President's Prattle - July 2019
It is wonderful to be back in Mandurah after experiencing very hot weather in Greece and Spain for the past five weeks. However, it hasn’t taken me long to get back into the cooler waters here!
Yes, Doddi's Beach Dome has closed. A "No Dome BBQ" was held last Saturday morning after the swim. Thank you, chief BBQ Chef Ken and John for providing the much-appreciated shelter.
This Saturday morning, an "After Swim Coffee" has been organised at Groundswell Café for around 9:00am. Click Here for more details and directions. Please come down for a coffee, even if you are not going to the beach. Also, it is a chance to say goodbye to some of the swimmers who are heading to Croatia with Barb’s RottoSwmer Swim Squad group.
Once again, Wayne has done an excellent job organising a Coast Care Planting Event at Robert Point. It would be appreciated if you could please come down and give a few hours of your time on Sunday 21st July from 9.00am. After all the hard work, Morning Tea and a Sausage Sizzle will be provided by the City of Mandurah. Click Here for more details.
Captain Jen has been busy drumming up swimmers for the upcoming Golden Groper Relay Event to be held on Saturday afternoon August 3rd at HBF Stadium. This event has always been a lot of fun. Please let Jen know if you can make it. You only have to swim 25m and the more swimmers we have the more relay teams we can enter and the more fun we can have.
Once again, the club will be giving swimmers the opportunity to participate in the Country Correspondence Carnival. This year all swims will be short course in preparation for our upcoming State Swim at Mandurah next year. Jen will be putting out a program outlining which swims are to be on what Sunday morning. This proved extremely popular last year and should be a lot of fun.
It has been enjoyable to see our members posting photos of themselves swimming at various locations around the world recently on Facebook. You look great Jane Thomas, perhaps your next challenge will be the English Channel?
You may have noticed there has been a name change to the Facebook Group. This is to better reflect that it is not an official Club Facebook page. Rather, it was set up for swimmers to informally share posts about "swimming" and club activities.
Due to the changing water conditions at this time of year, swimmer safety at Doddi’s can become a concern sometimes. Tracey Haverhoek, our Safety Officer, has been working overtime upgrading our safety measures. For insurance purposes, it is a requirement that we comply with Masters Swimming Safety Policies and that we have guidelines and procedures in place. For your own safety, I do ask that you do follow them, including:
For swimmers to please sign-in and sign-out on the Swim Register Sheets in the Storeroom. This lets the Spotters know who and how many swimmers have entered and left the water.
Please swim with a buddy. We used to do this very well and need to get back to it again, especially when the conditions are rough.
If you arrive after the main group have started their swim, please let a Spotter know you are going in and, if possible, walk up the beach and join the group already in the water rather than swim on your own.
Tracey has created some Emergency Response Plans, which will be put up in the Doddi's Storeroom. Please take the time to read and familiarise yourself with them. Hopefully they will never have to be implemented, but for your safety we need to have plans in place.
We are also calling for volunteers to be Emergency Response Leaders. If you are willing and able to help, please let Tracey or a Committee member know.
There is the opportunity for members to participate in First Aid Courses during August. Click Here to view details of each of three different courses on offer. The club will be submitting a grant application for funds for at least a partial rebate of the course costs. However, we won't know if our grant application is successful until after the courses have been held. Accordingly, we cant promise anything at the moment, but hopefully we will be able to help reduce the cost.
Thank you to the members who have committed once again to be on the Mandurah Australia Day Swim Committee (aka MAD Committee). Planning is underway for next year’s event, which is sure to be another success for the club.
Enjoy your swimming, be it at the pool or beach.
Deborah