This year, we saw a record number of riders (168) tackle the challenge of riding from Sydney to Surfers Paradise on pedal power alone, supported by 28 dedicated volunteers from the Rotary Club of Engadine.

We had our fit groups who did it easy. We had our ‘middle of the road’ riders who found a few days challenging. And we had Pack 9. Most riders rode hard and long. They started first…finished last…and put in some of the most courageous riding one could see.

Of course, the ride was always more about peddling north. There were new friendships formed, and new hardships encountered (a couple of riders sustained injuries through crashing…one rider didn’t even make the ride due to a crash in the months leading up to the day).

There was plenty of perspiration, precipitation…and inspiration. And at the end of the week…jubilation.

We stopped in no less than 23 towns, covering approximately 900kms.

We ate somewhere near 5 tonnes of food…maybe more.

We talked and laughed for more than 1,000 hours.

We shared 1,224 photos and 1 video through Facebook. And tagged ourselves countless times.

Speaking of Facebook…this year was the first event to include Social Media. The wall content was shared 14,090 times through 12 different Countries by more than 350 different people!

We also learnt about one rider’s ‘Hero Page’ that raised several thousands for the ride’s charity organisation…Youth Off The Streets.

And who could forget those great YOTS kids Andrew, Courtney, Latu and the invincible Jannali who was the first YOTS rider to cover the full ride distance!

But perhaps the ride could be best summed up by the sentiments of a few riders who expressed their feelings on Facebook.

Theres really nothing more to say. Life changing is a common theme. Not only for the riders, but also for the four YOTS kids who will take home some valuable life lessons. And also for the hundreds of disadvantaged kids who will benefit from the funds raised to keep Father Chris Riley and Youth Off The Streets operating for another year.

To all of you…THANKS! See you again next year.

To look back on the action, check out Engadine Rotary’s Facebook Page, or to see the full set of photo’s from the entire week of riding, head on over to Flickr.

Until next year…

About the Author: Brendon Walker from Centric Social Media is on loan to the Sydney to Surfers Bike Ride for the week to shoot pics and blog. He also doubles as one of the event bus drivers. His week long goal is to stay dry inside the bus, brag about that to the riders, and capture a spectacular crash in high resolution pixels. He enjoys long walks along the beach, but only if he gets to take his iPhone and tweet about it.

They say riding long distances builds character. At the time when your legs are tired, you’ve covered quite a bit of terrain and all you want to do is stop and rest, you’re faced with a sizable hill that will test your every resolve to make it to the top without stopping.

Riding long distances is a challenge. Not only does your body fatigue, your mind can fatigue too. Concentrating on riding a straight line in a bunch all day long so you don’t knock bars or wheels; listening to the sound of the traffic to determine when passing cars/trucks might approach; or focusing your mind to push through the pain and fatigue in your legs can wear you down quite quickly.

Riding long distances takes determination and discipline. Especially when there’s an easy way out. The temptation of the support car or one of the buses is always an ‘available’ option if you really want it. But, with determination and resolve to finish, you stay on your bike and keep pedaling. Because you set goals, standards and expectations of yourself. And should you give up on those expectations, you feel gutted.

As in life, we face many similar challenges. Most kids are fortunate enough to live a comfortable childhood, loved and provided for by their parents; shown, taught and praised for achieving their goals.

Youth Off The Streets doesn’t know the fortunate kids. The kids in their programs have great difficulty with achievement, motivation, discipline…because at an early age, and for whatever reason, they find themselves living on the street, without the necessary support in place to give them the life skills mentioned above.

As you may have read earlier during the week, the Sydney to Surfers Cycle Ride has four Youth Off The Streets kids on the ride across 1,000 kms from Sydney to Surfers Paradise. What makes this special is that the sum total of training rides between all four riders sums no more then two.

Even better…one of the kids (name suppressed) is so determined to complete the entire ride that he’s putting some seasoned riders to shame! For a youth who has never ridden an elite road bike before, barely trained for it and is still facing almost 300 more kms, this is an incredible task to take on.

His journey requires character, concentration, determination and discipline.

This ride is more than just a week away from the hostel to pedal all day and eat like kings. These kids will take away from this experience some valuable lessons in many of the life skills they have been previously deprived. For the rest of us, we take away the knowledge and satisfaction of completing the ride to our sponsor’s expectations, and in the process raising much needed funding to keep Youth Off The Streets and Fr. Chris Riley active in providing homeless and disadvantaged kids with the skills they need to make it through.

Win/win. Can you ask for anything better than that?

Thanks for reading. Please watch the video below and throw a few dollars toward Youth Off The Streets if you can spare it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cheers

About the Author: Brendon Walker from Centric Social Media is on loan to the Sydney to Surfers Bike Ride for the week to shoot pics and blog. He also doubles as one of the event bus drivers. His week long goal is to stay dry inside the bus, brag about that to the riders, and capture a spectacular crash in high resolution pixels. He enjoys long walks along the beach, but only if he gets to take his iPhone and tweet about it.

A typical day on the Sydney to Surfers Ride starts with riders and crew climbing out of bed for a 6-6:30am breakfast.

Our crew (particularly the bus drivers who are massive legends) often start earlier than this, ferrying riders from far flung hotels and motels toward Duncan’s Mess Tent.

Duncan's Mess Tent

Being one of those bus drivers myself, I was inspired to write the following, strongly worded letter as a result of the early start…

“Dear Mornings. It’s not you…it’s me. Things just aren’t working out between us. I’ve tried so hard to get you to compromise and start somewhere around 10am…but you never seem to listen to me anymore.
I don’t how to break this gently…so I’ll just say it.
I’m breaking up with you!”
(if only it was that easy)

Apparently the ride had a pretty serious hill today. Though when I drove up there, it didn’t seem that bad???
Seriously though, sadly reporting one rider affectionately known as “Ribbit” pulled a muscle or ligament or one of the other parts that make up the “knee” and is limping about. The rights to rub it better was generously bought at auction for $120 by her own pack.
But even sadder is our report that another rider had quite a serious fall today (no…I wasn’t there to photograph it) and was transported to Coffs Harbour Hospital with concussion.
She’s doing well and will be released to return home tomorrow. We’re all thinking of you!
We also say goodbye to another two blokes tomorrow morning, unfortunately departing to attend a funeral back in Sydney. All this bad news!!!
On a positive note, there was no rain today and likely to be none tomorrow. Whilst event coordinator Kevin assured me today was the day for a nice long hill, I’m told that tomorrow is actually the day for hills. And many of them too!
So, for those riders who are reading this and thought they suffered today…you haven’t suffered yet. And when you do, I’ll be there waiting…camera in hand
Notable mentions must also go to the North Haven Bowling Club who presented the ride with a cheque for $500 at last night’s dinner. Thank you!
Our Youth Of The Streets kids are powering on, completing kilometre after kilometre. Great stuff guys. We’re past the half way mark. Keep going!
On the media front, whilst it’s unfortunate that mainstream media coverage of the event is close to zero, the ride did receive a worthy mention on a local FM Radio Station from a caller who said…”there’s about 200 riders holding up 200 cars on the highway”.
Reports confirm it was roughly 6 or 7 cars, but hey…any media is good media…right?
The Rotary Club of Engadine took a moment out of tonight’s ride dinner to call in on the Rotary Club of Nambucca Heads who were fortuitously meeting in a room downstairs from the dining room at the Nambucca Heads RSL.

Always great to say g’day to fellow Rotarians.

I can also report that our ride has received a small amount of international attention, with some comments from abroad landing on the Engadine Rotary Facebook Page, wishing people luck, and oddly…asking if we have milk in our coffee.

Things that make you go hmmmmm…again.

But, for tomorrow it’s onwards and upwards toward Southport, with a short 20km drive in the morning due to a riding ban on a section of road into Urunga, before turing inland for Grafton.
Families wishing to keep up with their loved ones can view some of the action in our daily photo albums on Facebook. Also check out Youth Off The Streets on Facebook too! That Like button needs to be clicked. On both pages ok?
Yours in desperate need of a sleep in but won’t get it because Duncan’s Mess Tent is putting on pancakes tomorrow morning…

Brendon

About the Author: Brendon Walker from Centric Social Media is on loan to the Sydney to Surfers Bike Ride for the week to shoot pics and blog. He also doubles as one of the event bus drivers. His week long goal is to stay dry inside the bus, brag about that to the riders, and capture a spectacular crash in high resolution pixels. He enjoys long walks along the beach, but only if he gets to take his iPhone and tweet about it.

We all learnt something incredible today.

The kids on the Youth Off The Streets team are tackling this ride with practically no training at all.

That’s inspirational!

But rather than have me waffle on about it, have a listen to what Youth Off The Streets have to say about the cycle ride, and what it means to them.

Click here to view the embedded video.

About the Author: Brendon Walker from Centric Social Media is on loan to the Sydney to Surfers Bike Ride for the week to shoot pics and blog. He also doubles as one of the event bus drivers. His week long goal is to stay dry inside the bus, brag about that to the riders, and capture a spectacular crash in high resolution pixels. He enjoys long walks along the beach, but only if he gets to take his iPhone and tweet about it.

Morisset to Bulahdelah

Could this have been another day of rain? Possibly. It certainly look that way when David Le Cornu hopped on the bus and said “this will be a great day if it doesn’t rain”…

[cue heavy rain]

Fortunately for David, it stopped 5 minutes later and most of the riders didn’t see rain again until roughly 20km from Bulahdelah. I should mention that this final burst of rain was immediately preceded by Steve Anderson announcing in Facebook that there was “no rain today”…

[cue heavy rain...again]

There’s a pattern emerging here. Please…let’s not discuss rain any more!!!

So, about the ride. Morisset to Bulahdelah. 128 km’s, two or so bridges and a whole bunch of freeway. And a tail wind…a cyclist’s best friend.

Of particular note today was the rather pleasant lunch stop at Karuah. Great little park down by the water. I even managed to capture a row of pelicans sitting on the wall eating their lunch. [see pic below]

How many Pelicans do you see?

Hands down, the best part of this day was the lunch stop. Not only because that sliced roast beef is delicious, but most because I had the time to sit and chat with one of the Youth Off The Streets kids who were doing this ride. Because this week isn’t just about riding bikes. It’s easy to lose the focus of what this ride is for, when we have 7 days of riding, with people who are passionate about riding.

So what is this ride for? It’s for Youth Off The Streets. And what do they do?

Youth Off The Streets take in troubled and/or homeless kids and give them somewhere to live; somewhere to eat; somewhere to talk; somewhere to sleep; somewhere to learn; somewhere to play; somewhere to grow; somewhere to mature; somewhere to cry…and most importantly…somewhere to feel safe and loved.

This was abundantly clear when I was talking to this person today. We had a good old chat about Youth Off The Streets and what it meant for them. Quite simply, Father Chris’ mission to help kids has saved a life. The living proof was right in front of me.

Leaving an unhappy home at 11 years old, living on the street for 3 months, followed by friend’s homes, refuges and community homes, this was not a childhood to look back on with fond memory. Mix it with drugs and crime and you have the makings of a person who will most likely spend their life in and out of prison or hospital (or both).

Now don’t get me wrong…they’re out of the woods yet.There’s still some past unlawful indiscretions looming, the challenge of schooling and the physical and emotional need to have a healthy body.

So when juvenile justice and parole systems approved the ride in two states for this person, it was a ticket to the rest of their life.

This was their chance to turn things around. Beautiful to see that the Youth Off The Streets staff have probably had some influence in the selection of riders…the ones who ‘needed’ it the most.

I asked this person what lies ahead. What’s planned for the future? And after learning about such a tough childhood, the comment “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” seemed an appropriate line to begin the future story that unfolded before me.

I want to finish school. I want to get my School Certificate and High School Certificate. I want to study Zoology. My big goal is to eventually get back to being with my family.

Wow. Just wow.

From a potentially high chance of becoming a cliche ‘career criminal’ to wanting, ever so desperately to finish school, study a career that is by no means an easy job and reconnect with family is a massive, positive and encouraging position to be in.

Totally inspirational.

Make no mistake. This is a good person. A good person with the right heart, who needed someone to show them love, understanding, forgiveness and self belief.

Youth Off The Streets certainly did that for them.

And that is the reason we ride today, tomorrow and for the rest of the week. To make sure that people get that chance. And to celebrate the fact that Youth Off The Streets makes sure kids actually get that chance!

Before I go…crazy and off topic, but did you know in Bulahdelah they hang party lights over the mountains?

Party lights over mountains...only in Bulahdelah

Things that make you go “hmmmmmmmm”…

About the Author: Brendon Walker from Centric Social Media is on loan to the Sydney to Surfers Bike Ride for the week to shoot pics and blog. He also doubles as one of the event bus drivers. His week long goal is to stay dry inside the bus, brag about that to the riders, and capture a spectacular crash in high resolution pixels. He enjoys long walks along the beach, but only if he gets to take his iPhone and tweet about it.

The sun teased us today, starting out at Hornsby TAFE with the first turn of a pedal. It shone through ever so briefly, just allowing enough time for all riders to get a few kilometers down the road.

Then…wooshka! Rain. All. Day. Long.

Our riders grouped up to hit the first 114km’s of hills, rain, decent’s, rain, traffic…and rain.

With Day 1 being about settling in, riders were given some freedom with the road, so fair to say the groups were a little ‘disjointed’.

Father Chris O’Reilly’s Youth Off The Streets Team brought along two of their young kids, who were clearly uncomfortable wearing lycra knicks! You’ll be right fellas. Everyone else has ‘em on too

Taking full opportunity of a wet road and a slippery corner, I perched myself at the bottom of a hill heading into Brookly; camera at the ready. Every rider expressed gratitude at making it through that corner safely. It seems that I was the only one disappointed that there wasn’t any “carnage”! (have a look at the pics by the way…big…fat…rain. The camera captured every drop).

Upon crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, the ride stopped to receive the mandatory Police Escort to our first rest stop at Gosford. All ran smoothly and we thank the Police Officers for the work they did in making this section of road safe for us to travel.

After a brief pause without rain, riders all huddled together under 2 portable shelters. Most people curse rain, but it does bring an extraordinary willingness for one to find out about each other by cramming in under a shelter together. The cakes also may have had something to do with that.

Also, for the riders getting their rain jackets out at this stage of the ride…you’re already wet!

Now, you can’t have a Day 1 ride without a Day 1 stack! Pity I wasn’t there to capture the moment, but legend be told, one rider is missing some shin skin after reportedly doing something he shouldn’t have. Don Johnson…maybe not so slick as your famous counterpart? No more “Miami Vice” like stunts please

We also had another rider give the bitumen some attention after cramping up. Nasty…but the good news is, I was there to capture that one. See!

If you know this person, please tag them on Facebook. Stuff like this is too good to keep quiet!

As this is also my first time attending this event, I apparently had my ‘initiation’ by missing a turn I was told I would probably miss. Ya…so as a result of this, I didn’t get to see any riders tackle the infamous Bumble Hill descent I did make it to lunch in time, which was far more important.

Speaking of Bumble Hill, Peter Cremen admitted to his fellow riders that he would have much preferred to ride “UP” Bumble Hill today. You’re a sicko Peter. I hope your fellow riders talk some sense into you before the week is through…

Following lunch saw a largely unremarkable afternoon of relaxed, fed and happy riders rolling their way toward Morisset, before being ferried off to their accommodation.

Dinner at the Morisset Country Club consisted of Duncan calling order in the “mess hall” like a school teacher on a Year 6 camp. “You may eat now”…“No you cannot eat now”…“No you can wait”…“Stack your plate neatly”…The man with the microphone did a great job. The food? Abundant and yummy.

He also loves lost property…because he gets to fine people for losing their stuff (all extra monies raised go to Youth Off The Streets). Someone did lose their day bag. Probably not the best way to start a week long trip.

So with the evening meal out of the way, riders were presented with their ride jersey’s and knicks. Stay tuned for a pretty swanky photo of everyone in the new ride clobber tomorrow!

For now, all riders have been safely shipped back to their beds for another day of riding through rain, according to the forecast.

Check out our “best of the day” pics on Facebook, or see the full set over on Flickr. Remember, if you know someone in the pics on Facebook, please tag them. Tagging makes me happy

P.S. Dear Duncan. Anything the group from The Bay Hotel says about me missing the turn off last night is not true. I didn’t “miss” it. I just…drove past it to check if it was safe to turn, before turning around and heading back to perform the safe turn confidently, due to the drive past inspection immediately prior. A foggy windscreen and society is also to blame.

About the Author: Brendon Walker from Centric Social Media is on loan to the Sydney to Surfers Bike Ride for the week to shoot pics and blog. He also doubles as one of the event bus drivers. His week long goal is to stay dry inside the bus, brag about that to the riders, and capture a spectacular crash in high resolution pixels. He enjoys long walks along the beach, but only if he gets to take his iPhone and tweet about it.

This year’s final dinner will be on Friday 6th May at Greenmount Resort at Coolangatta.

regards

Kevin Stuart

A message from Ann Collins that I’m sure many of her friends from the earlier rides will be pleased to read.

========================

Dear Bike Riders

Wishing you all a safe and happy trip ; I will be thinking of the ride!

It is just over 3 years since my dramatic exit from the 2008 ride but I am cycling again  and still getting better … finally conquered a hill cycling from the Hawkesbury River back up to Pie in the Sky!

As ever, take care and watch those wooden plank bridges!

Best wishes

Ann Collins

The date for next year’s ride has been set to start on Saturday 30th April 2011.

Entries will not be taken until the entry form is available and this will be sometime in October/November.

We will advise you as soon as it is available on the web site and via the newsletter (you can sign up for the newsletter over on the side).

Kevin’s Email Address

Please note that my email address will be changing as and from 27th July.

On that date the iimetro address will be canceled.

All cycle ride emails are to be through sydneytosurfers@gmail.com and personal emails to my new address kevinmaralyn@hotmail.com.

Thanks

Kevin Stuart
Ride Secretary

Congratulations to Connah Cutbush from Pack 7 who was today presented with the keys to his new Toyota Yaris.

Fraser Mackay-Sim presenting the keys to Connah and his wife Julie, with Ken Robinson and Kevin Stuart looking on.
(Photo being courtesy of the St George & Sutherlans Shire Leader)

Congratulations again Connah!

Ken & the Ride Team