Cabarita Boardriders Club History
Cabarita is situated in a town called Bogangar, which means
“place of many pippies” in aboriginal.
Our first attempt to develop a Boardriding club was in
1985 when young local surfers, Scott (Chicka) King, Brian
Davies and Dean & Scott Rottumah approached Ross Marshall
to start a boardriders club, while he was have a quiet beer
on his fathers veranda. The answer was “yeah, no worries
boys” Although the club had a good time, and averaged
about 70 members, this attempt folded after about 12 month,
Ross stating that there was a lack of senior statesmen competing
and helping out.
It wasn’t until late 1991, two young Caba surfers,
Ben Johnson and Darren Peade, both aged about 14 decided
they wanted to join a boardriders club. So, after having
a talk to Ben’s dad Jeff Johno, they decided that
there was enough local surfers in the area to start their
own club, Jeff, suggested that his plumber Crain Lanston,
a former Cronulla shark, would make an ideal first President,
and Jeff’s wife Jenny could do all the paperwork!
At the first contest about 40 surfers competed and they
took a vote on the name of the club- luckily “Brothers
of the Apocalypse” (B.O.T.A.) was vote out and “Cabarita
Boardriders” was in.
While 1992 was running into 1993, one of our members Gav
Dickinson was unstoppable in the Open division, soon earning
the name “Gav again” Gav won over ten consecutive
monthly competitions in his division. Lucas Proudfoot the
Cadets, Ben Johnson the Juniors. Darren Peade won the most
improved. Hayden Davis got the Encouragement Award and Darren
Phillip, Clubman of the year. Also during that year, a young
surfer trudged down the beach in his orange steamer, and
entered a club contest for the first time. This kid could
surf! The senior surfers all agreed he had potential and
decided we must sign his up. His name – Robbie Johnson.
It was hard to persuade his family to let him join as they
were heavily into the pony club scene but finally his dad
Jingles decided that he looked better on a surfboard than
in a pair of jodhpurs!!!!!
In 1993 with the Ramsay’s, Dustow’s, Brimsmead’s,
Davidison’s and the Wilsons’s all joining up,
the club took on a real family feel it was great to see
the start of our Cadet B’s there was a strong emphasis
on family participation to encourage parents to join in
club activities with their kids.
In 1994 Craig Lanston retired as president and Paul Ricketts
took over, with Scott (Chicka) King as Vice President. Another
well-known Kirra local, Dave McDonald joined our club bringing
with him, his son Nick the club was always building through
the nineties and usually had around 70 financial members.
1994 club winners were Opens Mark Brown, Cadet a Brendan
Carr, Juniors Josh Fuller, Senior a John Fuller, Senior
B John Brimsmead, Cadet B Joe Truman, Masters Kelvin Wilson
and Women’s Rebecca Dostow.
1995 saw former Professional Glen Winton join the club,
bringing a bit of experience with him when it came to interclub
contests we could always depend on Glen to hold his end
of the deal and win his heat.
One of the luxuries of being a small town away from the
constabulary, is you can always put on a good presentation.
We first started with the big presso’s in 1994 at
the Football club, later moving to the Pony Club, sometimes
drawing over 200 of local community. 1995 club winners were
Masters Paul rickets, Open Scott ‘Chicka’ King
and junior Robbie Johnson. Another young local surfer from
Cabarita started to make his way through the Cadets and
into the junior ranks was Steve Powell.
In 1996 Nick McDonald won the Cadets, Steve Powell the
Juniors and Robbie Jonson the Opens. U/40 Dave McDonald
tied with Ken Van Der Wakker. Kelvin Wilson won the O/40’s.
997 saw one of Cabarita’s finest years ever, taking
out the one off Don McSween into Winter Mosh, which was
a tag team event run by the Surfrider Foundation. Caba had
a five-man team made up of Robbie Johnson, Ben Johnson,
Gav Dickinson, Glen Winton and the new kid Matt Hurworth.
The event involved all the best Gold Coast Clubs.
1997 also was the year that Kelvin and Ricko decided there
was a need to run a Juniors competition – It was a
huge success and it only got better with Josh Fuller winning
the U/18 division the first year. Club results for that
year were: Opens Ben Johnson, Open B’s Ricko, Juniors
Steve Powell, Cadets Matt Gibbo and Masters Brent Collis.1999
was the year that the Billabong Pro came to town and it
was practically a public holiday for the Cabarita residents.
The Billabong Pro was great for the town, every afternoon
all the boys would knock off early, grab a carton and head
to the headland and watch the afternoon session. The locals
say it was the best thing for their business, better than
Easter, Christmas and the fishing comps.
1999 was the year that Rip Curl came on board to sponsor
our Summer Challenge, it was also the year that Kelvin,
Ricko and Ken Van Der Wakker thought that their time had
come to move on and that the club needed new blood. Matt
Hurworth was elected new president, Ben Johnson, Vice President
Donna Wilson secretary and Marg Ford Treasurer. 1999 results
were: Open A Matt Hurworth, Open B Daniel Smith, Junior
Dane Beaumont, Cadets Dano Wilson and Seniors Kelvin Wilson
During that year we also took on Sawtell Boardriders in
a teams challenge. We travelled down for the weekend –
the grommets had a ball while a few adults arrived ‘back
sore’ At night the cabin sites turned into a war zone
with the grommets out numbering the adults. “Dondy”
‘Peady’ and Matt Hurworth could not leave the
cabin without being ambushed by the groms. B.B guns, water
bombs and jumping out of trees were their method of attack.
Ricko copped a beating trying to get back to his cabing
while his drinking partner Kelvin was duck taped to the
road. And still tales like these go on!
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