Byron Bay Surf Club performed strongly at the NSW Country Championships over the weekend finishing in third place overall.
A small contingent of juniors, seniors and masters from Byron travelled to South West Rocks for the two-day event and the club is encouraged by the results.
There were many strong performances and medals in the U/15–U/19 age groups, and these competitors have all embraced the new coaches and training regime.
The Masters competitors are an integral part of our team. Their commitment to the club and their consistent training program ensured they maintained their dominance particularly in the ski races.
The nippers all put in a stoic effort and demonstrated their endurance capacity with nippers having to do heats and semifinals before lining up for the final. The depth of our nippers was shown by a gold medal in the U/9 girls board to Frankie Moir-Dobbs and also a gold to Suki Alford in the U/12 female board. Other strong performers were Emily Link, Mac Brindley, Django Hudson-Sheaffe, Liam Price, Wyana Pietramale, Phoebe Link, Elvis Shakespeare, Lawson Shirley, Xavier Eddington, Jali Pietramale and Seth Carter.
‘Our third place at Country championships can be credited to the culture of the Byron Bay Surf Club. It is a sporting culture that promotes healthy lifestyle, encourages participation and embraces sportsmanship,’ Byron Bay nipper president Troy Eady said.
Byron Bay has dominated the event for the last decade but Cudgen were far too strong and finished more than 400 points ahead of the second-placed Sawtell SLSC.
For the third and final year, South West Rocks SLSC on the mid north coast hosted the Envirobank NSW Country Championships featuring more than 40 clubs and 1500 competitors.
Top five:
Cudgen Headland SLSC (1048 points), Sawtell SLSC (619), Byron Bay SLSC (494), Warilla Barrack Point SLSC (349) and Lennox Head–Alstonville SLSC (348).
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
