Sydney Offshore Racing off to a flying start

Last weekend in Sydney off the coast, Australia had its 1st ever Sydney Offshore training water ski race, it was basically a training race with single outboards allowed only as well as small race skis or training skis only.

The race ran from outside Sydney heads and up the coast to and around Lion Island and return, the distance was 70kms (42 miles) of open ocean. Conditions on the day were pretty nasty with big swells and strong winds but we had 25 starters and most of the big names from australian water ski racing were present such as Chris Stout, Peter Proctor, Jason Walmsley, Paul Robertson, Grant Patterson, Daniel Cotton, Daniel Graziano, Luke Keys and many more.

Chris Stout set the pace to the island with Jason Walmsley and Peter Proctor hot on his heels after a late start, rounding the island at halfway and heading back home Jason pulled along side Stouty with Proctor trailing in 3rd just a rope length behind, from what i was told from there both Chris & Zig had a 2 falls each on the return leg and Jason had a comfortable lead over Proctor until near the finish line where he came off again, i believe that only 3 skiers covered the course without falling at least once.

Top 3 places were:

1st Peter Proctor behind Watersports Marine – 22′ Atomic
2nd Chris Stout behind Waldo’s Cyclone
3rd Jason Walmsley behind a 23′ Force Nail It

Luke Keys put on a great display of skiing finishing in 4th overall behind 3 of Australia’s best skiers, Ben Hackett & Grant Patterson rounded out the top 6 and Paul Robertson finished after that after breaking his handles on the start line.

This race has been on the drawing board for a long time now, but this year we finally made it happen, it was a great chance for all the top guys to go head to head in some rough water in a training environment, the speeds were just under 40mph for the lead boats apparently, and from all reports most of the guys are keen to do it again shortly.

Action shots below are courtesy of Brooke Gray.