Barrie Beehag - the name behind the race

by Bob Wonders on 11 Nov 2010 As we have reported, the fifth annual Barrie Beehag Water Ski classic scheduled to take place on the Murray River this coming weekend, has been postponed due to unacceptable amounts of debris from recent heavy rains.

So I thought it might be pertinent to take a look at the man behind the name, sadly the late Barrie Beehag.

The Barrie Beehag Water Ski Race is staged by the Moama Water Sports Club, close by the NSW- Victorian border and on the banks of the ‘mighty Murray.’

Barrie served that club as a director, as its treasurer and as president, during the years 1974 through 1993, 19 very fruitful years for the club.

On his retirement (he stood down, he said, to ‘make way for the next generation’) the club understandably honoured him with Life Membership.

Ski racing was a major component in the Beehag family lifestyle, and in 1973 it was a true family affair with Barrie driving his boat, ‘Ezoff’, eldest son Tony observing and daughter Kay skiing.

Other members of the family gave their support, too, driving the trailer, leading the cheer squad.

Ski racing gave the Beehag clan an adrenalin rush to the extent that they ‘traipsed’ the country looking for ski races to enter.

Over the years, the Beehag family ski boat was upgraded several times, and given various name changes as well, among them ‘Ezeoff’, ‘Ding a Ling’, ‘HiJack’, ‘Smokey’ and finally, ‘Big Barrie Beehag’ or ‘BBB.’

In those formative years, the family, together with other ski racing competitors, looked forward each year to the Southern 50 (as it was then called).

However, in 1975 the Victorian Water Ski Association was planning on dropping the event from the point score calendar due to poor entry numbers, bad timing (it was staged in May) and the distance from Melbourne for organisers running the event.

It was at that time that a group of keen social skiers, Barrie Beehag, Clarrie Worsnop, Geoff Lynch, Bill Vickers, Leigh Johnson and others decided to establish the Moama Water Sports Club.

Their aim was simply to keep the Southern 50 ‘alive.’

In 1979, during Barrie Beehag’s four-year term as president of the club, it took on the sole running of what was now the Southern 80, fully sanctioned by the Victorian Water Ski Federation and attracting a healthy 83 entries for its initial event.

As Kay Turner points out in her excellent ‘pen picture’ of Barrie published to the club’s website, the man himself could not have had a better beginning, his son Craig winning the event outright with elder son Tony observing.

Barrie Beehag was one of those people of whom it is said, ‘one of nature’s gentlemen.’

His love of the sport was such that he willingly provided his boat to tow anyone, from tadpoles to the ‘old blokes’ running in Veteran classes.

He gave up his boat driving in 1992 when he was diagnosed with the deadly bowel cancer, but threw himself into the judging side of ski racing.

As Kay Turner described it, when a ski racer was called to the judge’s tower he or she knew they were in trouble – 'A competitor needed a real good story to get off,' she explained.

Craig Beehag eventually took over the driving of ‘BBB’ and Barrie only got to observe in the occasional river classics.

In 1988 he became a director of the Victorian Water Ski Association and six years later became its president.

He held the post until ill healthy forced his resignation late in 2004.

During his final years, despite holding no official status, when it came to the staging of the Southern 80 Barrie was ‘still there’, happy to assist in the running of the race in anyway whatsoever.

Sadly, he succumbed to the dreaded bowel cancer on June 4, 2006.

Ski racing lost one of its true icons on that day, but he certainly left a mark that will long be remembered.