Surf Life-Saving ALTERNATIVE SOUGHT

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30192, 25 July 1963, Page 16

Surf Life-Saving ALTERNATIVE SOUGHT

Championship Venue In spite of a widely-spread search of beaches, bays, lakes and lagoons in the vicinity of Christchurch, the Canterbury Surf Life-saving Association is still without a suitable alternative venue for the 1965 national surf championships. Canterbury has applied for the championships, and named New Brighton as the venue. The application will be considered at the annual meeting of the New Zealand association in Wellington next month. At a meeting of the Canterbury body last night, the vice-president (Mr B. B. Blackmore) outlined his investigations for a site which could be used if a northeasterly gale made competition impracticable at New Brighton during the championships. Seemingly, the ideal alternative venue was Hays Bay, just past Charteris Bay. he said. It had a “lovely little beach." with road access through private property.

“You could run the championships there quite well —as long as you could get everything over in four hours.” he said. “The rest of the time you would be struggling to get sufficient depth of water.”

Mr Blackmore said charts gave the depth as only 2ft 6in, which ruled out the bay as a possible site. Other sites explored had been inside the Estuary ("too much mud and too little water”); Wreck Bay. by Ripa Island ("access difficult"): the lagoon at the mouth of the Ashley river (“my fishing line hit bottom almost as soon as it struck the water") and Lake Bryndwr (“strange as it may seem, it is the best possibility of the lot: it has depth of water and it would be possible to get eight teams abreast").

The president (Mr S. D. Tarrant) urged members to give the matter full consideration and called for the names of possible sites to be submitted to the association.