Howling southerlies, five-metre swells, sharks, bloodied palms and blisters in unpleasant places – nothing will hold back Pambula veteran Andrew Holt from competing in his 11th George Bass Surfboat Marathon.
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Originally from Melbourne, Holt spent his holidays at Pambula Beach where he had an immediate drive to one day compete in the toughest boat race in the world.
He relocated to Pambula to finish his trade as a builder and competed in his first George Bass 20 years ago.
Although, it wasn’t the warmest welcome to the competition for Holt. “I remember the leg from Narooma to Bermagui, it was a horrendous 40 knot southerly and a five-metre swell.”
“Boats were pulling out of the race, others were getting towed by support boats – it was that bad,” he said.
“It took us over five hours to do that leg of the race when it should have taken less than two.”
That year Holt said it was a turning point for the George Bass.
“It was after that day that they looked into safety a bit more and agreed to change venues if the conditions were going to be that bad.”
"I have now been a part of the George Bass for just over half of the time is has been running.”
Holt said that he had witnessed a slump in the race where organisers had enough and were burnt out.
“Five years ago the race nearly didn't eventuate, so myself and a couple of other people got the race up and running again.”
Holt has dedicated his time training to compete as well as helping to organise the event, he will also be acting as a deputy referee throughout the duration of the competition.
The most concerning measure for the event is the weather, Holt's fingers are crossed for easy conditions.
“The last couple of bass’ have been pretty wild, it is a grueling race – you generally lose a bit of skin and get blisters in places you don’t really want them,” Holt said.
Holt said that there is nothing like a bit of classic banter in the boat to get you through those testing times.
“When we were out practicing water changes the other day, roughly 2km off the coast, one of the lads started singing the jaws theme song – it was a good gee up.”
“There are always stories of sharks, so you’re always stirring each other up.”
Jokes aside, Holt is happy that his crew are taking the race seriously and hopes that they do well.
“It will be interesting this year there are a lot of new crews, we will try our best,” said Holt.
“We will be on the lookout for North Cronulla and the Narooma veteran crews because they are going to be hard to beat.”