North Curly Chatter - North Curl Curl Surf Life Saving Club

April 2010
From The President's Pen
It is with deep sadness that this
version of the Chatter goes out
to our members. Before moving
on with more about what's been
happening at the club I would
like to honour the memory of a
young competitor who unfortunate
lost his life at the this
year's Australian Surf Life
Saving Championships, Saxon
Bird. The condolences of our
club go to the Bird family and to
his fellow club members of
Queenscliff SLSC.
Ian Thurgood—Club President
As our season draws to an end I
would like to thank all those
people who have made it such a
successful season, the executive
of the club, our patrol
members, our competitors,
junior activities, sponsors, life
members and general members.
Our club is only as strong
as the commitment and energy
North Curl Curl Chatter
Official Newsletter of the
North Curl Curl Surf Life Saving Surf Club
that you all put in to it each
year.
On May 22nd the club is hosting
its annual presentation evening,
I would encourage all of our
members to attend this evening
to help us celebrate the close
of another fabulous season at
North Curl Curl.
Another important event which
is to be held on May 1st is the
Sydney Northern Beaches
Branch 50th Anniversary. This
is a celebration of the 50 years
of service the Branch has provided
to the 21 clubs on the
Northern Beaches. There are
limited tickets still available for
this function if you would like to
attend. The cost is $150 per
ticket which includes dinner,
drinks and entertainment. The
venue is the Novatel Hotel in
Manly and where it is expected
that approximately 400 guests
will enjoy a wonderful evening
of entertainment and festivity,
as well as a look back into the
history of surf life saving on the
northern beaches. If you are
interested in attending please
contact Audrey who can arrange
your ticket.
Over the past several months
there have been a number of
incidents of vandalism which
has resulted in significant damages
to our club. These attacks
include sawing through the
latch on the sliding gate, damaging
padlocks on the boat shed
door and the locks on the doors
to the canteen, ice room and
attempting to jimmy open the
door to the junior activities
storeroom. I would ask all
members to be vigilant and
report any such acts to myself,
other board member, the council
or the police. These senseless
acts of vandalism have
cost our club over $2000 this
season and the council much
more.
Once again thank you to all of
you assistance during this
season, I hope to see you at the
club's presentation evening and
on the beach again next summer.
At Bendigo Bank we realised long ago that to help
your community become successful, we first
needed to help U become successful.
Because if U grow, everyone will grow with U
After all without U – there’s no community,
no success, and no us!
So we’re concentrating on U –
by delivering great products and services.
North Curl Curl SLSC
Proudly Sponsored
By
Inside this issue:
Vale Saxon Bird 2
Masters Aussie Gold in
the “Bob Duff”
2
Yogi Wins Narrathon 3
The Wiz Report 3
Nippers Parent
Sponsorship
4
Nippers Major Awards 5
Thank you Message
for Rescue
Annual Presentation
Night
Season Comes to a
Close
5
6
6

Page 2 North Curl Curl Chatter
North Curl Curl team join hundreds
in march of respect for Saxon Bird
North Curl Curl Masters take out
Aussie Gold minus bowman oar
Vale Saxon Bird—1990-2010
After 3 years of travelling west to Scarborough in
Western Australia, the Australian Surf Life Saving
Championships returned to Kurrawa on the Gold
Coast. For most competitors and keen Aussies
enthusiasts, this return to what some say is the
spiritual home of the Aussies, was keenly anticipated,
especially for the younger competitors who
had yet to experience the Gold Coast event.
As the week unfolded, the excitement and anticipation
was replaced to a mood of sorrow and
solemn bereavement, after an accident during the
U19 Ironman event on the Friday resulted in the
tragic death of Saxon Bird.
A talented and well known young member of the
Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club, Saxon’s achievements
have been well documented—a bright young
life saver full of enthusiasm and potential, he won
the U15 and U17 Australian Surf Races, and in this
year’s NSW State Championships, he took out the
NSW U19 Ironman event.
A former student of St Patrick's College, he was in
his second year of a Business Commerce degree
at UTS, and was recently awarded a Queenscliff
SLSC university scholarship.
Masters Aussie Gold in “Bob Duff”
When it comes to the making a final at the Australian
Surf Life Saving Championships, you need to
make sure everything goes right to have a chance
of winning a medal, especially when it comes to
the surf boat arena. There are many elements
that can go against you, and you need to make
sure everything falls in place. Well our Masters
surf boat crew showed that sometimes, luck can
go against you, but you can still prevail
The crew had already done extremely well to make
the final of the 140 Years Surf Boat event at the
Australian Surf Life Saving Championships. As all
the finalists struggled to make their way out
through the growing Kurrawa surf, the North
Curly crew finally cracked a way through the
biggest of the incoming sets to head for the turning
cans, when bow man Simon Fraumeni snapped
his oar with more than half the race still to go.
Saxon was a bright young man, extremely talented
both scholastically and in sport. He was an outstanding
competitor, a loyal club member and a
great surf life saver. His loss has been felt across
the close knit surf life saving community, and he
will always be remembered as a commendable
young man.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his parents,
Phil and Dana, and his sister Arielle.
Vale Saxon, may you rest in peace.
Normal procedure is for this crew man to evacuate
the boat to lesson the load, but given the tricky
conditions, Simon remained in the boat to help
steady the craft with the rest of the crew.
Despite the setback of only being powered by 3
oars, the boys turned the final can in slightly in
front of the fully manned Terrigal crew, and headed
for home.
With Sean Stacey guiding them onto a manageable
size wave, the boys could smell victory, and together
they worked to stay on course to arrive
safely onto the beach to the cheers of the crowd
which included many members of the North Curly
touring party. To everyone's delight, they had
beaten the odds, and once again, the "Bob Duff"
had tasted success, this time with a coveted Aussies
Gold medal.

Page 3
Yogi Wins Narrathon
Whilst most competitors have put away their surf craft and swimmers
for the season and have already kicked off their winter sports campaigns,
Glenn Coltman finished off the 2009/2010 surf life saving season
with one final hit out in the Narrathon hosted by Narrabeen SLSC - an
event made up a 10km ski leg, a 1km swim leg, a 2.5km board paddle and
a punishing 2km beach run. And to cap off probably his best season in
some time, Glenn took out the open category. Well done Yogi - time for
some rest and relaxation before training for the new season kicks off !
The Wiz Report
Our much anticipated two new IRB
motors have now arrived and will
be appropriately “run in” by our IRB
Captain, Brett Kirby during the
closing stages of this season and
during the off season.
The motors were purchased with the generous donation
from BT Financial, and includes cowling covers which
protect the motors.
Once again, I wish to acknowledge the ongoing support
of BT Financial, and thank or Director of Marketing, Andrew
Waddington for his efforts in securing this extra
sponsorship and express gratitude to IRB Captain, Brett
Kirby for the role he has played with respect to the
ordering of the motors, and the taking of photographs of
the same for advertising and promotional purposes.
Former IRB Captain, Peter Chapman has indicated that
he is happy to become an extra IRB Vice-Captain for the
2010/2011 season. Peter has expressed his desire to
not only assist Brett Kirby with motor maintenance and
fuel acquisition, but to act primarily in a mentoring capacity
to our younger and less experienced IRB Vice-
Captains. This is truly a very positive outcome for
North Curl Curl SLSC. and most welcome news for both
myself and Brett,
During the past twelve months, 12 out of the 18 patrol
members who were in the respective ARC training
squads conducted by myself were successful in attaining
this award, thereby enabling our club to now have at
least three Advanced Resuscitation Certificate personnel
on each patrol.
Even though only three patrol members have attained
their IRB Driver’s Licences in this period of time, I have
managed to juggle the patrol teams so that every patrol
now has the desired two IRB drivers. Unfortunately, the
limited successes achieved in both these areas of training
over this twelve month period have not justified the
huge amounts of personal time given by both the myself
and the respective IRB driving trainers.
Glenn Coltman in action
Therefore, after lengthy discussions with several
club instructors, I have decided to take a different
(and hopefully, positive) approach to this matter
for the 2010/2011 season and I believes that the
club’s Director of Surf Lifesaving Instruction will
happily agree with this plan.
All patrol captains now have very healthy numbers
in their respective patrol teams and will be very
strongly encouraged during the 2010/2011 season
to more actively rotate their team members with
respect to patrol duties so as to allow more opportunities
for extensive ARC and IRB driver/crew
training during rostered patrol sessions, using the
personnel already with these qualifications on
each patrol as the primary source of trainers.
Obviously before attempting the respective assessments,
the prospective candidates would
need to be observed by the appropriate club instructors/assessors
in order to ascertain levels
of competency, overall readiness and how much
“fine tuning” would still be required. The objective
for every patrol will be to train at least one ARC
operator, one IRB driver and two IRB crew by the
end of the season, with multiple awards gained in
these areas by any particular patrol contributing
most significantly in the “Patrol of the Season”
award calculations, alongside the essential criteria
of patrol attendances and overall beach management
procedures, including vigilance at the
water’s edge.
In addition, assurances will be given to the patrol
captains that unless unforeseen circumstances
occur (e.g. where a patrol loses several wellqualified
team members at the end of next season),
the team members that they diligently train
will be retained on their respective patrols for the
forthcoming season.
See you on the beach between the flags
Alex Wye, Director Surf Life Saving
North Curl Curl SLSC
Proudly Sponsored
By

Page 4 North Curl Curl Chatter
Curly’s Calendar
Mon Apr 26th
Flags come down
for the end of the
surf life saving
season
Sat May 1st
Sydney Northern
Beaches 50 Year
Gala Dinner,
Manly Novatel
Sat May 22nd
North Curl Curl
SLSC Presentation
Night at the Surf
Club, starts at
6:00pm
Fri Jun 18th
Sydney Northern
Beaches Branch
Awards Night,
Dee Why RSL
Sun Aug 1st
North Curl Curl
SLSC Annual General
Meeting
3:00pm at the
Surf Club
For latest event
details, visit our
Website
Our 500 plus
Nippers are
Proudly Supported
by the following
Sponsors
Page 4
Nipper Parent Shows Appreciation With Sponsorship
The fantastic improvement in the results of our
Nippers in competition over the past few years have
been well documented, Much of this success is to be
attributed to the fantastic development programs
put in place by Tony Williams, working with his small
team of committed trainers such as Martin Gall.
Not only has this effort translated into great competition
results, but it also has seen our not so competitive
nippers become more confident in the water
across the board. And the family orientated aspect
of how our Nippers are run has continued to
thrive under the team led by Geoff Pickering.
Evidence of the positive community impact from
this effort has been the generous donation
made to the Nippers by Cris Van Haren, whose
son Adam is one of our young Nippers. Below is
a copy of the accompanying letter with a $5000
donation made recently for the purchase of new
boards.

Page 5
Major Awards for Nippers at Presentation Day
During the Nippers Presentation Day, the following
major awards were given out—
Overall Points Score—Kristie Leonard
Sports Person—Sophie McGovern
Pursuit of Excellence—Lauren McAleer
North Curl Curl SLSC
are accredited……….
Encouragement Award—Billie Leonard
Congratulations to all the various category
winners, and well done to all our youngsters
for another great year of enthusiastic participation.
Looking forward to seeing you all back
for the 2010/2011 season.
Patrol No 1 Get Thankyou for Rescue & Treatment
Our team of dedicated life savers spend over 5000
hours each season patrolling our beach to ensure
the public can swim and enjoy our beach in safety.
During this time, they can be engaged in various
preventative actions and rescues, and at the end of
the day, they finish their patrol and may never see
or hear from the public they have to help. Whilst
they don’t expect it, a thank you is always welcome.
Well Dr Marie-Therese Gibson was more than happy
to express her appreciation, and sent the following
letter to the club, following an incident she was
involved in earlier in the year.
Whilst body surfing in the north corner, Dr
Gibson had an accident. The quick and thorough
response of our patrol ensured that she
was taken care of, minimizing any potential
long term damage by treating her as a spinal.
Well done to Chris Tassone and his young Patrol
No 1, as well as the Nipper parents that
also assisted.
Acknowledging the
Support of Our
3 Points Challenge &
Ocean Swim Major Sponsors

Page 6 North Curl Curl Chatter
North Curl Curl Boaties
Proudly Sponsored by
Season Comes to a Close
Monday April 26th marks the
end of another surf life saving
season for North Curl Curl Surf
Life Saving Club.
Since September, our team of
dedicated patrol members have
clocked up over 5000 hours
maintaining vigilance on our
beach, covering weekends and
For more historical photos
check your club Website
NCCSLSC 2009/2010 Season Presentation Night
The culmination of the
2009/2010 season will be the
North Curl Curl Sur Life Saving
Club Presentation night, which
will be held at the Surf Club, on
Saturday May 22nd, commencing
at 6:30pm.
This is the night where those
that have shone throughout the
season whether it be in competition
or patrolling our beach,
or helping the club in the background,
are rewarded for their
public holidays. And once again,
we finish the season with our
long standing record of no lives
lost in tact whilst on patrol.
The temperature will start to
drop over the coming weeks as
we move into late Autumn and
then Winter. But our beach will
still will still be well used, so
Get Your Latest Club Information Online
If you are after the latest information
on what is happening
around your club, and you have
access to the Internet, visit our
c l u b W e b s i t e a t
www.nthcurlcurlslsc.com.au
All the latest activities and
events information is maintained
on the site, with regular
updates to ensure the information
is current.
service.
We have the various perpetual
awards presented, including the
Club Honor Blazer, Cadet of the
Year, Junior of the Year, and
various Patrol awards.
This night is when we recognize
the fantastic effort of our volunteer
surf life saving members,
who have once again
offered their time and energies
to protect the public visiting
we ask the public to think before
they enter the water, be
wary of the conditions, and
especially vigilant of rips which
can hide in calmer looking water.
And don’t go swimming amongst
board riders - swimmers and
boards do not mix too well..
Under the Activities & News
page, you will get current news
on everything from upcoming
meetings, training courses,
carnival results and general
club functions.
We have added some additional
photos to our gallery in recent
months, so have a browse,
especially some of the old historical
photos which are being
augmented when we get more
Corporate wear, Sports, Casual & Work wear, Embroidery,
Printing, Trophies, Caps, Bags and much much more! Get it at
our beach throughout the summer
season, ensuring the well
being and safety of all visitors.
Food will be provided, and all
active patrol members will also
be offered limited free drinks.
Tickets are just $20 for adults,
$15 for cadets and are available
by contacting Audrey in the
office on 9905 8671 or email
nccsurfclub@unwired.com.au.
photos handed in.
If there is additional information
or material you would like
added to the Website, please
c o n t a c t u s a t
nccs ls c @op tus net.c om .au
or contact Audrey in the Admin
office on 9905-8671.