Congratulations to our Club's Patron, Richard Scelly, Q.S.M.
Richard was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for services to Surf Life Saving in the recent Queen's Birthday Honour's list. He is busily deciding what tie he will wear to the official presentation. His award has boosted recent sales of the Coastal News and Hauraki Herald where he got front page coverage.
Jack Schicker came 4th at the Bay of Plenty Rookie Champs on Thursday the 9th April in Papamoa. Our Club correspondent Alex Walker reported, "It was as an awesome day, and he was so close to getting a medal". Well done Jack.He had already proven himself earlier in the season, as testified by the results below.
Prizegiving Results for 2010
Top Lifeguard - Mitch Jensen
Top Female Guard - Rachelle Bright
Top Male Guard - Cameron Walker
Most Promising - Amy Rudduck and Jordan Te Wharau
Top Team - Under 19's Boat crew
Junior Surf awards
Top Nipper - Matthew Wagstaff
Top Cadet - Jessica Marvin
Most Promising - Annabel Rice
Most improved athlete - Theo Wright
Top Athlete - Grace Gill
Top Rookie - Jack Schicker
Service Award- Andrew Hodgson.This is the third time Andrew has had this award bestowed. It is a tribute to his quiet, thorough methodology. He is a special help with IRB care and maintenance, and is also the co-ordinator of the Emergency Call Out team.
The recently retired Administrator, Mike Tames, was presented with a framed aerial photograph of Whangamata as a tribute to his "loyalty and ongoing commitment to the Club." Note the careful wording. We can't afford to let him go.The Club is fortunate to be retaining his services as ClubCaptain.
Geoff Hogan, the current President and Finance Director, was awarded Life Membership at the AGM preceeding prizegiving. He is one of only five living members who can receive this coveted award.
The "Coastal News" has given this event -and a couple of other end of season matters -extensive coverage in its edition dated 8th April 2010. (To complement the text,Geoff, and his and Gillian's Lifeguard daughter, Rachel, along with Mitch Jensen and Brittany Drake appear in coloured photographs).
WELCOME ON BOARD.Kelvyn Eglinton is the new lad on the block, and he will be sharing his talents as the newly appointed Director of Competition.
HALEY McMAHON did a superb job as event manager at the recent National Life Saving Champs at Ohope.It's a wonderful achievement in her first year in the paid workforce and a wonderful example of how Clubbies who take up the leadership roles in the Club can use their experiences as a career springboard. For any Event Life Guarding opportunities ...even for a day or so...have a look at http://www.slsnz.org.nz/Article.aspx?ID=9031
CONGRATULATIONS to Nathan Hight and Jenny on their recent engagement.
CAM MARETT is a proud dad for the second time. Daughter Holly Suzanne Marett arrived safely on the 7th March. She is a much loved sister for Charlie.
IRON MEN. Three of our senior clubbies who have demonstrated great perseverance and discipline in both their training and consumption habits, motored home in a very respectable time at Taupo on Saturday, 6th March 2010.Congratulations Andre Johnson, Mathew Macleod, and Nathan Hight. We're all proud of you.We knew you were fab swimmers; but you wowed us with the running and cycling too.
JUNIOR MEMBERSHIP. Facilitators Alex and Rachelle are excited to report that there are 254 active members.Latest gold medal winners: Congratulations to all participants, and in particular: Maddie Kidd, Grace Gill, Taine Sweeney and Jack Snodgrass. They creamed the opposition at the Under 14 National surf life saving champs. Their area of particular interest and expertise is the mixed beach relay.
Whangamata, ably coached by Daniel Grant, were ninth equal in a field of 23 teams; a very pleasing performance.
A cause for heartache.Later, at the Oceania Games, it was most disappointing that on the last day of competition, when Whanga had 18 likely medallists, that the tsunami risk caused the finals to be cancelled.
ACADEMIC ACCOLADES: Our valued Club Captain, Mike Tames, who commenced work as a tax analyst for Pricewhitehousecoopers in mid February, has completed his university requirements for LLB and BMS (Waikato University) with first class honours. He'll be doubly capped before the 2010/2011season begins.
COACHING: We have been very fortunate to secure the services of Daniel Grant from the North Shore, and hope to retain his coaching expertise for some time to come.He also does well at helping to create a spirit of fellowship within the Club, and will be active in organising off-season training programmes in conjunction with SLSNZ.
BOP SURF LEAGUE SELECTION: Well done to one very athletic and fit Daniel Peacocke.Being a very versatile chap, he is in demand as a sprinter, IRB operator, and canoeist.
SCHOLARSHIP:Nathan Bailey, who is currently researching for his Ph.D., was recently awarded a prestigious Fullbright Scholarship.This comes with $US25,000 and ten months tuition and living costs paid in the United States of America.One of the many new experiences Nathan will have will be a visit to N.A.S.A.This is a dream-come-true for our 'Bails'.
GRANT MONIES:We were very fortunate to be able to purchase a lot of rescue and competition gear and run a high quality training programme as a result of generous grants from the following organisations: The Southern Trust; The Lion Foundation; Trillion Trust; The Perry Foundation: Pub Charity; Gallagher Charitable Trust: Trust Waikato and the NZ Community Trust. Thanks very much indeed.
The kayaking disaster near Clarke Island, 16th Decembr 2009, written by Alexandra Walker, a Clubbie from Whangamata.
It was a beautiful sunny Wednesday that was turning into a lovely evening until our pagers went off around 4.30pm when we rushed to the surf club for a rescue. We responded to what we thought was just a man stranded on Clarke Island at high tide.
Cameron and I responded first with one IRB thinking it was a simple rescue. We approached him on the beach. He was shouting that his friend had been missing for 30mins off Clarke Island. We promptly radioed Andrew who was at the Surf Club for back up and we explained that there was a missing person. At this point Andrew Hodgson (ECOS leader) was by himself at the Surf Club. We asked the man what had happened and he explained how they had been kayaking and had flipped 200m off the Island. They started swimming to shore, but once on the island, when he turned to check,his friend who was nowhere to be seen.
Cameron and I drove to the area where he said they flipped and we did one trip around the island in search of the man's friend; close to the rocks shouting out to see if anyone would respond. We returned to the man for further information; he told us his friend did not have a life jacket on and could not swim. This sparked panic in our minds as we knew something terrible was going to happen.
We did a further three rounds around the island before Andrew had soloed out to the island in an IRB where he went ashore and comforted the man and asked further questions. At this point Richard Scelly was on communications at the Surf Club in the tower and the police were in on the action. When we have a missing person the police take over the operation, so Richard was conveying the police's messages to us.
We did another trip around the island and found the Kayak roughly 300m north of Clarke Island out to sea. Cameron was brave enough to flip it over, as we feared he was trapped beneath it. He was not, so a boat set a buoy for the police's information.
We were ordered to search behind Clarke Island and to proceed out to sea in a searching grid formation. At this point the police had contacted the search and rescue planes, and unfortunately the Coast Guard boat was out of service so the Waihi Beach crew came up for support. There were also a dozen boats that helped with the search; which were a great help.
Andrew was using the man we rescued off the Island as a crew person because he wanted to help us find his friend. At this point Mitch Jensen and Grace Mason had arrived at the Surf Club. We were roughly 800m off Clarke Island towards Mayor Island at this point and the police told us to return to shore so we could drop the patient off for questioning; we also needed to re-fuel and warm up.
We returned to the club around 6pm where our Mum's met us with warm wetsuits, beanies and a quick snack. The search returned and we had two IRB's in the water; with Andrew Hodgson, Cameron Walker, Mitch Jensen, Grace Mason and myself; two planes in the sky, and numerous amounts of leisure boats scouring the ocean for this man. We grid searched the entire bay, the surrounding Islands, the peninsula, the harbour and boats searched far out to sea. We searched well in to the night with the police stopping us around 10.30pm. At this point we were all freezing cold, starving and exhausted.
We were instructed to return to the club in the early morning where we searched the harbour, the peninsula, the shoreline and the surrounding Islands for a further three hours. We were stood down after this as the Police divers from Wellington were on their way.
The divers found him Friday morning; two days after he went missing; 25m from where the kayak had flipped sitting on the bottom of the ocean. Because it was 14m deep we were unable to see him, but they informed us he was dead before we had dispatched. Through interviewing the man off the Island they discovered he had been missing for an hour and a half before we were notified. He had drowned instantly as he sunk wearing steal cap boots, heavy clothing and he could not swim.
This was Grace Mason's first rescue as she had only just qualified as a guard months before hand. She was a brilliant crew man and withstood the cold and the exhaustion of searching for someone in the dark depths of the night, and the tiredness of the following morning. For some of us this was our first search and rescue, and it was frightening knowing what we may have found. It was a learning experience for us all as we now know our limits and the search patterns.
A big thank you to everyone who helped out in this search and rescue and it is a pity it did not end the way we wanted it to.
National Surf Boat Titles Regained:
Congratulations to the Whangamata U21 Surf Boat crew of Nathan Bailey, Neil Best, Richard Hodder, Blake Richardson and Andy Jujnovich who came away with two National Gold medals after winning both the short and long course series at the SLSNZ National Champs in Oakura over the weekend. The crew had a record of 6 races, 4 wins and 2 second placings to secure both titles over the weekends racing.
Photos of the boat action will be up in the gallery in the next few days.
Overall results of the competition can be found by going to the SLSNZ website and clicking on 'live results':
Whangamata Wins Fulton Hogan (BOP) and Nivea Sun (NZ) Rescue of the Month:
The Fulton Hogan Rescue of the Month forFebruary 2006 is awarded to theTrust Waikato Whangamata Surf Life Saving Club for the following incident:
Lifeguard Danny Morrison was returning to the patrol tower from his flag duty when he was alerted to some commotion in the shallow water directly in front of the surf club building (just to the north of the flagged area) Danny responded immediately and was at the scene within seconds. He found a semi-conscious patient lying face down in the water, bystanders observed the victim 'landing on his head' when trying to body surf a wave.
Danny rolled the patient over using a C spine control grip, and by that stage Daniel Peacocke and Sam Jolly had arrived with the stretchers, Resuscitation kit and Defibrillator. The three lifeguards then positioned the patient on the stretcher and immobilised his neck, as Danny was commencing a secondary survey he found that the patient had a history of crushed vertebrae.
Patrol Captain, Mike Tames, dialled 111 and requested and ambulance and also requested that a rescue helicopter be put on standby. Meanwhile the patient was being transported to the front of the surf club building and was put on oxygen.
Lifeguard Haydn Fraser joined in at this stage under the supervision of Danny, who had taken control of the incident. The patient was in a lot of pain and was in varying levels of consciousness, he was also complaining of cardiac type chest pains. The lifeguards prepped the patient and defibrillator ready for use, fearing a heart attack.
Ambulance staff arrived and left the lifeguards in control of the scene while local paramedic, Ruth Palmer, was called in to make 'the call' regarding use of the rescue helicopter. When Ruth arrived she was given a full briefing by the lifeguards including changes in pulse and BP over the preceeding 10-15 minutes and also treatment and some diagnosis.
Ruth agreed with the diagnosis of the lifeguards and confirmed that a rescue helicopter was required. The patient was transported to the helipad at the local st john ambulance HQ and prepped for flight. Lifeguards also attended to help prepare the landing site.
After the incident it was confirmed that the patient had suffered extensive damage to his Cervical spine and had also suffered a mild heart attack.
The actions that Whangamata lifeguards took on that Sunday definatley resulted in a life saved