2011_SLSNZ_SurfRescueMag

30
ON THE RISE: THE NEXT GENERATION OF TOLAGA BAY
SURF ATHLETES TRY OUT THEIR NEW STAND-UP PADDLE BOARDS.
PHOTOS: TOLAGA BAY SURF CLUB
THE HEYDAY: THE OPENING OF THE NEW CLUBHOUSE IN 1989. PHOTO: GISBORNE HERALD
“ Once we get it sorted
here, we can take this
model up the coast and
show other communities
how we did it. We’re
chucking our nets out
and seeing what we can
gather in.”
KEREHAMA BLACKMAN
BLACKMAN STARTS CHUCKLING when he
recalls his introduction to surf lifesaving, by none
other than Dever. It was in the early 1990s when the
movement in the area was reaching a crescendo
and, as Blackman explains, club stalwart Dever had
some hard-case recruitment strategies of his own.
“He used to head down the beach with a trailer on
the back of his truck with all sorts of old boards on
it. He used to drive through town telling at us to
get down to the beach and we’d all go out surfing
on them. He’d be on the beach yelling at us to
stop standing on them and to get on our knees and
paddle properly. But that engaged us, introducing us
to surfing, and he slowly got us into surf lifesaving.”
Blackman and Fairlie used to compete against each
other as kids, when Tolaga Bay and Tokomaru Bay
squared off in surfing carnivals. These days, both
have kids of their own and, when Fairlie moved back
into the area four years ago, he joined in with a group
of teenagers and sat his surf lifesaving award.
Now he’s keen for the club to take a holistic view of
Tolaga Bay. “We’re not just a surf lifesaving club, we
look after the environment and the community as
well,” Fairlie explains. “We’re trying to move more to
being a kaitiaki for the area. We’re starting to get a
lot of rubbish coming down the river from the farms
and forestry so we’d like to raise awareness of that,
by using the surf lifesaving club to start driving it.
We want to work better together with the logging
companies and it gives us some authenticity.”
For his part, Blackman doesn’t mind if Tolaga Bay
members never win a national beach flags title, tow a
manikin at withering speed or snaffle a taplin crown.
The measure of his success will be in a generation of
water-confident, pro-active kids coming through.
“Look at all these kids around here – we don’t
want to be a statistic on the New Zealand map for
drownings. We want to grow it so everyone’s proud
to be a part of the scene and all our kids are qualified.
Once we get it sorted here, we can take that model
up the coast and show other communities how we
did it. We’re chucking our nets out and seeing what
we can gather in.”