Our season commencement is just around the corner and to celebrate, the Start of Season Party is scheduled on Friday 22 September 2023. All current and former members of our Club are invited to attend together with their family (over 15 years of age). Details above, however make sure this date is marked in your diary.
Tickets are not required.
0 Comments
This week we received multiple 'ClubGRANTS', providing the funds necessary to operate our lifesaving functions to the highest standard. ClubGRANTS is one of Australia's largest grant programs, providing funds to local sporting organisations, not-for-profit community groups and charities.
The ClubGRANTS received by our Club were funded by The Randwick Club (Coogee Beach Club), South Sydney Junior Rugby League Club and Matraville RSL. We are now able to purchase a new IRB hull, motor and fuel cells, 15 new PFDs and a new Little Anne QCPR mannequin. We express our thanks to The Randwick Club (Coogee Beach Club), South Sydney Junior Rugby League Club and Matraville RSL for your support of our Surf Club. Its back again, the SLSNSW BeachStormers beach sprint, distance run and beach flag carnival is back for 2023! Spread across 4 dates at 4 beaches in the first half of the season between October and early December 2023, a great opportunity to get some early hit outs of the season before the big Carnivals in 2024.
Inviting competitors to enter in as many rounds as possible, with a focus on Round 2 as its being held at our beach, Coogee! State have awarded us the rights to host Round 2 on Saturday 4th November, so lock in the date. Same format from previous years with 4 rounds of each discipline over distances up to 90m for Opens and 70m for Masters. Distance runs will be a mix of distances totalling up to 2.2km. Beach Flags to be run as per normal carnival format, in specific age and gender categories. If heats are required all run down until a final of either 8 or 9 is reached. Beach Relays will be incorporated if numbers warrant and time permits. This year State have opened entries to U13’s for the first time. Entries are now open for competitors, both surf club members and the general public across the age groups. Entries are open to surf club members AND to the general public. Encouraging all of Coogee’s beach team to be out in force to showcase the talent we have at Coogee, with a view to dominating the rounds from other clubs and indeed general members of the public. Club member entries email to beachcaptain@coogeeslsc.com.au. For non-club members they will need to email surfsports@surflifesaving.com.au with their entry (refer to Circular SLSNSW Circular). Age Groups: U13’s (new), U14/U15 Youth, U17, Opens, Masters (30+) *U13’s, Youth and Masters will compete over 3 rounds with U17 and Open competitors competing in 4 rounds. Individual competitors accumulate points from each round, with the result recorded & the total score tallied up to determine the overall event places. Points will be awarded for placings in each round down to 8th place. Prizes awarded to overall series point score winners. *Workforce Volunteers please* Call out to members/parents to assist in setting up the beach early on Saturday 4th November. Contact vicepresident@coogeeslsc.com.au with your interest. Require help with beach setup from 6am and packdown at lunchtime. The series is spread across 4 beaches over 4 dates as follows:
The Coogee SLSC's Annual Report for 2022/2023 season is now available for download. Please be aware that it is a large file (over 22mg) & can take some time to download.
You can download by clicking here: Coogee SLSC Annual Report 2022/2023 The bonds between Coogee Surf Life Saving Club and Randwick District Rugby Club where strengthened on Saturday 17 June 2023 as our newest surf boat was christened prior to Randwick Rugby’s clash against Gordon at Coogee Oval. The newest boat is named in honour of Jeffrey Leonard Sayle. Jeffrey was a member of Coogee SLSC and Randwick Rugby for over 50 years. He was the first (and remains the only) person to win an Australian Title (Surf Boat Champion – 1972) and play rugby for Australia (against New Zealand – 1972).
The surf boat was generously donated by the Jeffrey Leonard Sayle Foundation, Australian Mutual Bank and the Randwick Rugby Foundation each of whom were represented at the launch by Jeanette Sayle, Adam Milbank and Robert Coombes respectively. Randwick Rugby’s First Grade Team was joined by our youngest Coogee Minnows members as they entered the Oval ready to take on Gordon while other Coogee SLSC members sold raffle tickets at the Oval. All in all it was a tremendously successful day for both Coogee SLSC and Randwick Rugby and we look forward to the next ‘Partners in Sport’ day in 2024. We thank Randwick Rugby for welcoming our members to Coogee Oval and congratulate the First Grade team on its success. Coogee Surf Life Saving Club held its Annual Dinner on Friday night. This event celebrates the end of another fantastic season & honours our member’s outstanding achievements.
We presented our Australian Champion jackets to: 2022 Women’s Reserve Short Course Boat team: Kelsey McGuinness, Lauren McLean, Samantha Murray, Caitlin Trimble & sweep, Paul Beale James Azar - 2023 U13 Male Surf Board Riding George Messiter - 2023 U14 Male Surf Board Riding U13-U15 Mixed 5 Person R & R team: Emma Fernandez, Ruby Hawkes, Milla Hlywa, Erin O’Brien & Laura Peshevski Rona Macniven - 2023 40-44 years Female 2km Beach Run U19 Female Beach Relay team: Tamara Abagi, Kate Johnson, Eden Levit & Ruby Thomasyu U19 Mixed Beach Relay team: Tamara Abagi, Luke Avanti, Ryan Harper & Eden Levit U19 Mixed 5 Person R & R team: Chiara Hammond, Elouisa Hawkes, Patrick Kavanagh, Jasmine Miller & Michaels Penn Open Female 5 Person R & R team: Millie Bloxsom, Tracey Bloxsom, Samantha Gately, Yasmin Stuetz & Bianca Wallace Open Male 5 Person R & R team: J Carter, Chris Gately, Drew Hayes, Andrew McEncroe, Luke Ryan & Scott Ryan Coogee Minnows Life Member We celebrated Michael Kavanagh becoming a Life Member of Coogee Minnows, for his tireless work on their successful competition programme. National Medal of Service We acknowledged the latest recipients of the National Medal of Service; Paul Chilcott, Rob Gibellini, Craig Howie, Rob Illidge, David Jenkins, Tass Karozis, Paul Lardi & Ken Yardy. The National Medal is Australia's most awarded civilian medal. It recognises long and diligent service by members of recognised government and voluntary organisations that risk their lives or safety to protect or assist the community in enforcement of the law or in times of emergency or natural disaster. Emergency Service Medal Earlier this year on January 26 in the Australia Day Honours, Life Member Gary Daly was awarded the prestigious Emergency Service Medal for his service to life saving over 43 years, across Coogee and Burning Palms, holding various management roles and notwithstanding the service provided at both Sydney Branch and NSW State level. His sustained and distinguished service across those four decades is acknowledged with the awarding of this medal. Australian Mutual Bank Scholarship 2022/2023 Ruby Thomasyu won the 2022/2023 Australian Mutual Bank Scholarship. Ruby is in the first year of study at University, but started her surf life saving career back in the U6’s at Nippers in 2009. A current vice patrol captain, active and successful competitor. She is a mentor to others particularly the Youth in the Club and is now holding a senior position on the board of management. Her commitment to the club is well known and now moving into furthering her education. Singer Yeo Rookie of the Year 2022/2023 Singer Yeo Rookie of the Year was won by Luke Gardiner. The winner of this award is determined by the Lifesaving and Management Committee and awarded to a Club member who has performed in an outstanding manner for the Club after obtaining their Bronze Medallion during the current season. This award is presented in memory of Tom Singer and Gerard Yeo, who were active members of our Club when they tragically lost their lives in the Bali Bombings 2002. Luke joined our Club in September 2022 as part of the Spring Bronze Course led by Michael Barnes and Charlotte McHenry. He has since completed over 60 hours on patrol and have obtained First Aid certificate, IRB crew certificate and ART certificate. Luke volunteered at the Coogee Island Swim and Run Swim Coogee. He also assisted with water safety for all bronze courses since joining and has volunteered to join our Lifesaving Committee next season. A lot of our members don’t achieve this in their entire time as part of our Club let alone in 6 months – a very impressive and valuable Club member! Patrol Person of the Year 2022/2023 The winner of this award is determined based on performance in the Patrol Person of the Year competition which ran on 16 April 2023. The competition included a complex first aid scenario, a multiple choice exam capturing elements of our Club’s history, traditions and current operations, a run-swim-run and an interview with one of our Club’s governors. The winner of this award completed over 50 hours on patrol this year. They hold their Surf Rescue certificate, Bronze medallion, ART and First Aid certificates. Our patrol person of the year is a vice patrol captain and brings expertise to engage with all patrolling members. Also, they are an outstanding competitor. While traditionally competing in swim and surf events, our winner has expanded their strengths to include the Championship Lifesaver Event. They competed at the 2023 Branch, State and Aussie Championships, achieving fantastic results which stem from an exceptionally hard training load. All coaches have commended them for not only their tough training attitude but also their willingness to assist others for the benefit of the team and go out of their way to ensure everyone is learning and enjoying the training – epitomising their selfless nature. While their athletic skills are phenomenal, our patrol person of the year still finds time between training sessions to go above and beyond assisting in the Education and Youth areas of Coogee SLSC. In the Education space, our winner has excelled, taking on every opportunity made available to them on the Education Committee, training Bronze Medallion courses and is currently a Probationary TAF. However, their volunteer efforts don’t stop there. Our winner is a key leader in our Youth development space, looking at ways to improve member retention and engagement in under 18 members through the Youth Committee. It is the highest privilege to announce the 2022/23 Patrol Person of the Year is Joshua Fernandez. Honour Blazer 2022/2023 The honour blazer is arguably our most distinguished annual award. It is given to a member that the majority of the Management Committee, believes has rendered outstanding service to the Club in that particular year. No Member can win the Blazer twice. The Blazer will have embroidered, in addition to the Official Badge, a five-pointed gold star and the date of the season for which it was awarded and the name of the member recorded on the Efficiency Tablet. This year the management committee has determined that the outstanding service of Emily Miers this season merits the awarding of the blazer. Emily has held the position of Club Captain for the last two seasons and has excelled in her role managing the lifesaving capabilities of our club as we have exited the pandemic into a normal cadence of operations. She has driven changes to club by-laws to better reflect operational activity and promote member retention. She has supported members through her promotion of the Club Code of Conduct and supported club inclusivity through her work on the March sisters in surf patrol obtaining sponsorship of and designing the NATIONWIDE FIRST pink patrol uniform proudly worn by members this season. She was also instrumental in managing lifesaving responses to security concerns earlier this year, liaising with Randwick Council and local police, and ensuring the safety of all members of our community. Each month she attends Executive and Management Committees, and Chairs the Lifesaving Committee. She also attends all the other committees that we rarely hear about like Randwick District meetings and miscellaneous branch meetings, such as the Branch Carnival review meeting. On top of all the typical HR issues one must deal with as Club Captain, she was also patrol captain of patrol 2 this season and demonstrating a commitment to continued learning, completed her IRBC this season. She has a rich history as a competitor and as an ocean swimmer even going so far as to win the Bondi to Watsons Bay swim last weekend. Congratulations Emily! With formalities over, the DJ ensured the Queen of Rock & Roll, Tina Turner got everyone up to showcase their dancing talents, with Nutbush City Limits. This season Competition Awards go to:
CLUB CHAMPIONS Female Club Champion: Emily Miers Male Club Champion: Finian Stronach Junior U19 Female Champion: Ava Szabo Junior U19 Male Champion: Daniel Kavanagh U17 Female Champion: Madeline Quinn U17 Male Champion: Joshua Fernandez Cadet U15 Female Champion: Emma Fernandez Cadet U15 Male Champion: Ari Swan Masters 30+ Female Champion: Sally Wood Masters 30+ Male Champion: Chris Gately PRESIDENTS CUP TEAM Edward Ashcroft Andrew Bloxsom Millie Bloxsom Tessa Chua Kai Stuetz Sally Wood ROSE SHIELD TEAM Millie Bloxsom Lachlan Hume Nicola Logan Niamh Lynch Jen Trinca SEDDON SHIELD Female: Georgia Beale Male: George Messiter Open: Clay Cantarella Master: Tony Seddon Master of the Year: Finian Stronach Surf Sports Water Safety of the Year: Ben Campbell Official of the Year: Andrew Bloxsom Coach of the Year: Sharon Deans This seasons Lifesaving Awards go to:
Most Outstanding Cadet: Calum Reiter Most Improved Cadet: Xanthe Hardy Cadet Patrol Service: Audrey Vonwiller Most Outstanding Junior: Josh Fernandez Most Improved Junior: Alice Holstein Junior Patrol Service: Aimee Garcia & Asher Thomasyu Patrol Participation Award: Patrol 1 Julia Beck Patrol 2 Ryan Harper Patrol 3 Alice Holstein Patrol 4 Louise Barrett Patrol 5 Michela Morelli Patrol 6 John Garland Patrol 7 Denise White Patrol 8 Danny Beal Patrol 9 Aron Haes Patrol 10 Karen Buckley Patrol 11 Zoe Charles Patrol 12 Wayne Keyser Patrol 13 Carmen Ossimitz Patrol 14 Allan Lorraine Patrol 15 Arabella Hammond Patrol 16 Marc Schmandin Patrol 17 Josh Ricamara Patrol of the Year: Patrol 14 PC of the Year: Emma Askham Trainer of the Year: Alexandra Scott Coogee SLSC and our members shone brightly at the prestigious SLS Sydney Awards of Excellence last Saturday evening. Hosted at Royal Randwick Racecourse, together with our members, we were recognized as a truly exceptional club. The event was a celebration of the dedication, outstanding achievements, and commitment of surf life saving clubs across the Sydney Branch. Our club's efforts in promoting beach safety, community engagement, and fostering a strong sense of camaraderie were acknowledged through the following finalists: Lifesaving Surf Lifesaver of the Year - Joshua Fernandez Volunteer of the Year - Benjamin Heenan Youth Surf Lifesaver of the Year - Will Davison Youth Volunteer of the Year - Cate Kyling Junior Lifesaver of the Year – Calum Reiter Patrol Captain of the Year - Emma Askham Patrol of the Year – Patrol 14 Education Trainer of the Year - Alexandra Scott Assessor of the Year - Maria Luise Ossimitz Facilitator of the Year - Doug Hawkins Competition Athlete of the Year - William Mison Youth Athlete of the Year - Ruby Thomasyu Masters Athlete of the Year - Christopher Gately Surf Sports Team of the Year - Coogee Open Female 5 Person R&R Coach of the Year - Sharon Deans Official of the Year - Andrew Bloxsom Community Club of the Year - Coogee SLSC Administrator of the Year - Emily Ashcroft Community Education Program of the Year - Beach Ocean Safety Program Innovation Award - RunSwim Coogee To cap off a great night, congratulations to the following award winners: Youth Volunteer of the Year - Cate Kyling Assessor of the Year - Maria Luise Ossimitz Coach of the Year - Sharon Deans Most Awards in the Randwick District - Coogee SLSC Junior Lifesaver of the Year – Calum Reiter Last year's Seddon Shield was all time. After 5 years of hiking down through the Royal National Park for the annual event I thought it couldn’t get better, but then I recalled an old proverb that fellow surfer David “Flemo” Fleming would mutter regularly when surfing the Outer Southy behind the island, “Always expect the unexpected”, too right Flemo!! And what more of a fitting statement for this year's Seddon Shield Surf Competition.
It was a first for a fully grated bush trail, a first for Mick “Humphrey '' Cantarella to give the surf a spell because of his Gary Jack but most importantly a first for a Women’s Division in the comp, YTG!! Every year the Shield surprises and with a tad of left over swell from the week this year was no different! Back to the Palms, the early birds made the walk down the hill. First on deck Jack “Snag” Cuthbert proceeded to sneak in a pre-heat warm up but mother nature had other plans and after a heavy wipeout decided to hand back his board in two just before the comp. Unfortunately for Snag, neither half of his board adequately fit the stringent criteria for the surfing or bodyboarding division and thus Snag was left to help out with organising the heats for the day, Thanks Snag! After Snag and Jake “Irv” Irvine sorted the morning heats and everyone got their pre-comp warm-up in well before 9am, the junior Women's division kicked off the day! A heat of four consisting of the “Havachats” Georgia Beale, Macy Smith, Alice Norbury & Mila Folsom, all with varied levels of experience, but to say it wasn’t a close heat would be untrue. With Mila on a fiberglass shortboard out the back and the remaining three close to shore in the whitewater, you would say Mila was the clear favourite with the most experience. However, with such short heats the white water provided consistent opportunities for points and proved an unfair advantage, so all four competitors were put through to the final on the condition that all would be in the same water area - in the foam. With all competitors side by side the Women's finals would have been the most neck to neck, or nose to nose heat of surfing of the entire day. The late final high tide made it difficult for the girls to stand but Alice and Mila managed to throw in a few bus riding attempts scoring them a few points on the scoreboard. Ultimately, the two nose riders Macy and Georgia were the stand-outs (or stand ups) in the final and got the highest scores of the four with Georgia scraping through for the win with her hang ten securing the Women’s Seddon Shield Title, Go Georgia, and great surfing all!! Scattered throughout the day the Male Juniors heats were carried out. With most of the boys surfing all day long between heats it was a miracle any of them had the energy to compete, unlike the Masters that preferred to have a straight all in final. Both the Junior Males and Male Masters contained Aussie medallists which was evident with their radical turns and innovative maneuvers. Personally, surfing in the Opens I thought we had the easiest heats and I’m glad that some of the boys have a few more years before they step-up to the big boys league. As mentioned prior it was impossible to remove the juniors boys from the surf so the judges decided to hold an all in final on the spot. As usual it was a battle of the beaches Coogee vs Era, Finn Wilkie vs Joey Mison respectively, and wow did the boys put on a show. Despite this as the two rivals battled out point for point, secretly in the corner George Messiter snuck in an extra point over Finn just before the buzzer which secured him the Seddon Shield title for the junior men. Close surfing from all! Over to the Masters straight final it was agreed that a 20 minute heat would be sufficient, with an additional 20 minute paddle out allowance put in place. Paul “Macro” Beale was seen jagging some of the biggest bombs of the day along with David “Smithy” Smith narrowly taking out third place. Michael “Tezza” Terry used his paddle time wisely and kept close to the shore explaining afterwards that it only made a quicker paddle back to shore once the heat was done, truely an innovative angle from Tezza!!! With the rest of the crew refusing to wear their coloured rashies, stated by Julian “Jules Boat” La Rosa “those colours don’t suit us” it made judging with Humphreys limited vision difficult. Furthermore, Bruce Julian was the usual stand out scoring second only to Tony Seddon whose surfing was easily recognisable, limited vision or not. Tony however couldn’t make the late arvo presentation and thus the trophy was given to Bruce. A reminder to anyone protesting the outcomes of the event has to bring down a slab to the Palms the following year in order to protest. Lastly, the Opens as mentioned seemed to be the easiest heat with a few members bailing early after hearing Snag was stationed on the BBQ and knew of his supreme BBQ cooking skills. The two young Beales, Jack and Joe, “Micro” and “Nano” took out the third and second place respectively with Clay Cantarella taking the win for the Opens (conflict of interest I know). Charlie “Chicka” Smith won the Speed, Power and Flow award for his keen spirit, the only one staying out until the comp finished and for his fashionable durag he rocked during the heat. Another great year of surfing, I’d like to thank everyone for judging and helping with the BBQ/clean-up after the event! Special thanks to Gary Daly and the Burning Palms Crew for hosting the event for the day, much appreciated. See you all next year for a great day, Yewwwww!!! |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2024
Categories |