Fishing Competition

The Annual Lions Club Fishing Competition held on the 90km beach north of Kingston over the weekend has attracted considerable media attention and insurance concerns for many of the 900 competitors.

This is one of the 30 vehicles destroyed on Saturday night as a high tide buffeted by 100kph winds stranded many fishermen. Cars, caravans, tents and trailers were filled with sand, seaweed and salt water. Excavators were called in to retrieve what was left, but several were just washed out to sea.

Even today there were stories of disgruntled fishermen claiming noone had warned them of the dangers of surf fishing, despite the weather forecast having indicated extreme weather conditions were imminent and contestants having signed indemnities prior to competing. After a very high tide and 50mm of rain on Friday night, many still ventured up the beach the following night in all sorts of vehicles, many unsuitable for such terrain and conditions.

When the storm struck during the night many were asleep in either their vehicles or their tents, so were unaware of their fate . Fortunately noone was seriously injured though the SES, police, ambulance and surveillance helicopters were all involved in the rescue, which continued into today.

It was a treacherous night - fortunately we only had a few small branches come down in our yard.

Sadly, in today's world of litigation there will no doubt be some who will choose to lay blame with the volunteer organisers (raising money for charity) of the competition and will choose not to take responsibility for their own choices and actions.