San Remo Channel Challenge Postponed until 2022

After the recent outbreak of COVID19 in the Bayside area of Melbourne the Board of the Woolamai Beach Surf Life Saving Club in conjunction with the Channel Challenge organizing committee has taken the extremely difficult decision to cancel the 2021 Channel Challenge.

This latest outbreak has highlighted the fact that COVID19 is still very much with us and further outlined with two key Channel Challenge organizers caught up with the restrictions put in place after this outbreak.

 The WBSLSC is an organization whose key purpose is to protect members of the community and keep them from harm and the risk of the event being responsible for bringing an an outbreak of COVID19 into the San Remo and Phillip Island Community did not sit well with members of the club.

The extremely restrictive protocols around the running of the event were making it difficult for the unique character of the Channel Challenge to be maintained. The small beach area at the start created social distancing problems; there was a cap on how many competitors could be in each wave and in the transition area at the one time; all spectators’ contact details were supposed to be collected; the drink station at the finish also had a cap of 100 who had to be socially distanced with family and friends kept away. An inordinate amount of race marshals would have been required to carry out these duties and kitted out in PPE.

There is a heightened risk that the event organizers could have taken entries and carried out the time consuming and expensive preparations to set the race up and then it could be canceled at late notice and see the Surf Life Saving Club incur a significant loss.

All involved with the Channel Challenge absolutely love the history and tradition of this unique event and we are very disappointed to have been forced to make this tough decision. We are disappointed for our loyal Challengers who have been training hard and for our great sponsors and support groups. We feel for the San Remo Traders and the Bass Coast Community in general but we do promise that we will back keener than ever for Channel Challenge in 2022.

Warm Regards,