The best weekend away every year....ever!!

Team Flag

Saturday the 30th of September 2006 saw running of the 20th Clanwilliam Freshpak Fitness Festival. The EARN YOUR athletes have been to the last six triathlon weekends and it definitly goes down as the biggest best yet.

I think i'm correct in saying that there were record numbers of athletes competing in the events on the day. All in all 1150 athletes competing in the 3km long swim, iron kids, duathlon, biathlon and of course the main event the triathlon. A truly fantastic effort from all involved and a very special event to be a part of.

The 3km long swimmers

The weekend for the Earn Your athletes was about so much more than just the triathlon though. The first 8 of the Earn Your clanwilliam Triathlon Team made their way up to the dam on Wednesday afternoon, lead up there by Mr Clanwilliam and the Super Smasherman, close behind were the likes of Ten Four Moses and the Leaping Hatt-Trick, Pikki Nickard, a C a C a CFT, Riche and Beef.

Some Wednesday night vibe

It didn't take long to set up the base camp that would later dominate weekend in every aspect, we took with us, two draught machines, six kegs of beer, white picket fences, umbrella's, tressel tables. All of which was the culmination of months of planning and became the most incredible vibe area ever, the vibe area was later topped off with hay bales which were collected in clanwilliam. All of this went into the Tuffy Vito, and special thanks must go to Jonathan Duffett - Tuffy Brands for sponsoring the vehicle. Thank you Jonathan!!!

The YARD resting next to the draught machines

Mr Clan and Moses unloading the hay bales

The vibe area

The Tuffy Vito packed to the brim

Wednesday evening saw the athletes enjoying a hard fought braai and some ice cold SAB draught beers, things got very rowdy very quickly when Beef pulled out the Royal Bank of Scotland YARD glass and we were all attacked by the YARD SHARK. Everyone had a song sung and sank a yard or two, watching for the 'kick' of course. It was not long before Ze German/eastern Lithuanian contingent came to tell us we were a bunch of apes, and the night came to a halt at about 1:30am.

The YARD was probably the find of the weekend. It was presented to everyone who arrived as they were stepping out of their cars and got the vibe going in a huge way. Well done Beef for bringing it up. I'm told it's been washed and put to bed now for a long long time.

Matt the janitor hitting the YARD

Thursday morning saw the cristening of Super Smasher Gadget King Duffett's new Panache. The athletes were on the boat drinking champagne by 7:00am, the water was glassy and by far the best wakeboarding/skiing conditions of the weekend.

The champers that cristened the panache

in the green room - only a surfer knows the feeling

Cute Miles

Smash hitting some huge air

The superman gone wrong

Hatt-Trick - airborn

Hatt-Trick showing the way with the verve

CFT soaking up the magic

Milo on the wakeboard, Beef having a laugh with the verve and moses

The 250 Evinrude

Shortly after the cristening ceremony the Team Cobra contingent made an appearance with Kaasenova and Matt the Janitor arriving to set up the Piz Buin and Cobra sponsored Upper Constantia region of the campsite.

Upper Constantia

Thursday evening saw the arrival of 9 more EARN YOUR athletes including the likes of stalwarts B-Dog and The Stoner first timers Doorsie, Pocahontas, and The Large Mouth Bass, not long after Dodgy Zebra, Mo, Camel Toe and Rashburgur made their appearance. The YARD SHARK was presented to all and Thursday nights festivites kicked off.

Friday things began to get a little more choatic as some serious troops started to roll in. Play/Pause/Eject, Dallas, Sweedish, Glitter Tits, Cowie Pie, Salamada, Jilly Bean, Fetch, Deedee, Alchoholier, The Aviator, Wingsnake, Smurf, Cruiky, Mems, Kate, Bucky 44, Henkes, Banger, Spoed, V-C squared, Greg-o, Sebastian, Astie, Mark, Mel, Sean, Rich, Crystal, Dj Gav, Gill, Phil, Mark, Richard, Nick, Jimmy, Moira, Tamar, Inky, Pappy, Jax, Helen, Ben and Maaaaaarty all pulling into the site with force.

Maaaaarty brought up a box of lanyards with the official Marty designed and printed athlete accreditaion. The vibe started to kick off properly with everyone getting either a green or red lanyard depending on weather or not they were a go. The YARD SHARK got a serious beating as the camp champ and vibe awards were created. Rashburgur picked up the first camp champ award for the fastest YARD, and it wasn't long before the Large Mouth Bass, Bucky 44 and others were having their go as the camp champ.

Alcholier - Camp champ

The Vibe award was also created when Pocahontas was having a YARD and there was a little left in the bubble, Riche went to take the YARD back and was given serious bat. Poca finished the yard and the vibe award was created. It was then awarded for tremdous effort within the campsite throughout the weekend.

The duck award was created when Milo got everyone to stop what they were doing to look at the biggest duck he'd ever seen. The duck turned out to be a large white swan. Milo recieved the duck award for having a shocker. It was soon passed on, but not long before Milo was writing on his lanyard and came up with "CLANWILLIAM - IT'S A KINDA MAGIG" - brilliant!

Cruiky arrived at around 9pm on the Friday evening and had with him the Bunker Boy shirts. A secondary shirt handing over ceremony and YARD awarding took place on the hay bales. Huge vibe with 50 athletes singing songs and receiving their shirts.

Jax at the hand over

Mo at the hand over

The aviator at the handover

Poca with the vibe award at the hand over

Dodgy Zebra

Bucky 44

Fetch

Doorsie

All this was going on while Maaaaarty aka Braai-Man-Dela was whipping up a storm on the braai. Maaaarty played out of his boots this weekend, braaiing for 60 people with ease, creating vibe fires, the lanyards, and so much more. Awesome effort Maaarty. Thanks boet!!

Braai - Man - Dela

Maaaaaaaarty

Vibe fire

Friday night was chaos in the vibe area after the shirts were handed out, everyone had had a YARD, everyone was singing songs. Jilly-Bean and Deedee put on quite an impressive performance with some bra dancing around the hay bales, there was music coming from cars, games of strip ching chong cha going on in tents, it was all happening - all kindsa magic.

Smash getting some lovin

Salamada and the Cowie Pie

Sebastian, Doorsie, Rashburgur and Riche

Friday night vibe

Jilly-bean and Deedee getting out of hand

Hand over - over!!

What you got there Milo

Saturday was the culmination of the weekend. The last of the troops, namely B-Dogg, Monnies, CBFZ, Lucky Luc and DB rolled in as the athletes were tweaking bikes, getting into speedo's, registrering for the event, B-dog, Mo, Fetch and Kieron all competed in the 3km long swim and Mark and Greg-o both competed in the biathlon in the morning.

Riche cooked another proper breakfast, while being interviewed by the Supersport/World of endurance camera man, The leaping Hatt-Trick also had an extensive interview about his training regeime. Maaaaarty the Party put on a show for the camera man, pulling out his now famous blue steel. Lets hope the editors put some of that banter on the weekend wrap up program.

The media cam at breakfast

Team Earn Your Clanwilliam Triathlon - AWESOME!!!

Out of the 70 strong Earn Your group, there where a number of athletes competing in both the individual and team triathlon events. The Earn Your athletes had 8 teams competing and they were the Team Leaping Mantees with B-Dog, Smash and Mr Clanwilliam. Team Cobra with Kaasenova, CBFZ and Dj Gav. Team Doorsies Angels with The Large Mouth Bass, Pocahontas and Doorsie. B-Dogg, Camel Toe and Monnies. CFT, Sebastian and Katie. Fetch, Maaarty and Deedee. Mems, Cruiky and Crystal.

The girls with pom poms - That's proper support

Maaarty, Rash, Milo and Bucky44 vibing on race day

Hatt- Trick, Moses and Alcholier lining up

The Leaping Manatee's

Doorsie and Play/Pause

There were also 19 individual athletes, Alchoholier, Beef, Hatt-Trick, Pikki Nickard, Moses, Riche, Tamar, Mo, Dodgy Zebra, Henkes, Spoed, both V-C's, Greg-o, Banger, Banksie, Mandy, Dave Winter, Aubrey.

The swimmers lining up

An unbelievable effort from all involved. Huge thanks to all the supporters as well. It was sensational to run past the campsite and see the pom poms fluttering in the wind and hearing all the cheering. Thanks to Kristi for making the pom poms.

The YARD SHARK attacked all the athletes again hard after the race, the athletes all got stuck in again with a mini prize giving on the hay bales before making their way into the marquee tent for the official prize giving where we once again dominated. Cruiky, Pikki Nickard, Mems, Katie all won lucky draw prizes and Riche got a New Balance hamper, thanks to Rashburgur for having a word with the voice of sport.

The party in the tent kicked off like never before, the dance floor was packed, the DJ was excellent and the vibe was tremendous. Unfortunately due to council regulatiosn the bar closed early at 12 and the DJ had to shut off at 12:30. The party was absolutley heaving at this stage and it was dissapoitning to see it end. The earn your team quickly headed back to the campsite and kicked off the after party which went on untill the rain brought it to an end at about 3:30am.

Maarty, Glitter Tits, CBFZ and Pikki Nickard in the tent

Pix and Doorsie

Glitter, Hatt, B-Dogg and Lucky Luc

Luc, Pix, CBFZ, Monnies, Riche and B-Dogg

Rash doing the sprinkler

DB makes a late charge with Sebastian

Huge vibe in the tent

Huge vibe


Sunday saw the athletes clearing up and heading home. Riche was collecting finances, which worked out perfectly, so thanks to everyone for getting their cash in. Fetch stepped up to the plate and cooked one of the best breakfasts Clanwilliam has ever seen. Next year with Riche and Fetch will have to have a cook off for the King of the breakfast rights.

All in all one of the best weekends away ever, certainly the biggest Clanwilliam Triathlon weekend yet.

Big thanks to Milo, Maaarty, Beef and Smasher for all their efforts on the weekend. Maaarty did not stop working all weekend, Smash worked incredibly hard before and during the weekend, prepping the boat, taking people for ski's, organising kegs etc. Milo and Beef were always on hand to help out and created a huge part of the vibe throughout. Thanks must actually go out to everyone who was there. Everyone contributed in some way or another to make it such a special weekend and it wouldn't have been the same without everyone who was there.

Clanwilliam 2007 is only 362 days away and I can't wait for it.