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Mollymook Surf Club Presentation: Season 2018 – 2019

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Saturday evening June 1 saw the Mollymook surf club auditorium packed for their annual presentation evening. Awards included: Surf Rescue Certificates, Bronze Medallions, IRB Crew, Silver Medallion for Beach Management, Advance Rescue, Rescue Watercraft Operators, Assessors awards.

Awards for ‘Senior Lifesavers of the Year’ went to Dave Johnson and Stacey Wilesmith whilst ‘Patrol Service Awards’ were as follows: George Kolek: 40 years of 100% Patrol Service, Dave Burke: 30 years of 100% Patrol Service, Kevin Whitford:  25 years of 100% Patrol Service, Les O’Sullivan:  20 years of 100% Patrol Service, with National Medals to Tony Ireland, Annette Chapman, Bruce O’Sullivan and Sue Whitford.

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Former Champion Ocean Swimmers

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Special mention was made of Peter Pontefract’s service to Surf Life Saving and to Patrons Peter Stapleton AM and Jon Donohoe AM

Peter and Leigh Pontefract were part of the original group of Mollymook Ocean Swimmers that began in March 1999. Leigh would mark off all swimmers names as they each completed  their Sunday Ocean Swim. In those days Johnny Smeeth had named them the ‘Mollymook Beach – Sunday Swimmers’.

Peter who also swam had began competitive surf swimming way back in 1948 at North Bondi. Later in 1955 he began competing for the Nowra Culburra Club and subsequently transferred to the Mollymook Surf Club  in 1978. His ocean / surf swimming achievements included South Coast Branch belt champion for three consecutive years in the late 1950s and subsequently he won medals at the World Masters Surf Life Saving Championships.                                        

Jon Donohoe was a member of the Olympic swimming relay team that competed at the Melbourne Olympics back in 1956. He was an Australian still water champion over 1650, 880 and 440 yards. In the ocean he won 155 surf races out of 162 contested. In the Australian National surf championships, he won six gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze. 

Jon estimates that between the age of 8 through to 24 he covered a cumulative distance in excess of 30,000 km in training mostly in the ocean.

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Special Letters of Commendation

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Councillor Mark Kitchener represented the Shoalhaven Council awarding our successful beach athletes with ‘Commendation Letters’ for their success at both the N.S.W. and Australian Surf Life Saving Titles. (L to R) Brock Scrivener, Jack Bridges, Mark Kitchener, Sammy Zustovich and Payton Williams.

How good are these youngsters? Last week at Beaton Park, Wollongong 17 year old Sammy ran a 10.4 seconds for the 100 metres on the track. Whoever is familiar with athletics knows, 10.4 sec. is a phenomenal time, especially for a 17 year old youngster. 

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Surf Club Place-Mats

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We had 100’s of place-mats of all different designs incorporating the activities throughout the year of surf club members in a whole variety of scenes that included: this one of the Mollymook ocean swimmers who are Mollymook surf club members, the various boat crews performing at the World, Aussie, State and Branch championships, surf boat wipe-outs, the beach athletes, Tony Ireland’s Ski-Board-Swim members in action, various patrols, and in addition some humourous place-mats.

This particular one of the ocean swimmers contained images of: (L to R) Garry being awarded swimmer of the year, Mike with his new swim cap, Bob and Garry reflecting on their recent surgery, The Southern Right Whale with the swimmers back in September, Ed cornering on a wave and John Holt all smiles.

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Mollymook Ocean Swimmers in attendance at the Mollymook Surf Club Presentation

 

 

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Mollymook News and Destination Mollymook Milton Ulladulla Editor: Ken Banks, Mollymook Beach Waterfront, on behalf of the Mollymook Ocean Swimmers