ON the weekend of 17 and 18 September, the newly formed Jimmy’s Beach Aquatic Club, conducted the inaugural ‘Mullet Run’ in conjunction with the Myall Classic Kayak and Paddling event on the Myall River.

The Jimmy’s Beach Aquatic Club was recently formed to assist with an opportunity for Surfboat Rowing in our local community, which a number of Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest local residents had previously enjoyed.

With the Jimmy’s Beach Swimming Mullets allowing the use of their logo, Tea Gardens Hawks Nest now also has the surfboat rowing Mullets, hence the ‘Mullet Run’ event on the weekend.

There are now over 35 local residents from Tea Garden Hawks Nest now surfboat rowing with the Mullets.

The Tea Gardens Hawks Nest Mullets joined the Myall Classic on Saturday morning rowing from Mungo Brush, through Tamboy, to finish at Anzac Park Tea Gardens, a distance close to 30 kilometres for the crews to complete. The Myall Classic had over 160 paddlers competing.

The Mullet Run event and Jimmy’s Beach Aquatic Club has been generously supported by local businesses.

Without asking for support, but seeing what was evolving, local business asked to be involved to support this local TGHN activity.

To Gardner Rose, Parry’s Cove, Hawks Nest Beach Real Estate, Silk Islands, Jeromy Nolan Travel, Peter McClennan Denture Clinic, Quasar Electrical, MJB Plumbing and the Aussie Bush Camp, the group appreciates your support enormously.

With three crews and support crews from Tea Gardens Hawks Nest being joined by five crews from Sydney, including the Australian Representative Crew and 2021 Australian Open Surfboat Champions – South Curl Curl – the crews left Mungo Brush on Saturday morning while the Myall Classic paddlers commenced up the Myall River from Anzac Park over 3 different distance events.

A great joint event for the local community culminated on Saturday in Anzac Park with awards to the paddlers and the official boat launch of the ‘Mullet 1’ Surfboat that had been kindly donated to the Mullets by Terrigal Surf Life Saving Club.

Paul Quick, President and Surfboat Captain of Terrigal Surf Life Saving Club, and his wife Lyn, attended the event to christen the boat and unveil the names that are to be carried on the surfboat in all its activities.

Mullet 1, the first surfboat for Jimmy’s Beach Aquatic Club, has been named ‘The John Estens’ and ‘The Steve SCUBA Howell’ , both great supporters of the local Tea Gardens Hawks Nest Community and two people who provided enormous work and effort to get Jimmy’s Beach Aquatic Club equipment on the water.

To continue the weekend the crews then returned to Anzac Park on Sunday morning and completed a twelve-kilometre return course to Pindimar in slightly more windy and testing conditions than the Saturday on the Myall.

They were hosted at the turnaround point by the Pindimar Recreational Club and its President, Peter Larkin and wife Michele.

Myall Coast Community Radio were also in Anzac Park on Saturday with their roving reporter ‘Mungo Jack’ A podcast of the event and additional photos can be found on the Myall Coast Community website.

A great community event that will be back on the Myall calendar for both paddlers and surfboats in September 2023.

By Peter RODGERS