RE: Off-Topic: Gayle/surf club

[Guest guest]

Gayle,

What type of surf club do you belong to?

Aletha >

Hi - yes, I left the pics off.Here they are now. My surf club uses

> one of those wheelchairs; I don't need a wheelchair most of the time at

> present and I'm hoping to keep it that way as long as possible, but I've

> now seen a couple of incredible ATV wheelchair options that make the

> possible future look somewhat brighter! I love hearing about people who

> keep on getting out there, functioning legs, arms, brains, or not.

> Thank-you!

> Gayle

>

>

[Guest guest]

Re: " What type of surf club do you belong to? "

Hi again Aletha! Just realised this other message I was about to reply

to was also from you.

The surf clubs we have here in Oz are all much the same type; they

provide surf life saving and competition training fro anyone from about

4 or 5 years old " til death do us part! " I'm an associate member,

meaning I don't do patrols, but use facilities and can be involved in

club activities. Our Surf Life Savers are voluntary and do their patrols

weekends and public holidays. These days we also have professional life

guards who patrol on the other days, and they are employed and paid by

our local councils. There's a bit of, well, rivalry between the two

disciplines with regard to whose training and practice is better, as

often happens when professional and volunteer organisations work in the

same field. From my point of view, they all do great. If I need help in

our out of the water, either lot are happy to assist. As are the people

I swim with - they're a mix of older surf lifesavers, runners,

triathletes, fitness fanatics...and coffee addicts. So you can see how

someone with MS might fit in nicely! (Actually there are two of us with

MS.) A lot of the people I swim with are mainly after a way to keep up

their(swimming) fitness in winter when the beaches in this area aren't

patrolled. I'm not really a surf clubber; I came across the group when I

started swimming instead of running; i.e. when the MS kicked in.

From your question, I get the impression there are other types of surf

clubs where you live? Tell me! I may pluck up the courage to travel and

I'll be wanting to swim wherever I go.

Gayle