The Pambula Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC) will be competing in elite company at the national Ocean Thunder Surfboat series.
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The Ocean Thunder Surfboat Series, a nationally televised event, held at Dee Why Beach Sydney, is a high profile surf boat contest, restricted to 24 elite open men's crews and 12 elite women's crews.
This will be the first time the Pambula SLSC competes in the prestigious series and the club's president, Emma Prowse, will be part of the crew.
Ms Prowse has previously competed in the series, in 2020 with the Broulee team.
"This season our coach retired and since we had two of us [in the Broulee team] based out of Pambula, we thought it would be awesome to represent our home club," she said.
The Ocean Thunder competition is fast approaching with the first of four competition dates starting on December 4.
The odds have been stacked against competitors this year however, with COVID-19 restrictions causing setbacks for team training sessions.
Pambula's surfboat team is made up of four rowers and a sweep, are of whom all spread out across NSW.
"Our crew is a little bit different to most, just because we train remotely. So two of us are based out of Pambula, two out of Wollongong and one from Canberra," Ms Prowse said.
The crew was not deterred however and have each been training long hours in their local gyms in preparation and will meet on the weekends to train together.
"Our first training weekend will be on the sixth of November, out of Broulee, just because it's as central as we're going to get with our team's locations," she said.
Ms Prowse said the part she loved most about surf boating is working in a small team.
"It's the small team work, you're not in a big team. You row with your four best friends really. So you get to keep fit and it's lots of fun rowing through the surf," she said.
I would love to get some young people involved in the club, because it is a great sport to be involved in
- Emma Prowse, Pambula SLSC
Ms Prowse said she's excited for Pambula to have a go this year.
"It's not something that we've had a go at out of Pambula before, so it would be great to get the community behind us and maybe inspire someone to give it a go," she said.
Ms Prowse said she hoped the series would invoke a sense of pride in the community towards the local surf lifesaving clubs and inspire others to get involved.
"I would love to get some young people involved in the club, because it is a great sport to be involved in," she said.
"Every single competitor does patrols on beaches, it's one of the prerequisites for entry, so we're all active lifesavers in our respective communities as well."
Ms Prowse said the crew was grateful to Steeline Pambula for supporting the Pambula team, by sponsoring them and donating $5000 towards the entrance fee.
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