On Sunday the 4th of May 2014 I competed in the 65-69 years age group in the 2.2 kilometre swim from Watego’s Beach to the Byron Bay surf club. This annual swim attracts some 900 competitors and the 2014 swim marked the 26th anniversary of the race.
On Monday I attended the funeral for Greg Brough, a good friend for over forty years. Greg was a larger than life character who lit up a room when he entered. He was the Gold Coast’s first Olympian and won a Bronze medal in the men’s 1500m freestyle at the Mexico Olympics and a bronze medal in the men’s 400m freestyle at the 1970 Commonwealth games.
Winning three gold medals (surf race, rescue tube and the board rescue) in my age group at the recent Queensland Masters State Championships held at North Kirra made me very happy and reinforces what I have written many times which is, “being able to swim is a life long life saving skill.” The Championships provided a platform that verified the statement. On Friday, 7 March 2014, Surf Lifesaving Queensland held their Championships, which invites all proficient surf lifesavers to compete and test basic lifesaving skills against their peers.
Over the last six and a half decades I have heard some wonderful stories in relation to children and adults learning to swim. This letter to me from Gaye about her and her daughters experience at the Shapland Swim School Warner is one of those wonderful stories.
Elise Hoyer, a swimming teacher at the Shapland Swim School Sinnamon Park displays the medals she won at the recent Masters Swimming Australia 2013 National Championships. She competed in the 18 to 24 age group at the Sydney Olympic Park pool. Elise won gold in the 100 meters butterfly, a bronze in the 200 Individual Medley and placed fourth, fifth and sixth in the 50 meters fly, 100 meters freestyle and 50 meters freestyle respectively.
Karen Fowke recently returned from her working holiday in East Timor. Normally lessons are held in the ocean however weather conditions made it impossible to utilise that water. Instead, Karen says, “I only ended up working for a total of 15 hours because I spent most of the first week helping a local tradesman fix the out of ground pool.”
Come join us at the Pregnancy, Babies & Children’s Expo. The Expo runs Friday 21 to Sunday 23 June, 2013. You can find us at booth G13, where we’ll be waiting to answer any of your questions.
Karen Fowke, a professional swimming teacher for over a decade and a half and a Shapland Swim School franchisee at the Taigum Swim School, was horrified to find out that over 350,000 Asian children drown each year so she decided to make this holiday a productive one. Karen is very excited about her trip to East Timor where for two weeks she will give of her time and talents as a swimming instructor.
Congratulations Blake Cochrane on winning the Men’s 100m Breastroke – SB7 at the Paralympic games in London. Not only did Blake win the gold he also broke his own world record. I first met Blake in the late 1990’s when his father bought Blake to the original Shapland Swim School at Clontarf to learn how to swim.
Not only did Brendan Hall win the final of the mens 400m freestyle S9 and break the world record; he did it convincingly. Brendan swam a well judged race. His early pace avoided any excess build up of lactic acid so he was able to power home in the later stages of the race.