Yeah whatever works, I just want to ride!!!
See you lot down there :evil:
who is travelling down by train?
what time train?
i have no idea where to go so would love to tag along with someone more organised than myself
slack…yes…its been a big week
I got no idea how the hell i am getting down there. Train or Car. Still undecided.
I’ll definitely be going down by train. Gotta put the bike together in the morning so I’ll be at West End around midday or so…
Sorry for not getting things sorted earlier guys, been a bit hectic of late. Here’s a map and time table to get your self there. Any questions just shoot me a pm or give me a ring. I’m heading down now to make sure the map is up to scratch. See you at the start line. Beach end of cavil mall. 
Trains depart central station for Nerang at 2:59 2:29 and 1:59 any of those will get you there in time but anything later your going to have to sprint from the train to surfers.
have a look at the Translink site if you need any more info.
1 spot in my car if anyone wants a ride. will swing by store at 3:30.
Writing this as quick as I can.
Ok. Bender was in a bit of a state cause of computer/printer issues. But soon enough Ed, Gypsy, Me and Bender headed to the Start - that “Surfer’s Paradise” sign at the top of the Mall there. We arrived dead on 5:30. (the “start” time). About 15 other riders were already there. Soon enough Bender gave us our manifests. 6 checkpoints, plus a finish line. At 5 of the checkpoints you had to buy a food product which would be donated to charity. You had to keep your receipts. We got 10 minutes to study the map. I roughly counted 8 guys/1 gal from Brisbane and 10 or so locals. Gypsy and Ed looked like they had a plan so I decided to follow them. The closest checkpoints were south but we figured those checkpoints would become a bottleneck with too many peeps hitting them at once.
So we were off and us 3 headed north. Almost immediately I was stranded at some lights trying to cross the Gold Coast highway. I was stuck there for at least 2 excruciating minutes while Ed and Gypo powered ahead. I thought my race was already over. But then I got a break and SMASHED IT. It was about 1 or 2 ks to the store and I made it while the guys were still inside. I threw my bike down and ran in and grabbed a can of baked beans and pleaded with some customers ahead of me to let me go first. It’s for charity! They said, “Sure!” and were totally fine. That was too easy I thought.
So the 3 of us were off to the next checkpoint and it was a lonely BP somewhere. the old guy serving couldn’t understand why we wanted 6 chupa-chumps, but 3 receipts. “You get 4 for 4 dollars,” he said, not quite understanding our rushed explanation of what we were doin. Eventually he just rang up 2 chupa-chumps 3 times and we were gone. As we left we said there would be more riders coming soon and only half-jokingly said could he please slow them down. He’d taken an eternity with our exchange so it was only fair i guess. LOL.
Can I just say at this point there were a lot of big fucking complicated intersections when you had no idea who had green or red. Naturally I got left behind at almost everyone!
After one more checkpoint we were heading south with the wind at our backs. We had to turn off at Monaco St but after a bit it seemed like we had missed the turn off and Gypo was lagging behind. Ed and I stopped and tried to check the map and then Gypsy came by with an evil look on his face. “What are you fucking doin? We passed Monaco 2 ks back.” Then we realised Monaco wasn’t a cross street but an overpass. Fuck. So we powered on backtracking. The next checkpoint was on the beach in front of some surf club. We found one but it was the wrong one - we were still miles too far south. (That tail wind had really pushed us hard!)
When we got to the beach checkpoint eventually Johnson called out to us. (Thanks dude) Then we had to scull a can of hot lemonade. Yuk. And suddenly my handlebars were sticky. I also felt majorly sick. Johnson said we were the last ones to hit that checkpoint. My heart sank - and I am sure the others felt the same. But then we were heading up the gold coast hwy on a MISSION. It was now dusk and the traffic was moving pretty slowly and we got a train going and spent most time in the right lane overtaking cars at 45-50kms/hr. It was INSANE. But very, very much FUN.
One more checkpoint and we were caning it to the finish line. And we got there 1, 2, 3. WTF? And we unloaded our packs and started telling our stories with Marty. And then I felt a bit like something was wrong. So have we got everything? FUCK! we missed a checkpoint only 500 metres away and we’d just smashed past it. So we said a few swear words and we jumped on bikes and we arrived at the checkpoint and there was about 20 peeps in there buying stuff including about 8 guys in bike helmets. FUCK FUCK FUCK.
So I didn’t even bother rushing I thought it was all over. But then we rode back and found out only two guys had finished ahead of us after all that. So I got 4th. Gypsy 3rd and Ed 5th.
Gypo, god bless him, was well pissed off over what could’ve been. 
And Ranga-Dave came first. MAXIMUM KUDOS DUDE!
Same story the last two alleycats 
ah well. good fun mashin the goldie though, although drivers down there a fcukin shit. kinda scared splitting lanes cos everybody just pulls out without looking. I think final start cound was 19 people with 3 not finishing rather opting for home.
Thanks for the turnout guys. Just spread all the goodies you collected on the deck and i think the Salvos are going to be pretty happy with your efforts. Thanks again to the sponsors BO Gear, Gear Shop and Sneak and Destroy.
Bigger and better next year with pre printed manifests and all
forgot to say thanks to bender!! had an awesome time!
cheers bender!
twas a ripping event , enjoyed mashing around the surfers traffic. Im looking forward to getting up to Brisbane and coming for a ride ,
cool story hansel