The open women’s team of Brake, Danielle Ford, Courtney Matthews and Polly Wenlock – with Tom Jacka as sweep – had been selected to represent New Zealand after dominating the trial event at Whangamatā late last year.
Competing as the Red Beach Bullets, they were up against a handful of other boats. Now they faced the formidable Australian team, the Collaroy Giants, who’d prevailed against 17 leading teams while vying to wear green and gold.
Even though no New Zealand open women’s team had ever previously beaten Australia at the annual transtasman event, the Kiwis were unfazed.
“We knew the Aussies would be fast and it wouldn’t be easy, but we had a lot of confidence in ourselves. We’d been training really hard so we were hopeful we could fight it out,” Brake said.
All at sea: the Oar Blacks attribute their victory to a strong team dynamic.
Clad in neon-pink singlets, the Oar Blacks women lost the first of their three races.
“It was nerve-wracking – it meant there was no room for error,” Brake recalled. “If we lost the second, it would all be over.”
In the thrilling sport of surf boat rowing, fortunes can change in an instant as crews battle uneven conditions. While one team might catch a rogue wave, another may find themselves in dead water. As the livestream commentator pointed out: “You’re never out of it in surf racing, especially when there’s a wave on.” The second race proved exactly that.
Australia took the early lead, ahead at the turn. As both boats were streaking back toward the beach, the New Zealand boat suddenly surged forward and caught their opposition.
Approaching the finish line, the teams were nail-bitingly close. “Surely that’s tied,” one commentator proclaimed. “I’m going to call New Zealand,” another said.
Brake and her teammates were equally perplexed: “We didn’t know if we’d got it on the line or not.”
But the Kiwi women had won – making the third race the decider. A history-making win was tantalisingly close.
The final showdown followed a similar pattern: Australia leading, New Zealand catching up in the later stages. But this time, the Kiwis charged right past and were clearly in front by the finish line.
The joy on the Kiwis’ faces was unmistakable as they registered their historic victory. There were hugs all round as the men’s team helped secure the boat on the water’s edge. Family and friends rushed over to join the celebrations – Brake’s mother and surf boat super-fan, Lorraine Murray, were among the excitement.
Murray had been Brake’s inspiration for taking up the sport. As a young child, Brake had spent many memorable days at the beach watching her mother compete in surf boats.
The Oar Blacks (from left): sweep Tom Jacka, Courtney Matthews, Polly Wenlock, Danielle Ford and Jasmine Brake.
Now 26 years old, Brake says the respect they showed the ocean at Wanda Beach just might explain why the conditions seemed to go their way.
“We’d worked hard and deserved our result – but there were a couple of races where we got a wave from the back that really helped us. After throwing sand into the water before each race, we think the ocean gods helped us out,” she said with a smile.
The glory of being the first Kiwis to win the transtasman open women’s category was momentarily diminished during the awards ceremony. Medals at the event are only given for the men’s, women’s and Under-23 teams’ combined results – so Australia claimed the overall title.
While the four Kiwi crews all stood on the podium together with silver medals around their necks, the team the women had beaten were among the Australians awarded gold.
“After winning our category, it was a bit heartbreaking to get silver,” Brake said. “I think the Australian girls felt bad for us too. There was talk about changing it because everyone knew it was the first time New Zealand had ever won the women’s section and we didn’t get gold for it.”
The crew returned home with another silver medal, after excelling the following day at one of the biggest surf boat competitions in the Southern Hemisphere, the ASRL Open. This time though, after progressing from the heats to the semi-finals to the final, beating all but one of the crews from across Australia in ever-changing conditions, they felt justifiably proud to claim silver.
Brake – who was a competitive flatwater rower for 12 years – attributes their recent success to a strong team dynamic.
“We have a huge amount of trust and respect in each other,” she said. “There’s no point during the race where I think, ‘This hurts too much,’ because I know the girls are hurting just as much. We’re all just so impressed by each other. I would hate not to be in my crewmates’ boat and have to verse [sic] them.”
The oldest member of the team, 30-year-old Danielle Ford, sits at the bow and is a great influence on the group, according to Brake.
“Danny is really good at reminding us to keep the vibe high. She’s a firefighter and does CrossFit and Hyrox very competitively so she’s super fit and strong.”
Crewmate Polly Wenlock spent several years rowing competitively before turning to surf boats, much like Brake.
A former member of the New Zealand Rowing U21 sculling squad, Wenlock studied in the United States on a rowing scholarship at UCLA. These days, the 24-year-old fits surf boat racing around her job as a digital journalist at TVNZ.
Rounding out the team is 20-year-old Courtney Matthews. She took up the sport less than two years ago, at Brake’s suggestion, and has impressed many with her rapid progress.
“Courtney is the baby of our crew,” Brake said. “Some of our Australian competitors have been rowing for the entire span of her life.”
The Oar Blacks get their silver medal at the ASRL Open.
Coach and sweep Tom Jacka stands at the back, steering the boat with a large oar. He’s encouraged Brake to become a sweep herself.
“I did my first season of sweeping this year – for the Under-19 girls,” she said. “I’m the first female sweep at Red Beach [Surf Lifesaving Club]. I don’t think there were any other females doing it in New Zealand this year. Sweeping has always been very male-dominated, but it’s progressing and now there are quite a few female sweeps in Australia.”
Having earned a Master of Science in Management at Southern Methodist University in Texas while on rowing scholarship, Brake says those years helped prepare her for coaching and sweeping. But she knows there is still more to learn to become even more competitive in the future.
“The sweep’s job is the most important because it’s so easy for the boat to go sideways,” she said. “It’s mainly on the sweep to hold the boat straight. There can be carnage, with boats veering off. They’re moving so fast down the wave so there can be crashes.”
Despite the risks, Brake couldn’t be happier at a surf boat rowing event.
“It’s like you’re having a fun beach day as well as doing something highly competitive and adrenaline pumping,” she said.
Looking ahead to next season, she has some unfinished business when it comes to transtasman surf boat racing.
“I’ll probably do another season,” she said. “I’d really like to get the gold medal that I feel we should have got this year.”
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.