This trophy was awarded to Swansea-Caves Beach Surf Life Saving Club members who won marathon boat races between 1966 and 1968. The club, now known as Caves Beach Surf Life Saving Club, has a proud history in this gruelling and demanding surf sport category. In the mid-1900s, marathon surfboat races were considered an ultimate test […]
Posing for this photograph one day in the 1970s, the senior surf boat crew of the Caves Beach Surf Lifesaving Club were wearing their Speedo swimming briefs – a far cry from the heavy woollen bathers worn in earlier decades. Still, the club’s signature colours of maroon and white remained. They had much to celebrate […]
In late March 1947, a young Ken Ross (at the far left of this photograph) stood proud with his lifesaver mates in front of their winning surf boat. These were the Caves Beach boys who had taken out the Junior Surf Boat Championship at the recent Surf Lifesaving Australia Carnival at Bondi Beach. It was […]
As these men posed on Caves Beach, on the peninsula between Lake Macquarie and the Pacific Ocean, it’s tempting to imagine that the photographer might have yelled out a request such as, ‘C’mon boys, smile for the camera!’. The two jovial lifesavers at the left responded, but the three men on the right just squinted […]
Ken Murray, the Sweep, stood well balanced at the stern, steering the boat, while his crewmates braced themselves as they battled the breakers, amid foaming surf and salty spray. The senior boat crew from Caves Beach Lifesaving Club were all smiles that day in 1961 when a photographer perched at the surf boat’s bow to […]
This programme was kept by Ron Ekert (1930-2019) as a souvenir of the Maroon and White Ball held by the Caves Beach Surf Life Saving Club in August 1973. Ron was a member of the club. While the Caves Beach club had an intensely competitive focus it also had an important social dimension and offered various get-togethers […]
With slightly sandy shoes, a professional photographer returned to his studio one day in 1959 and developed a roll of film. It was these two photographs that stood out among the images he had captured that day, which were suitable for the commission he had received from the Swansea-Caves Beach Surf Lifesaving Club. After printing […]
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