Garie Boardriders Club was formed in 1977 and had its first competition season in 1978, the same vintage as its Surfing Sutherland Shire cousin Cronulla Boardriders.
Garie is a unique boardriders club and was incorporated in 1992, located in the relative remoteness of the Royal National Park. With a 20-minute drive from the closest suburb, it has maintained a high number of active members each year for the last 40 years.
The close-knit club is holding its 40th anniversary reunion at Cronulla Sailing Club on February 17 and welcomes all past, present and future members and friends to attend.
Garie Beach and surrounds has some of the best surf in Sydney and is open to strong winter south swells and good in summer nor east winds. It can be a very popular weekend beach destination.
The club's books now have over 700 members that have joined since detailed records began being kept in the early 80’s and a lot of older members are returning to compete in the senior and masters divisions.
Garie Boardriders was originally affiliated with the Illawarra Area Boardriders Association and Surfing NSW but has recently joined Surfing Sutherland Shire. Its members have competed up to national level as well as a couple who competed at APSA and WQS level.
Garie has always had a large focus on social activities and prides itself on not being as serious about competition as other clubs with a good new batch of parent assisted groms competing this year.
Despite this past QS surfers like Chris O’Callaghan, Fletch Hayllar, Dennis Wright and Marty Williams were all surfers that cut their teeth in the National Parks surf.
“Garie is a special place and being part of Garie Boardriders gives us a sense of identity down at the beach, which is what boardriders historically is all about,” club president Drew Cousemaker said.
“It’s our little piece of surf.”
Waves have once again been hard to find in Cronulla this week,2 good days last week left surfers wanting more but what they got was more 2ft East windswell-I took todays pics yesterday at a southern reef break and this morning at the Alley.
Swellnet correctly predicted this morning will see a further increase in this East swell towards 4-5ft, though a southerly change has blown through early morning, driving gusty southerly winds across all areas.
The southerly change will generate a large local South swell up into the 5-6ft range by late Wednesday afternoon but winds will be blowing hard from the south.
Thursday should see the biggest size but there still may be bumpy conditions with some hope of an early offshore.The swell will then slowly drop over the weekend but with still surfable waves.
Aussies Nick Squiers and Kobie Enright have taken out The Flight Centre Burleigh Pro World Surf League Qualifying Series 1000 event. The two were the in-form surfers on the Final day as the swell finally arrived and provided the best conditions of the four-day event, with 3-to-4 foot waves rifling down Burleigh Point.
Local Cronulla surfers Jared Hickel and Shane Campbell both made the 4th round and picked up some points with Shane now leading the Australasian QS rankings thanks to his 1000 pts for taking out the Carve Pro.
Shane is ranked 10th on the international QS rankings and Jared 14th thanks to his quarter final 900 points from Israel, I assume they will be competing at the Mothernest Tweed Coast Pro which will host over-200 of Australia’s and the world’s most promising male and female surfers when the elite five-day event gets underway today in Cabarita.
