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AROC’n Roll’n at Umina Beach

AROC Sport / 21.09.2006

It was a spectacular start for all the locals who came out to watch with a wave of yellow bibs running along the beach before jumping on a flotilla of big yellow kayaks and paddling out through the waves and around the point to Pearl Beach.

Here teams faced their first challenge, a swim out to a buoy and a dive down to obtain the details of a checkpoint further on in the course. Then it was into the lush forest and a trek to some beautiful creeks and waterfalls where the Australian movie Lantana was filmed. Teams returned to the cheers from on-lookers at Pearl Beach and collected their bikes and headed along the fire trails past Wallarah Lookout and views of the Hawksbury to leave their bikes at the start of the Great North Walk and run down into the quaint town of Patonga.

The beach was a hive of activity as teams paddled, excitedly swam and waded across the channel and coasteered along the rocks. For the first 20 teams there was more as they were given a surprise bonus leg taking them on a paddle to Little Patonga Beach and a run up over the hills at Broken Bay. This gave those faster teams a bit more of a challenge and gave other teams the feeling of leading the pack as they biked their way back to the finish over the escarpment and some unique slab rock. “It was like a natural skate park. It was so much fun� said one of the competitors.

It really was the highlight of the event being the talk between teams when they crossed the finish line. For many it was the first time they had ever ridden on such terrain.

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