Inaugural Bridge to Beach race a success | Photos

The two day event culminated in the major race that saw competitors head from Taree to Harrington and return. It was conducted for the first time and attracted competitors from NSW, Victoria and Queensland.

NSW Ski Racing chairman Alan France described weekend as 'awesome.' He's confident more boats will contest the 2023 race.

"We'll be back next year,'' Mr France confirmed.

"We'll probably be back before.''

NSW Ski Racing ran a heat in the NSW series in Taree in September as a prelude and Mr France indicated this will be also held here again in 2023.

While the Bridge to Beach will now be a permanent fixture on the area's sporting calendar, Mr France said the date may change next year.

"We clashed with a couple of things today. This is the date when we traditionally run the Hawkesbury 120 on the Hawkesbury River. So we have to sit down and have a look at the national calendar and work out a spot," he said.

"The SRA (Ski Racing Australia) chairman was here this weekend. He raced here and said it was awesome and that we have to come back. So we now have to find a place on the calendar that works. Hopefully we won't clash with any other major events.''

Mr France described the Manning as a 'great venue and a great course.'

"Everybody wants to come back,'' he added.

"The course is a bit challenging. There's a lot of different types of water. In the morning it was pretty smooth all the way but in the afternoon it chopped up a bit, so it sorts the men from the boys or the women from the girls.''

The Super Class was won by TR in the time of 36.22.11. Superman was second with The Mistress third.

TR's driver Ian Tricker, who lives on the Gold Coast, made a comeback to the sport to race at Taree.

"The last time I was here was 35 years ago,'' he said.

"It's a great town and a great venue.

"It's a tremendous river and a great course. It's very challenging - you get 12 to 15 inch chop in the water and it's challenging.

"I've been retired for two and a half years. This is my first race back. I had a quick training run at Grafton three or four weeks ago before the Grafton race was supposed to be on, but that had to be rescheduled because they had a flood.''

Tricker said he'll '100 per cent' be back next year.

"We won today, so we'll have to be back to defend it,'' he said.

Tricker was the driver, Nathan Miller the observer with Jake Ellery and Jack Stevens the skiers.