Broulee under 19s women’s crew made their first surfboat final at the ASRL Open at Shellharbour over the weekend. It was an incredible effort as this was also their first competition row. The entire crew only gained their Surf Bronze Medallion last week and were very unlucky not to come away with a medal.
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Allana O'Fee, Aisha Smith, Aralai Anuyahong and Violetta Favaloro are all just 16. Tony Dale started the girls off in their training and then handed them over to surf sweep Rob Pollock to get them ready for surf competition.
They got better as the weekend progressed and were clearly leading the semi-final before finishing a close second. The team was given alley 6 in the final and after a long wait nailed the start to lead the race by a good boat length. Unfortunately there was a recall and a second start was attempted.
Again Broulee got away well but in the process young Aralai was thrown high in the air and landed badly on her tailbone, as the starter again recalled the race because of another crew.
Third start and they finally got all crews away. Aralai was in great pain as the crew led the race to the turn. On the return Broulee could not find a runner and four northern crews jumped on a wave to surge past.
The results was Bilgola 1st, Bondi 2nd, Avoca 3rd, Newport 4th, Broulee 5th, North Cronulla 6th.
