Looking to build on another season of sustained excellence across the board, South Curl Curl SLSC’s surf boat rowers are ready and raring to challenge for gold at the 2026 NSW Surf Life Saving Championships.
The Sydney Northern Beaches club boasts a bevy of home-grown talent – almost the entirety of its boatie crews have come up through Nippers.
As sweep, Rob Lowery puts it, “you see the kids dominating now in the Colts, you’ll find most of their dads in the Masters. They’re the ones who dug the trenches.”
It’s an ethos that has established a formidable suite of teams across all eight divisions, where they’re ranging from “strong to extra strong” and benefitting from many years of work building a culture around the club.
And the focus is now on State Champs, where there’s medals to be defended and earned.
“Last season our Open Women’s crew stepped up from Reserve Grade, and we won State at Queenscliff, then we made the Australian final but got knocked out the back by a set and didn’t place,” Rob said.
“Easy to focus on that result, but if I’d said to them at the start of the year ‘hey, we’re going to step up to A Grade, we’ll win a State gold medal and then miss out at Aussies, would you still be keen’, they’d all have said an emphatic yes.
“State is a big part of our season.”
Rob will sweep two crews this year at Blacksmiths; the Open Male ‘Blitz’ and the U23 Male ‘Dribblers’ – the latter of which just represented NSW at the Interstate Surf Boat Championships at Wanda.
His journey started in the 80s, as a junior at Newport SLSC, and he’s a testament to sticking to your guns and trusting the process.
“The first gold medal I was part of was in 2015 at Aussies when I swept the Open Female crew to the win, but it was 30 years of duck eggs before that,” he said.
“Your approach changes over the years, you know back then I thought how good it would be to push your boat onto the line for a big final, whereas now I’m not really doing it for myself anymore.
“There’s always other rowers who maybe haven’t tasted that success yet that you want to share it with.”
That ‘one in, all in’ mindset carries over into his philosophy, and provides a solid platform for the club to build off heading into the Championships.
“If you do this sport only for the medal, you’ll have more disappointment than success,” he said.
“I’ve said a thousand times, the surf is always going to have its say. The best thing you can do is prepare, and if you arrive at State or Aussie titles and can look in the mirror and say I can win this, then you’ve already won really.”
Tuesday 24 February 2026