Surf Life Saving northern beaches: History going back 120 years

Daylight bathing, as it was called back then, had been banned in some Sydney municipalities, including Manly, since the 1830s. But, go north of Manly Lagoon and people were free to swim

In, 1902, journalist William Gocher, who owned the Manly and North Sydney News, wrote stories trying to get the ban overturned, and was among many who defied the laws and went daylight swimming in an effort to force change. A year later, in 1903, Manly Council lifted the ban, but it would be another few years until the northern beaches got its first surf club.

In 1907, three people drowned in the surf at Manly and the northern beaches' first surf club was formed and built at North Steyne. Since then clubs have formed across the LGA, with the most recent at Narrabeen in 1964.

The service was male dominated for the next 73 years, with women finally allowed to get the bronze medallion qualification from 1980. This allowed them to become active lifesavers during rescues.

These days, 120 years since those groundbreaking swimmers defied those laws, the community up and down the peninsula have come to rely on surf lifesaving volunteers to help keep them safe.

There are now 21 surf clubs with 19,500 members across the LGA. It is the largest volunteer community group in the northern beaches.

During the 2020-21 season, volunteers spent more than 155,000 hours patrolling the beach and conducted 263 rescues, but so far this season hundreds more people have been saved.

More than 90 years after SLS was formed, Australia finally had its first female club president. It was Dee Why, with Patricia Newton.

Mrs Newton first joined Dee Why Surf Life Saving Club in 1983 with her husband Paul and the oldest of their four children. "Back then, women weren't really allowed up in the club when we first started, except for if it was an event," she said.

By 1994, she'd achieved her bronze medallion and was in charge of the club's nippers. She set about increasing education and diversity among them, and was keen to lead by example.

"The kids believed if I could swim out that far then they could do it too," she said..

During the 1994-95 season, she helped to introduce peer support for lifesavers who'd been involved in a critical incident: Trauma Incident Peer Support (TIPS), based on an internationally recognised program.

In 1995, she introduced one of the biggest changes the club had seen for its nippers program. "Child protection issues were really big for me," she said. "Chaperones were introduced and parents were encouraged to go away with children."

By 1997 she was the club's deputy president, and in 1998 she was voted president. She remembers the first few years of being a president as challenging, and didn't realise she was an Australian first until she got the role. She stood down from the role in the year 2000.

Mrs Newton is a life member of the SLS Sydney Northern Beaches Branch. In 2018, she was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to lifesaving.

Jackson Borg and Maddie Spencer are like many in the service: they joined when they were just five years old. The Newport club members, who are also a couple, not only regularly patrol their beach but also compete in surf sports.

Ironman Borg was recently crowned Most Valued Player for the 2021/2022 Australian Summer of Surf series. He also came eighth overall in the 2021/22 Nutri-Grain Ironman series which wound up this month.

Borg, 23, first joined the club with his parents Glen and Chris, but it's the "community feel" of the service and the competition it offers that have kept him there ever since.

Ironwoman Spencer, 25, was a latecomer when it comes to surf sports and only started competing when she was 17 years old.

"I was late for this sport, very late," she admits. "I was really determined once I did start, so I had quite a bit of catching up to do in that first year or two and then straight into opens and in among the action.

"It's a great sport, you can't live on the northern beaches and not be a part of the ocean and the community that comes along with Surf Life Saving. It would be a very hard thing to avoid."

Surf lifesavers in the northern beaches have always been an innovative and instrumental driving force in the service.

In 1961, the first prototype of the 'torpedo rescue buoy' was used at Avalon. This piece of rescue equipment was not only adopted by Surf Life Saving Australia, but it's still being used more than 60 years later.

In 1965, Newport surf club introduced the first jet powered surf boat to Australia.

During the 1968-69 patrol season, Avalon trialled an early version of the inflatable rescue boat. In December 1969, an Australian-first occurred when Avalon lifesavers used an IRB (inflatable rescue boat) for a rescue, saving eight children during the incident.

In 1996-97, SNB branch was selected to do a 12-month trial of portable defibrillators. These days, all 21 surf clubs have a defib, with five also having one outside for 24-hour use by the public.

Many who join service, like Manly club's Ray Petersen and Queenscliff club's Terry Boardman, end up staying for decades.

Mr Petersen, 78, got his bronze medallion in 1959, and reminisced that lifesaving equipment has changed dramatically since his early days. Back then, they would use the reel and line to rescue swimmers in trouble.

"There were surf boats but they didn't do many rescues," he said. "Then the [rescue] boards started coming in and as it moderned up we had the helicopters and jet boats."

One of his most heartbreaking days in the service occurred when he was undertaking his annual lifesaving proficiency test in the early 1980s.

"I was swimming and I noticed a guy to my right hand side, he was face down and I thought 'geez he's got a long breath'," Mr Petersen said. "I went over and bumped him and he didn't move. I was trying to do resus on him out there. By then, my son [who was also a lifesaver] and another boy came out on the board. I didn't realise until we were back on the shore that it was a friend of mine.

"My legs were like jelly by the time I'd finished with him. I had to go and identify him in the hospital. He'd had a heart attack out there."

These days Mr Petersen is part of the service's history panel and works to honour those who have served before him. "I really respect our forefathers and what they've achieved, it's a great honour to be involved," he said.

Mr Petersen was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in the year 2000.

Mr Boardman, 87, admits he was a bit of an "oldie" when he joined Queenscliff surf club in 1976.

"I was an oldie and joined with my kids when I was in my 40s because my boys were old enough to join the nippers," he said.

Soon after, his daughter was keen to get her bronze medallion, but it was against the rules.

"It was in the constitution that girls couldn't gain that qualification," he said. "I did a bit of pressure and lobbying to get the girls to be able to gain their bronze."

Initially, the only roles women were allowed to perform occurred only after the person had been brought back to the beach by male lifesavers, such as radio operations and resuscitation.

His daughter Penny was in the inaugural NSW squad of females to obtain the qualification in July, 1980.

Mr Boardman is still involved in the service and officiates at some carnivals. He's been honoured with countless awards during his service, and in 2013 he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to lifesaving.

It's not just patrolling the beaches that keeps volunteers busy. The service and its members are involved in a wide range programs that assist the community. Volunteers often bring country kids to the beach to teach them surf skills and at times the bronze medallion. They're also involved in community education and inclusive programs.

SLS has been declared an emergency service, and is often called out after hours to help at rescues and searches up and down the peninsula.

SLS Sydney Northern Beaches Branch deputy president Michael Wasley said people as young as five years old can join their ranks. "It's the mateship and camaraderie, the people you met," he said of why people stay for so many years.

Some volunteers aren't active lifesavers, but they're highly valued helping at the club, often with nippers programs and in a multitude of other areas.

"It's all walks of life, doctors, nurses, school teachers, paramedics, police, accountants and CEOs," Mr Wasley said of those who join.

Surf lifesavers will be on patrol for the 2021-22 season until April 25.