Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club

Club History - Ross Matthews

Long Reef Recollections by Ross - Ramblings of an old clubbie

As we all know Long Reef S.L.S.C. was formed in 1950 with part of the bus shelter being leased from the then Dept of Road Transport & Tramways acting as a gear shed.

As a number of members attended or had attended the Shore School the colours of the school were adopted as our club colours.

Membership of the 1950-1951 season were: Active Senior 16; Active Junior 9; Cadets 2; Associates 2

My first memories of Long Reef were in the mid 50's when I visited the surf club for the first time as a young boy. All that consisted of the surf club was a boat shed with a small change room at the back. The shed (club house) was built in 1952/3 and was located on the area which now forms part of the boat shed nearest the gate.

In 1961 I together with Ian Kennedy & Ross Jenkins decided to join Long Reef. We joined of course for the right reasons. It was a place where we could keep our Surfboards and only intended to stay for 12 months or so until we got our licensees and a car. Ian stayed about 5 years and Ross & I are still there. The first thing I noticed about Long Reef was all the sand in the form of high sand hills and a very wide beach. Coming from Manly Beach where I started to surf this was certainly a novelty. The sand was very coarse and was covered in shells. Not unlike some of the less populated beaches on the North Coast. The sand hills were at the back of the Golf Course and on the hill south of the lagoon. As a consequence on rainy days you could sit in the boatshed and watch the surf. The bombora was used by board riders (usually only about 6 or so) and it was also used by body surfers mainly from the club. One profound statement from our first Life Member Rob Urquhart some years ago at a Club Dinner was "You can forget about your Sex, you can forget about your Rugby there is nothing better in life than catching a Body Wave on the Bomborra"

The previous year the new clubhouse had been completed and consisted of the L shape we have now only a smaller area, one boatshed and a paling fence. It had a hall, kitchen and a first aid room and female toilet. There were no other facilities for girls at that time as they could not be full members of the club. The male change room and toilet were at the back of the boatshed and also doubled as a bar during parties, of which there were a number (no breathalyser) and only one set of traffic lights between Long Reef and Balgowlah.

We patrolled Long Reef on Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. The Beach Inspector only worked 5 1/2 days a week during school holidays and was usually a member of the club. One notable Beach Inspector was Peter Kinsey and it those days the only gear the council provided to the Beach Inspectors was a hatband and in some case a hat. The H.B.I .were lucky to get a hat.

The patrol gear was different to today as a number of things had not been developed or adopted. These were such things as torpedo tubes, I.R.B.s' rescue board & radios.

Typical patrol gear consisted of:

• Patrol flags, and Area -similar to today
• Shark bell (yes a small bell which we carted down each patrol)
• A bench to sit on
• Signal flags (the same as today) & whistle & two reels
• A fully equipped surf boat. Which consisted of a boat, 5 oars, belt & line, which was located in the bow locker. A shark flag, shark knife and believe it or not a shark spear. I never quiet worked out what you were exactly supposed to do with the shark spear but we had to have one. It did help if you had a crew available but the main criteria was the surfboat on the beach.

Like all members we started soon after we joined, our Bronze Training, which was vastly different to what is done today. We had to learn all the drill, which forms the bulk of the current R & R competition, and perform rescues in a belt. rescue boards , IRBs and torpedo tubes had not been thought of. The theory part was less than what is expected today but we had to learn 3 types of resuscitation. These were Holger Neilson, Sylvester Borsch (these were two manual forms of resuscitation, which required you to push on either the patents back or chest depending on the method. It was discovered in latter years that these two methods were almost non effective).

The third method we had to learn was a method that had only been adopted I think the previous season and was considered a bit untried. It was called EAR and E.C.C. The principles were the same as they are to day but with a few changes on technique. One notable one is the possibility of breaking a rib. As we know today if you hear a crack whilst you are doing CPR you reposition you hands and keep going. In those days there was a match in the ambu located where the lower part of the breastbone is and if you broke it while doing CPR you failed. The training time was about the same as it is today but not as intense.

In the early days of the club we didn't because of the size of the club play a major part in Branch affairs. Whilst we had a person that had dual membership of Long Reef for a short period who had a Branch position. It wasn't until I joined the Board of Examiners in 1972 and Peter Clark a few years later that the club had any representation at Branch level. This situation lasted for a number of years but fortunately now we have over 20 involved in various branch positions.

Not playing a major role in Branch affairs didn't mean that Long Reef didn't stand up and be counted when it was required and was the first of the then 20 Clubs that indicated that they would be prepared to break away from Sydney Branch (of which all the north side Clubs belonged to) to form The Manly Warringah Branch (now Sydney Northern Beaches Branch) in 1960.

Long Reef was also one of the clubs that first supported the motion put up by the Manly Warringah Branch to be forward to Surf lifesaving Australia in the late 70's to allow females to join the SLSA as a full member

Boat competition has always been important to Long Reef and we had successes from the early days with the Junior Boat Crew winning a Bronze at the Australian Championships at Mereweather up to the successes of today.

Whilst on competition Long Reef over the years has won a number of medals in various areas at Branch, State & Australian levels in both summer & winter championships. However it probably is not all that well known that the highest individual Australian Championship Medal won by a Long Reef member to date was Michael Gleeson who won the silver medal in the Open Surfboard Riding competition in 1982 at the Australian Championships at Moana S.A. Long Reef sent a large team to the Australians that year it consisted of one competitor (Michael) and 2 Board Riding Officials Clarkie & I

From 29th December, 1967 to 14th January, 1968 over 20 Long Reef SLSC members toured New Zealand, which was very successful however it did leave a strain on our patrols while they were away. However we overcame the problems and succeed in winning the branch gear competition that year.

Late in the 60's saw what was later to become Jet Rescue Boats, power craft being tested at Long Reef. The two craft that stand out as being dismal failures was firstly a Dehavilon craft with an enormous outboard motor. The craft was aluminum and was open except for a covered bow, which of course as a result filled up with water very quickly an almost sunk in the early trails. The second craft came from Portsea S.L.C. and had an inboard motor and the deck was completely covered so much so that the crew had to lie on the deck and hang on to metal handles. This lasted until we went through the first Bombie wave and we all got wash off and then craft ran at of control for a while until it ran out of fuel. Fortunately whilst all this was going on a firm in Coffs Harbour developed the Hamilton Jet, which is the basis of the Jet Rescue Boats today. Long Reef never had or planned to get a Jetboat but there was one Fishermans Beach and D.Y. both of which made frequent visits to the Reef. When the IRB's were introduced the JRB's were phased out in Manly Warringah because of their cost and the fact they could be only launched at certain beaches.

The late 60's and 70's was I believe one of the most interesting 10 or so years of Long Reefs history. It kicked off with the plan by the council and government to turn the Lagoon at Long Reef into a tip (yes a tip). Whilst such a plan would not get past first base today it was not uncommon to have tips at beaches. Beaches like Curl Curl, Mona Vale and Dee Why all had tips on or near the beach. Fortunately a few Black Swans decided to come back to Longy and the action by the residents (who thought the smell of the lagoon was better than the smell of a tip) and the club the whole idea was shelved.

In the 60's the seaboard councils came up with one of their better ideas which was to register all surfboards. Each council had their own registration sticker, which was about 200mm in diameter and initially cost two shillings & sixpence per season (25cents). As a comparison a schooner of beer cost about one shilling & tenpence (18 cents). The method of collection was the Beach Inspectors & Rangers who used to walk around the Beaches and accost anyone that did not have a sticker on their board. The method of collection did not work all that well so Warringah Council and others decided that the surf clubs would collect the registrations and could keep all of the revenue. Also about at this time the fee was doubled to five shillings (50 cents).

Relationships between board riders & surf clubs were at times strained to say the least and this idea did nothing to help. Unlike today, the boards were manufactured in a limited number of shapes and colours and as a result were very difficult to identify them for registration purposes. The surf clubs of course proceeded with great zeal as they saw this as a method of raising money. The clubs did worry too much about the accuracy of the information gained so it was not unusual to see names in the registration book like J. Wayne, D Duck and names of politicians of the day and it seemed a large number of people lived at surf road in various suburbs . Fortunately the registration of boards become totally unworkable and was discontinued after a few seasons

In the 70's Topless Bathing started and then of course the next logical step nude bathing. Nude bathing in the most part was limited to small beaches in the harbour such as Reef Beach and Lady Janes. The Government or some public servant was concerned about the safety issue of harbour bathing and decided to do a survey on which patrolled beach would be best suited for nude bathing. There are no prizes in guessing which beach as a result of the survey was on the top of the list. Fortunately due Long Reef's & Dee Why's far from enthusiastic support in patrolling such an area (just south of the Lagoon) and public action Longy survived again.

The 70's of course was the decade of colour (flowers in your hair and all that sort of thing) and believe it or not this caused a problem for Long Reef. We couldn't get any gear in Navy Blue this included track suits, T Shirts costumes etc. The only things available were in bright colours and florals. This became such a problem that then Club Captain Tony O'Brien and I as President, had several discussions on the possibility of suggesting to the club we change our colours . However we decided to put this idea on hold for a season or so and just make do with what we could get. This is why there are a few of us that still have white tops etc with the club badge on them as it was all we could get.

The 70's had mixed fortunes for Long Reef with the club winning the Branch Patrol competition in 73/74 & 74/75 and gaining second place in 75/76 & 78/79. At the same time our financial situation was very tight and membership going into the 80's was not good.

Prior to the 83/84 season Warringah Council as a budgeting exercise asked the Branch could the then 19 Clubs in the Shire take over Saturday morning patrols so the beach Inspectors only had to work 5 Days not 5 1/2 Days a week as was the practice. The Branch agreed but in meant clubs like Long Reef with small memberships had massive problems. Our solution to the problem was to approach a few of the older members who were Active Reserves and were not obligated to do patrols any more to see if they were interested in doing approximately 1 patrol a month on a Sunday morning. I had a number of conversations with Bob Galmes who undertook to contact 5 or so members and a few weeks later our first Active Reserve patrol hit the beach. This quickly grew into two Patrols and without these patrols the clubs viability at that time was in question.

80/81 saw women admitted to Long Reef and other clubs as full active members. The introduction of women into Long Reef was slow at first and was not as smooth as first expected. We did however have one of the first females (Leanne Stanton) to become a member of the Board of Examiners. The ratio of women to men in the club has grown and they now form a major part of the club. Without the introduction of women into the S.L.S.A clubs like Long Reef would have had massive pressure put on them in attracting sufficient members for the clubs to continue.

Competition has always been important to Long Reef. Whilst we were never what would be considered as a high profile competitive club we have had reasonable successes in both winter & summer competition and as a result we have conducted nine carnivals at Long Reef as the beach and surrounding area lends its self to surf carnivals. The carnivals we conducted included one Metropolitan and three Branch Championships. The Australian Championships were conducted at Collaroy in 1964 in one of the biggest surfs ever seen on the beach. Long Reef assisted by providing the patrols for the boat area. There were no IRB's and we had to pull the many boats in using the reel line & belt. The Australians were conducted at Dee Why in 1975. Long Reef members assisted in many areas and the boat area was just south of the Lagoon with the boats being dropped off at Long Reef and then floated across the lagoon. It has been my belief for a number of years that Long Reef beach is capable of conducting an Australian or State Championship. The only thing that was hindering us was membership size. We don't have that problem now.

Whilst we can proudly boast that No Lives have been lost at Long Reef during patrol hours. There have been lives lost at Long Reef. In the early days of the club before my time I believe there were a few children lost in the lagoon. In 1967 a boat got into trouble on the bombie, which resulted in 1 death and one other person dying as a result of the accident. Whilst it was outside of patrol hours a number of Long Reef members were involved in rescuing the occupants of the boat with one of our then members (Terry Fitzgerald) being awarded the Queens Medal for bravery. Over the years a number of boats have either run aground on the Reef or beach put fortunately no more fatalities.

By the time the 90's arrived I had stepped down from most positions in the club & Branch, just doing a few patrols each season and sitting on a few committees and therefore I believe this part of the club's history should be recalled by someone else.

However there is no doubt in my mind that the 90's saw the start of the period where Long Reef was transformed from being just a small to medium sized club that sat between two large clubs to being the well managed club it is today which has excellent membership levels, strong patrols, successful competitors from nippers to veterans, a sound financial position, plays an active role in Branch & State affairs and firm plans for the future.

When one looks back over the last 4 decades or so there is no doubt we had good and some difficult and frustrating times but you look at the club today and the friends you have made and you a certain "That the whole thing was bloody worthwhile"

Ross Matthews,
Long Reef SLSC,
SNB & LRSLSC Life Member,
24/06/05