2011_SLSNZ_SurfRescueMag

41
surf’s late bloomer
MASTERFUL: SID SALEK PERFORMED WITH APLOMB AT THE
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS EARLIER THIS YEAR. PHOTO: JAMIE
TROUGHTON/DSCRIBE JOURNALISM
Most people his age have trouble walking to the local shops but
Sid Salek is still swimming, running and reveling in his late-life
infatuation with surf lifesaving, as Jamie Troughton discovers.
At 81, all Sid Salek wants these days is to feel useful,
to know that he’s still got some relevance. Little does
the Omanu Surf Life Saving Club member realise that
he graduated from the useful ranks some time ago
and ventured into the realm of inspirational.
Affectionately known far and wide as ‘SupaSid’,
the leather-bound octogenarian has already begun
another season of patrolling. And when the long
season starts to wind up - with his 82nd birthday in
sight - Salek will once again line up in the State New
Zealand Championships in Gisborne, hunting more
masters medals and challenging his body to keep up
with his brain.
“It’s not a state of body, it’s a state of mind and
of attitude,” Salek, one of New Zealand’s oldest
patrolling lifeguards, muses. “It’s as simple as that.
I’m always discovering new things about myself and I
like pushing the limits.”
The former Wellington optometrist only qualified as a
lifeguard in 1985, though his links with the lifesaving
movement stretch back much further.
His dad Lou was an early member of both the Lyall
Bay and Maranui clubs in the Capital and Salek
gained his Royal Lifesaving Society certificate of
attainment in 1942.
Six years later, he put it to magnificent use, saving a
drowning man in Wellington Harbour and winning the
Royal Humane Society bronze medallion for rescue
at sea.
He’d always loved the water but it wasn’t until a
marriage breakup in 1982 that he moved to Lyall Bay
and eventually wandered over to the club his father
helped start.
When he sat his surf lifesaving award in 1985, he not
only became the oldest person at the club to sit the
award for the first time but he stunned instructors by
busting out a 6min 20sec effort for his 400m freestyle
swim.
He moved to the Bay of Plenty in 1992, but linking
with Omanu in the last decade was when he really
started feeling like he belonged in the movement.
“The informal respect and support I’ve had from the
club has been fantastic. Older people value being
able to assist and being involved. We don’t like to just
sit around and being treated as a piece of furniture.”
Sitting around just isn’t Salek’s style. He’s competed
at a number of world masters swimming carnivals
all over the globe, typically picking on the toughest
disciplines – like the 200m butterfly, the 800m
freestyle and the 400m medley.
He gets around town on his pride and joy, a 1969
Lambretta scooter, and loves nothing more than
enjoying long, languid afternoons aloft in a glider.
He competes each year in a number of ocean swims
and enters triathlons with his renowned “Old Farts”
team.
At the 2011 State New Zealand Surf Life Saving
Championships, Salek completed a massive masters
day, taking part in the surf race, run-swim-run, the
beach sprint and the beach flags. And most Sunday
mornings through last winter, Salek headed down
to the Wairoa River near Tauranga for Omanu’s skitraining
sessions.
His only concession to advancing years? Rather than
a club ski, he paddles his new light-weight sea kayak
up and down the river. “They’ve been chiding me that
I need to learn how to surf ski … I don’t think I’ll quite
manage that,” he laughs ruefully. “But they’re all very
supportive and they really are my extended family.”
It’s a family Salek is growing to love more and more
with every passing season.
“One of the great skills that surf lifesaving gives you
is the trust and knowledge that you are part of an
effective, capable team who will always have systems
of back-up and assistance. That’s huge.
“I’m a firm believer that older people have an array of
life skills and experiences and there’s no reason why
we shouldn’t stop utilising those skills, just because
of age. They can be invaluable from a logistical point
of view or working behind the scenes.”
SURF LIFE SAVING | SURF RESCUE | NOV 2011