The Jim Beam Tag Team was held at Dixon Park in Newcastle on Sunday 24th, after being postponed due to lack of waves on the Saturday. The team; Jamie Beal, Johno Shade, Sam Chell, Beau Atchison and Dane Atcheson; showed that a champion team will beat a team of champions every time.
We got second to Umina in the first round after a bumpy start, but we hung in to get the result. Having to get in the top four to make the nationals at North Narrabeen on February 13th and 14th we still had to get through to the next round where we were seeded with Umina and Merewether, not too many people had much hope for us, but the boys stuck to the game plan and Umina crumbled.
Stoked to be in the final four and going to the Nationals the boys weren't finished yet. Merewether with Matt Hoy and Luke Egan in their team stormed ahead leaving Port Macquarie with Mick Campbell, North Shelly and us fighting it out, with a great set of waves from Sam and with Beau backing him up we had a solid start under our belt. With Dane's and Johno's massive power waves and quick thinking on their third wave we were back in it and catching Merewether. Jamie Beal (the anchor man from hell) did his thing and got the 4 gate points for finishing 1st and suddenly we were all feeling pretty confident that we could win. In the end Merewether's last surfer snared 3 screamers and 3 gate points to beat us by 12 points. Port Macquarie came in 3rd with North Shelly in 4th. To cap it off Beau Atcheson got a new video camera for highest power wave. The power wave is a surfers 2nd wave and is doubled and added to his other 2 waves. The presso went down a treat with a few free Jim Beams — thanks to the sponsors. All day the boys surfed for each other and the team and ended up beating some bloody hot teams. So cheers boys and see you all at North Narrabeen.
Let's all try and get down there and throw some weight behind them cause that's what a champion club does. Seems like we're in the first heat at 7:30am on Saturday.