Thousands of athletes are expected to converge on the NSW South Coast in the coming days. Photo: Sea Otter Festival.
Some wild and stormy weather isn’t stopping mountain bikers from heading to the NSW South Coast.
The inaugural Sea Otter Australia event runs until Sunday (26 October), and is expected to attract more than 2000 athletes and an estimated 5000 additional cycling enthusiasts.
The five-day event, organised by the locally based Rocky Trail Group, is promising a range of rides, demonstrations, events and exhibitions.
Marketing director of Rocky Trail Group and Sea Otter Australia CEO Juliane Wisata said recent wild winds nearly stopped their set-up in its tracks.
“Yesterday [22 October], the crew were putting together the event … That actually impacted our operations quite a lot,” she said of the conditions.
“From about midday, when all the flags were nicely arranged and all the fence mesh was beautifully put up, the wind gusts started coming in.”
It was part of a cold front that swept across much of southern Australia earlier this week, bringing storms and some high winds to the Illawarra, Far South Coast, Snowy Mountains and parts of the ACT.
“It just made a real big mess,” Ms Wisata said of the system.
“All the work that we had done was basically destroyed, so we sent our staff home … We just started early [today, 23 October].”
SES local commander Peter Collins said the vast majority of households across Eurobodalla Shire escaped the overnight storms unscathed.
“We didn’t get as many jobs as I thought we would … if we’d got another 10 [to] 20 jobs, then we’d probably be going for a couple of days.”
Crews received nine calls for help, ranging from damaged or blown-off tiles to a missing trampoline (don’t worry, it was quickly located).
“Most of them were for roof damage, which is quite interesting,” he said.
“Normally, we would expect more trees to come down in winds like that. But I think that because it’s been so dry over the last three months, the trees are very wedged into the ground.”
Mr Collins also said that as the winds had eased considerably, his crews were wrapping up their last tasks today.
Ms Wisata said some local mountain bikers were canvassing the Mogo Trail network this morning.
“They’re just reviewing all of the trails to make sure everything’s safe and any damage gets cleaned up.”
She is confident the event can go ahead as planned.
“We were lucky, in a way, that it happened yesterday, and we have enough time to clean up [before the festival starts].
“It’s all hands on deck. We’ve got an amazing crew who are jumping in and everyone goes above and beyond.”
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, weather conditions for the rest of the week are expected to be a lot calmer.
