1. THE EXAMINER, Friday, November 13, 2015 — 53
Launceston and Bridport Surf Life Saving Club members Isabel Grant, 13, Jed Hawkins, 15, Chloe Hawkins, 12, and Amy Street, 14, in action at the season launch on Lake Trevallyn.
Picture: PAUL SCAMBLER
By ROB SHAW
Training sessions to boost surf lifesaving knowledge
THE two Northern surf lifesaving
clubs, Bridport and Launceston,
have agreed to work together this
season to train new and existing
members.
The joint operation was
launched with a training session
at Trevallyn Dam where
Launceston will conduct
lifesaving skills training sessions
each Wednesday from 4pm.
The combined group will also
be conducting an intensive
weekend training and assessment
course at Bridport Surf Life
Saving Club on November 28 and
29.
Presidents Geoff Lyons and
Paul Hawkins said Bridport
would include training people for
their bronze medallion and
certificate 2 in aquatic safety as
extra patrol members this season.
They will be treated like work
placements and will better equip
future lifesavers with the
practical skills necessary in the
aquatic environment.
Interested potential members
who live in the greater
Launceston area can attend the
Launceston Life Saving Club shed
at Trevallyn Dam next Wednesday
at 4pm, and anyone interested in
joining either club can call
6327 3773.
Lyons and Hawkins said last
season was an exciting time for
Northern surf lifesaving, with the
new Bridport club building
operating. During the winter,
water and electricity had also
been connected.
Bridport will conduct the
Tasmanian surf lifesavers’
masters championship in
February.
Launceston conducted a
‘‘steady as she goes’’ season, with
13 people in difficulty plucked
from the water during open water
swimming or multisport events.
During the winter, a number of
search and rescue exercises
involving police, SES and surf
lifesavers were conducted to hone
skills.
The Bridport club jet boat was
vital last year in the search and
recovery of a diver washed away
from his boat.
Anyone interested in learning
skills in prevention, rescue,
resuscitation defibrillation, radio
and first aid and then taking part
in competition in surf boats,
beach events, swimming and craft
events, is encouraged to get in
contact.
‘‘Learning the art of surf
lifesaving will give you skills that
will last a lifetime,’’ Lyons said.
Flakemore bows out of cycling
Young Tasmanian champion says the sport not all glitz and glamour
By ROB SHAW
TASMANIAN world champion
cyclist Campbell Flakemore has
quit the sport, saying ‘‘it’s not the
glitz and glamour of what it looks
like on the TV’’.
A year after conquering the
world in the under-23 time trial,
the Hobart rider said he had
realised the sport was not for him.
‘‘The amount of work and sacri-
fice required to get to that level
and be a Grand Tour winner,
people that aren’t in cycling have
no idea what it takes,’’ he said.
‘‘I don’t really see myself being
able to do that and make all those
sacrifices to be a top rider.
‘‘There was a lot of times when
you were by yourself and it just
wasn’t for me. I asked myself, do I
envisage doing this for the next 10
years? The answer was no.
‘‘It was good to get out now
before maybe it was a bit too late to
try something else.’’
Flakemore told the CyclingTips
website he had considered quit-
ting even before signing a neo-
professional contract with BMC,
the team that backed Cadel Evans’
Tour de France campaigns and
will do the same for Launceston’s
Richie Porte next year.
Despite having lived and raced
abroad with Australia’s World
Tour Academy, Flakemore found
his year in France lonely. The
23-year-old said his two-year con-
tract had been terminated.
‘‘They [BMC] were a bit disap-
pointed because they gave me this
massive opportunity and I’ve sort
of just thrown it back at them. But
I think, if you’re not happy doing
something, then you’ve sort of
wasted your time and I think they
understood that.’’
Flakemore had an up-and-down
start to his pro career, finishing
fourth in the national road race
championship before breaking his
collarbone while riding back to a
hotel during his World Tour debut
at the Tour Down Under in Janu-
ary.
He raced the Tour of Romandie,
Tour of California and the August
Vattenfall Cyclassics-Hamburg.
Flakemore said he had consul-
ted his parents and former
Genesys team manager Andrew
Christie-Johnston before deciding
to return to Hobart.
Swimming stalwarts lap up million-metre achievements
By ANDREW MATHIESON
THERE must be something in the
water among the Launceston Mas-
ters Swimming Club members.
For three of its ageless swim-
mers, one could be mistaken that
it’s the fountain of youth.
But that only draws fits of
laughter from Rod Oliver, 68, Ray
Brien, 66, and John Pugh, who, at
77, can blame his fine wrinkles on
spending too much time paddling
through water.
Pugh has incredibly swum more
than 10 million metres in Tasmani-
an waters – since he started count-
ing in 1991 – far exceeding the
purpose of the Masters Swimming
Australia million-metres program.
‘‘I have just broken another
(milestone) this year, so I’ve actu-
ally finished it. That’s why I look
so old,’’ Pugh grins.
But together, between Oliver,
Brien and Pugh, they have swum
more than halfway around the
world.
It equates to 22,000 kilometres,
which is a combined 440,000 stand-
ard laps of an Olympic pool.
Or, in other words, from Launce-
ston to Pugh’s birthplace, Bu-
lawayo, the second-largest city in
his native Zimbabwe – and then
back again in the longest tumble
turn imaginable.
Pugh is the only Launceston
Masters Swimming Club member
to reach 10,000km, the magic mark
taking 23 years and nine months to
achieve.
‘‘To use a landmark to illustrate
a distance, Sydney to Auckland is
about a million metres (1000km),’’
Pugh said.
‘‘I’ve done that 10 times and it’s
getting a bit boring now.’’
Oliver first got into a warm
Ipswich pool in 2000 and is not far
behind, passing 7000km in the
heated depths of the Launceston
Aquatic Centre this year.
Brien recently reached the
5000km mark after he started
noting down distances two dec-
ades ago, as the threesome push
their way around the globe.
‘‘If we totalled all the million-
metre members in the (Launcest-
on) club, we would have close to 45
million metres, as a lot of people
are one and two million metres,’’
Brien said.
Other than total madness, the
million metres program is to re-
cognise swimmers of all ages at the
one, two, three, five, seven and
10 million-metre milestones.
‘‘The idea is, if you watch these
people here,’’ said Pugh, pointing
to the bodies swimming laps of the
pool, ‘‘they are swimming end-
lessly up and down, day after day.’’
‘‘So the idea of this program is to
give an incentive to try and swim
further and faster.’’
The keen million-metre mem-
bers always prepare for a long dip.
They dive into the aquatic
centre pool, swimming until they
hit the wall.
Up and down, all the while
looking down that black line, lap
after lap.
Amid the monotony, the motiva-
tion is there.
‘‘What happens is, when I first
tried one million metres, you just
keep plugging along,’’ Oliver said.
‘‘Then suddenly, as you come
towards the end, the incentive is to
up your work rate to achieve that
target.
‘‘It’s an interesting exercise in
terms of how to attack a large
project and you break it down into
smaller sections . . . say 50km lots,
and do that 50 and do the next 50.’’
Did he say 50km in a pool?
Well, not in a day, at least. Phew.
Most Launceston million-metres
members swim 2000-2500m in a
day, three times a week.
That’s getting there.
‘‘The hardest part for me is
keeping a log of what you’re doing
when you’re swimming,’’ Brien
said.
No one else is there to record
these breathtaking measurements,
other than the swimmer keeping
count while crashing into the wall
amid the wash.
‘‘It’s an honour system and no
one challenges the distances you
put out,’’ Pugh said.
‘‘What’s the incentive to cheat?
‘‘Other than to do 10 million
metres before you die.’’
The long swims these days have
become a tad more comforting
since the indoor aquatic centre
opened in Launceston in 2009.
Before then, there was the odd
lake, even the sea, but mostly the
outside pool at Windmill Hill.
Oliver remembers the bitterly
cold days in winter, the breeze
kicking off his shoulders during
strokes and the mad scurry back to
the change rooms dripping wet.
‘‘These days, we get it a bit
easier in the new pool,’’ Oliver
said.
‘‘We all have vivid memories of
swimming in the old outdoor pool,
particular in the middle of July
with the howling northwesterly.’’