The George Bass Marathon is not something “you can just jump into” says eight-year veteran Kirsty Byrne.
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It took about a year of preparation for the rower, who is now part of the title defence with the Pambula masters women’s outfit.
She joined in 2005 after club veteran Wayne Kent appealed for new members, while working as a strapper with the Diggers Football Club.
“There was already a males crew, so Wayne approached some of the wives and girlfriends to see if they wanted to have a go,” Byrne said.
A number of women joined and completed their bronze medallion to qualify, beginning a 12-month journey of training and mental preparation.
“My first row was 2006 so that was basically a year of preparation – it’s certainly something you can’t just jump in and learn the technique, but you also need the timing of your training to peak.”
Since her first involvement, Byrne has been one of the first rowers in the boat and said the nerves were more a test than the physical strain.
“If you get a good start you can seem to maintain that throughout the day,” she said. 30 minutes later, they’re leaping into the cold ocean for the first change.
A common safety practice from Pambula has also become rule in that the duck or support boat does a 360 around the surfboat before the change to scare or startle any potential predators off.
Byrne says a bigger concern is the temperature – with the cold water able to induce hypothermia or even shock.
“You have to be mindful of it and the ocean be unforgiving and hard to pick,” she said.
The experience that stands out most in her mind is the team pulling out of a leg in six-foot swells of Bermagui in 2016.
“None of us are afraid to broadcast that we didn’t finish that day, it was quite scary and we were losing visibility of our support crew so it was the right decision then to be towed back into Horseshoe Bay.”
For herself, there won’t be any leg that can quite match rowing in to her home beach in front of the Pambula Surf Life Saving Club.
“That’s easily the most emotion for me,” she says. “You have lots of family and support there.
“The finish is good too, but it’s very hard to match the joy of rowing into your home club like that.”
She said most people didn’t get to “spectate” the race as such, so the beach launches and finishes became important.
The gleam of completing the George Bass never fades, but for teams like the defending Pambula masters, experience can give them a competitive streak.
“Being the 20th Bass, the competition will be fierce, but we’ll put in a strong title defence,” Byrne says.