huge responsibility with lots of personal time required and very little thanks given. The parking at Hobie was almost full due to all of the Ironmen doing their evening swim training. The water was really warm and I loved the swim. All of the Nippers did well and passed their tests. There were also a number of Nippers from newly formed Hobie Beach, some ex Seagulls and there were also some Kings Beach Nippers as well.

At this time there was a group who were busy setting out the Arena’s for the next day’s activities. Today was Barbara’s birthday and while we had nothing special on for the evening I returned home as early as I could. Ally stayed over at Jessica as it was her birthday party and she was having a number of her school friends stay for the night.

Saturday morning I was up early for my morning run. I collected Adrienne and we drove down to Hobie beach. We met up with Andrew Barton and Margie Saunders. Our route was up Walmer Boulevard, Strandfortein and Admiralty. I really enjoy these Saturday runs which end up with a swim. The temperature of the water had dropped a bit from the previous evening but still quite acceptable.

After our swim I collected Ally from Jessica’s house and we prepared for the day at the beach. It had been raining but the air was warm. On Kings beach Clint, Varrin, John, Marius, Andrew, Dion, Warren and some other chaps were already hard at work setting up arena’s. Claire had a team prepared to feed the multitudes in the Tuck Shop. Claire was doing this at short notice as Kings Beach club had pulled out of this duty. She had spent the day doing shopping and in preparation. In addition she had collected the Chafe Vests for the Coaches. Varrin was looking quite dapper in his new Chafe Vest and I was keen to put mine on. I was thrilled with the fit. Not only did the Summies coaches stand out but the vests are really functional. Perhaps a little too warm in the sun but fantastic to swim in and they dry off quickly.

It was raining as we were erecting the tents but early in the morning the sun began to shine and it became quite hot. There was a cloud cover for most of the day but I kept my hat on all day as I have experienced the strength of the sun on a day at the beach like this.

We started the day with numbering the Nippers, Barbara did the U10’s, Liesle the U12’s and Mimi did the U14’s. After the Manager’s meeting, Clint explained some of the rules and we did our normal pre-carnival war cry. Rules that would apply today were: one false start and you would be eliminated, failure to be present during marshalling would mean that you would be excluded from the event, no assistance allowed from coaches in the water, Appeals would be directed to Grant who was the referee for the day. Nippers is a stunning sport for both parents and for the youngsters. Tim is a two time Ironman who tells me that, as a coach, Nippers now takes up as much energy and he is happy to have moved from Ironman training to Nippers.

There were not enough officials to run two arena’s at one time so we started with Flags. At East Cape champs we are only allowed 8 Nippers from each age group and gender. This means that we have to choose and that there are many who may be left out. In the U10’s we had 5 girls: Marion who is the longest standing U10 girl, Erica, Tammy, Alexia and Mieka. U 10 Boys we had 14 of which Luke is the boy who has been a Nipper for the longest. We made Marion and Luke, U10 captains for the day. U14’s started off with flags and the process of elimination slowly worked its way through.

Tara surprised herself a couple of times when she found a free baton. Ally was equally lucky a few times. Our U10’s were mostly eliminated early but we had a couple moving through to the next round. Jonathan and Bailey did well with Jonathan winning the event in the final round. Meika and Marion did well in the Girls section.

The U12 girls was really interesting to watch and there was a wonderful spirit even on elimination. It is good to see how these young girls are now able to accept elimination with a smile. Being eliminated is no disgrace but more it shows the character of being willing to participate knowing that elimination is going to happen to every one of about 64 Nippers except one. The U14 boys turned into a final between Luke and Jason with Luke taking the winning spot.

I joined Thomas as he watched Anka and Mieka. Anka has a great way of taking a baton from under her opponent. On a couple of occasions she seemed to have no chance but came up with the baton in her hand. Even when she was eliminated there was certainly some doubt as it appeared that there should have been a run off but Grant said that she had taken the baton after her opponent. Mieka also did well in the later elimination phases. Thomas made the comment that it was just as well that he was wearing a loose fitting t shirt as he was just bursting with pride.

We then all moved over to the sea where the Iron Nipper competition took place. This is a really tough event and a good swim can make all the difference. Entering and completing this event is not for the fainthearted and we should be proud of every Nipper who participates.

The next event was the Malibu board relay. Shareen had spent the whole morning with the team lists. This is after she had battled to select teams in the first place and now had one Nipper who would not be there and this meant adjusting teams. Also there were a number of U10’s who had to take part in a Gala and were trying to fit both activities into the day. Johan was running between Gelvandale swim pool and Kings Beach. We had four teams in the U10’s and while we did not do well, our teams completed the course and had a great spirit. The Kings beach and Plett U10’s have wonderful teams and may well go on to win Nationals. We have a huge amount of work to be done with our U10 team. We may have to move our practice area in the new season if we are to provide the U10’s with the same quality of training that KB and Plett are giving their U10 squad.

Then came the individual Beach sprint. The event started with U10’s and through a process of elimination which is quite tough, three competitors went through to the Semi finals and then the finals. Jonathan again took honours for the U10 team. Ally did well to make the first round cut. Ally has a great spirit and takes part in every possible event and does not “save herself” for her strongest disciplines.

Finally the day ended off with body board individual and all of the Summies age groups had an excellent participation in this event. As the day ended the rain started to fall. There had been some unpleasant incidents of theft during the day and we heard that a vehicle had been stolen as well as some equipment off the beach. We packed our craft into the KB tent and Clint organised guards for the evening.

The sand, sea and sun has a way of battering the body and after a busy Carnival day we were all pretty shattered. I enjoyed a drink after the event and then was happy to be home for a shower. Our TV at home is giving trouble and so I have been doing more reading than normal. Barbara enjoys these elimination talent shows on TV and Ally was content to find some Internet games to entertain her. That night it rained through the night and we were worried how Sunday would turn out.

Sunday Morning. I was up early and getting ready to leave when it started to rain heavily again. It was only 6am & I called Warren to see if he would be there and we agreed to meet at 6.30. Debbie Derry Sms’d asking” Surely no Nippers?” and my response was: Nippers is for Tough people like Meghan and for even tougher mom’s like you”: Debbie’s response: “So a lie in is out of the question”. I did not respond.

As Warren and I arrived at Kings beach it continued to pour with rain. The walk way to the clubhouse was so deep that I decided to not even try to drive up as I was worried that I may become stuck. We waded up to the clubhouse and found Claire and Clint setting up a tuck shop for the day. Claire was understandably worried as she had catered for 200 Egg and Bacon rolls and 400 Hamburgers plus all the coldrinks and sweets.

Grant arrives and we walked to the beach. Our poor tent looked dirty and bedraggled and was flapping its arms around. The scorers tent was being blown from side to side. I could not imagine the Scorers enjoying being in conditions like that. But the worst of all was the easterly blowing the waves into white water that looked most uninviting. We saw a few blue bottles but that did not seem to be the worst of our troubles. I took off my shorts and shirt and waded into the sea to collect our buoys that had been dislodged and blown to shore.

As more people arrived there seemed to be more and more debate about the options of continuing with the competition. I could not see the U10’s swimming in sea like that as we could not ensure their safety. Surely in all of this; Safety of the children is paramount? However we continued with a managers meeting where Grant explained that if the U10’s could not take part then we could not have a result. This is completely understandable as for example Kings beach is strong in U10’s while Summies is weak in this age group. To leave U10’s out of the equasion gives Summies a huge unfair advantage.

We agreed to talk to the clubs and return at 08.30 for a second round of talks where a vote would be taken. It was decided to go ahead starting with the U14’s in a Run swim Run. The boys went out and it soon became clear that even at this level, safety would be a concern. And at this stage the officials decided that the competition could not carry on.

There were two important Beach events that could be held: the Long Run and the Beach relays. These would be held as fun events. All age groups took part in the long run and this seemed to up spirits of everyone. I saw that a number of people needed to feed their tummies as well and the Egg and Bacon rolls must have been selling well.

Then we held the beach relays. The original sprint arena had to be scrapped as it was full of water and a potential hazard to the runners. We then ran on dryer sand without all the lanes being marked off. At this stage a number of people looked out to the ocean and commented that we could have continued. But what they saw was a easing in a set of waves and swells. However as soon as the sets rolled in we would be back to swimming in conditions where the safety of a Nipper in trouble could not be guaranteed.

The sun began to shine and we all warmed up and I think that it was in a moment of heat exhaustion that someone suggested a coaches beach relay event. Surprisingly this was well received and in no time the clubs had organised teams and they lined up to start the race. Grant was heard to say: “If you adults can’t get yourselves organised then it is no wonder that the Nippers are in disarray when being Marshalled.”

I was hoping that if there was a false start they may disqualify us but no sooner had this thought crossed my mind and some of the teams started running. Then the start whistle was blown. Our team started 20 meters late. And had no chance. But boy did we run. Or so we thought! As the relay ended I saw the group of Summies Moms (Barbara, Debbie, Jacqui and Ingrid) walking towards us with contorted faces. They had laughed so hard at our attempts to look athletic that their sides and faces were aching.

The only person who really was delighted at the East wind was Matthew Mc Gillivray. He was out Kite Surfing and having a ball. The rest of us packed up and loaded trailers. There were many willing hands and we soon had all the kit loaded and ready to be taken home.

A prize giving was held in the Quad of the KB clubhouse and Summies received a number of awards in the Gold, Silver and Bronze categories. Claire discounted some burgers and we purchased a pack for the afternoon snack. Hopefully Summies did not lose too much. Claire had spent over R7000 on food and provisions. Either we are going to have a great braai one afternoon after Nippers or we are down the tubes in terms of cash.

That afternoon Barbara & I took our some DVD’s that Michael had given us to watch and we watched TV for a good part of the afternoon. I am pretty useless when it comes to handy man stuff around the house. For example our DSTV has not worked properly for ages and I have been trying to fix it but have had miserable results. But this afternoon I was able to fix a leaky tap. May not sound much to you but to me this was a major triumph. Usually when I try to fix water leaks it ends up worse than when I started, water sprays everywhere and I have to call the Plumber and pay double.

The East Wind continued to blow all of Sunday. Ultimately the Competition was called off for safety reasons. Not everyone agreed but Officials have to make a decision based on experience and a sound knowledge of the ocean and its dangers.

The coaches and Committee will hold a meeting to discuss the upcoming Nationals: Warren’s house in Cathcart Road: Monday 9th at 18.30pm. We would like as many parents to attend as possible.

Peter
4.3.2009.