I don’t know what my friends and I have done in the past to please Mummy Nature but it must have been good. Seriously good. I’d like to claim that pedalling around this great continent in an expression of love and compassion for our dear Mother would have something to do with her generous adoration, but She has been showering us with gifts for three whole years now. The only possible explanation is this.
Murderers and thieves form gangs or packs not because someone puts a flyer up at the local Laundromat as a call to arms for anyone with evil tendencies. Their evil tendencies bring them together by consequence. It’s the same on the flip side of that rusty old coin. It’s no accident that a group of people possessing qualities like kindness, generosity, selflessness and humour in spades are brought together in life. Positivity breeds. I’m sure I’ve said it before. Once you get past the awkward bubbling cauldron of high school, reeking of self consciousness and self defence, and move into the real world it’s like fishing in a pond the size of the Pacific. We are thrown together in our adolescence like caged animals, forced to pick sides and form relationships of consequence and convenience. Once the caged door is open we instinctively run free, in smaller packs, forming new bonds with all things familiar and similar. The punch line. You don’t end up with good friends by accident. Good people come together. It’s science.
My friends, the people I surround myself with, are good people. Our relationships are sustainable. It’s a delicate and effortless balance of give and take without fear or discomfort. The TG Invitational started off as a good excuse for a party. I was turning the big 2-1 and I’d been given that difficult decision a lot of privileged Australians get. Do you go all out and create one night, one off, lifetime memories? Or do you take the cashola and run? I took the cold hard Johnny Cash. Run Johnny run! Using my brain, I did what all good early twenty year olds do. I devised a fool proof plan to get the best of both worlds. The TG Invitational was a surfing competition with a few twists. No one has to be able to surf but everyone has to be dressed up. Needless to say, the 11th of the 11th, 2006 was the best day of my life, and arguably the best of many others. Fast forward a year and you have the TG2 Cocktail Theme. Suits, dresses, ties and a whole lot of salt water and sand. Fast forward another year and you’re here, right now! The challenge: To bring the infamous competition to a location that fit somewhere close enough to the day I was born and somewhere on the MyPOWER journey that had waves. Welcome to the TG3 Crescent Head. Super hero theme. Everybody Has Powers right?
There are so many variables and so much that could go wrong. That’s why you need key people like my soon to be brother from another mother Adam “Mr Tamborine Man” Brissenden, Surfing NSW contest director Pete “CDPH” Hunt and Daniel “Diving School” Zietsch to use their powers of organisation, generosity and thoughtfulness and simply get the job done. Above all other things that could go wrong there is the weather. Mummy Nature has the remote and she’s watching whatever she wants. In the days leading up to my 21st birthday, the TG Invitational, the weather was horrible. Miraculously the morning of the event the clouds parted, the wind swung offshore, and the waves were the best I’d seen at Cronulla’s Oak Park, literally ALL year. Ditto for the TG2. Freaky huh.
The ride through the Coffs Harbour region was enjoyable bar one thing. Mummy couldn’t make up her mind. One minute it was blue skies, the next minute golf ball size rain drops were denting our helmets. I was nervous to say the least. What if everyone had made the pilgrimage up to Crescent Head and there weren’t any waves, or the wind was howling onshore, or worse still, it was raining cats and dogs? It’s the risk all event managers face I suppose. Lock in a date, do your best to prepare and hope that our dear old Mother is on your side.
Through all the shaky forecasts and rain leading up to today, we awoke this morning to a stunning bright blue sky, light offshore winds and magazine perfect waves. I don’t know what we have done in the past but it must have been good. Seriously good. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
A sincere thankyou to the following people for everything you did to make the day another success. I can speak for myself and most probably the other three boys when I say we’ve been looking forward to this date on the MyPOWER journey for a long time and used it as a source of motivation through the toughest times. To have it all come to fruition is pure joy. So a big thankyou to Adsa, Peto, Dives (I know you didn’t come because you lost all your clothes at your school reunion and were tied up looking for them but thanks anyway), Nate Johnson for design of the invite, Amanda for costumes, Ev, Natto, Dyl, Spence, Andy, Steve, Corinne, Soph, Benny Gray, Scotty, Daz, Dan, Kieran, Bones, Luke and my old man Towelly.
Results:
1st Adam Brissenden and Evan Jessop
2nd Dylan Hayllar and Nathan Jessop
Quote of the Day
“I just can’t believe it . . . EVERY . . . SINGLE . . . YEAR!!” – Most people at different stages of the day.
TG
tom@mypower.org.au