THE Shoalhaven and South Coast will be powerfully represented at this weekend's NSW Country Surf Life Saving Championships.
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The Nowra/Culburra, Mollymook, Gerringong, Kiama Downs and Kiama Surf Life Saving Clubs will all be represented at the titles hosted by the Cudgen Headland club.
Nowra/Culburra will be represented by the experienced Chad Pollard, who was mentioned as one of the competitors to watch.
Pollard is a previous winner of the 30-39 ironman section and will be looking to defend the title he won last year.
Mollymook's Karla Jones, in the under 15s beach flags, will be looking to go one better than last year after coming second in 2019.
Gerringong will send up 27 competitors, Mollymook 10, Kiama 19 and Kiama Downs seven.
Cudgen Headland SLSC President Grant Rogers said the event would be a great one.
"We're thrilled to have the Country Championships back for the second year," he said.
"We're anticipating a bigger and better event after implementing a couple of great new initiatives."
Rogers says the Country Championships continues to be one of the best events on the surf sports calendar.
"This event is all about encouraging our country clubs to participate and gives them the opportunity for fun, healthy competition," Rogers added.
The event will be more environmentally friendly .
Some of the new initiatives for the 2020 event include encouraging no plastic on the beach.
"We won't be selling any plastic water bottles and all officials and athletes are encouraged to use our additional water stations to refill their own bottles, Rogers said.
In terms of conditions for the weekend, Cudgen Headland SLSC Head Coach Scott McCartney says it's important for all water competitors to take time to watch, test and understand the sweep at Kingscliff.
"Conditions leading into the event look to be consistent with what we've been experiencing the last couple of weeks on the Far North Coast," McCartney said.
"It will most likely be between two and four feet surf during the event and the wind will be up so be prepared for chop out in the surf, along with a southerly swell."
His tip for all water athletes is to not underestimate the benefit of a warm up to help judge the speed of the sweep in the swim, board and ski events.
McCartney offered sound advice for competitors in the beach flags, sprint and beach run events.
"The sand at Kingscliff is very soft," McCartney said.
"so athletes who prefer harder sand will need to spend some time ahead of their heats getting used to the foot wells."