Summer’s last hurrah …
Eight thousand or so people are about to descend on our village. You can hear the engines starting in Sydney, the traffic will already be building up on the Princes Highway southbound. Utes, 4WDs, soft-roaders and battered family station wagons crammed full of tents, boogie boards, bikes and fishing gear will be nose to tail in all the usual traffic hotspots.
And down on our beach here in Barefoot Bay, you’ll find us volunteer surf lifesavers staring fixedly at the swimmers by the rip. And we’ll be doing head-counts and watching that Indian family who quite obviously can’t swim and have decided to go paddling fully-clothed. And someone will get stung by a blue bottle and, if the surf’s up, we might even have to swim or paddle out to them and return them safely to shore.
And the bowling club will be the busiest it’ll be until the spring holiday break in October. The caravan parks will be full to bursting. All the tables and chairs outside the fish and chip shops will be occupied. The skatepark will be over-subscribed. The cafes and restaurants will try and make as much money as humanly possible, because this is summer’s last hurrah and they’ve got a very quiet six months ahead of them.
And at the end of the holiday, they’ll load up their cars again and drive back up to Sydney and our sleepy little seaside town will return to its slumbers for another season.
The cafes and clubs and pubs in this area have to make the most of this time of year, because six months of quiet times loom ahead. Those people who have found themselves in debt will also be hoping that prospective house purchasers are in the area in order to snap up the bargain holiday houses that have been languishing on the books of the real estate agents for the last couple of years.
Anyway, Easter marks the time when all the local businesses must draw in their belts and prepare for the financial famine of the next six months. Of course it’s also about this time, when a lot of businesses realise that they can’t go on. Have a look in the local paper, or on the notice board in the IGA and you’ll find several of them up for sale. Their owners have had a good look at the books, stared long and hard at the calendar and realised that there is just no way they can carry on.
I don’t mean to sound completely gloomy, because the facts are that some interesting developments are afoot in Barefoot Bay. The knackered old select shallows holiday chalets located on a sizeable block right near the beach are about to be knocked down and replaced with a combination of brand new modern holiday homes, permanent residences, several shops, a cafe and a restaurant.
Meanwhile, at the opposite end of town, plans have been resubmitted to the State government regarding a very large development that will, if it goes ahead, totally transform this sleepy seaside town. This new development will incorporate a marina, a five-star hotel, some very modern dockside apartments, shops and restaurants, light industrial premises and even a boardwalk through the mangrove swamp.
Even in our humble little surf club, changes are coming. The club has been approached by a local restauranteur, who wishes to spend a good deal of money on installing an upmarket bistro/restaurant in our clubhouse. The space that this restaurant will occupy is currently very underutilised by the club, and everybody on the committee was behind the development. It will also mean a very welcome regular cash injection into the club coffers at a time when many of our traditional sponsors are scaling back on the money he is that they contribute to our club.
Where did you get that hat …
As is traditional – they had an Easter hat parade at the Jackster’s school before they broke up at the end of term. In previous years he’d unsuccessfully entered the ‘Most Australian’ hat contest, despite wearing a top hat painted with a southern cross motif and adorned with enough native wildlife to start a rescue park. This year I advised him to enter the ‘Recycled Hat’ contest, which he did. And what do you know – he got second place in his section.
Two men in a boat
My IRB training continues in earnest. Over the long Easter weekend I was down at the beach on most days clocking up some hours in the boat – I even managed to practice some patient pick-ups. Pulling a kid into the boat is easy enough, but you want to try it with your average sized adult! The technique to get said adult into the boat is to dunk them – you grab them by the arms around the wrist, dunk ‘em down in the water and then upwards, using the water’s bouyancy to help propel the patient into the ’safety’ of the boat.
My instructor has pencilled me in for examination on the 13th of May. Before then, I’ve got to complete my workbook and make sure that all the hours I’ve spent driving the boat have been properly logged in the appropriate tomes. Thankfully, the moments when I don’t feel in control of the boat are getting fewer and further between, which is just as well, as the surf has been picking up quite a bit lately. In fact during my last training session, there was only one truly hairy moment, when we nearly tipped the boat before my crewman had even got in it. I got caught out by a surprisingly large sets of waves and one wave in particular, which broke right on the bow of the boat. If I hadn’t discarded the motor and run to the front of the boat, it would have rolled.
The only area of driving that I’ve really got to do some work on is solo. This is undoubtedly the hardest skillset in the IRB skills book, because the boat handles so completely differently without a crew person in the front. Without that ballast up the front the boat is always in danger of flipping over, so you have to be incredibly picky about which waves you choose to take on. However it’s a crucial part of driving an inshore rescue boat in the surf because often your crewman/woman will leave the boat with a rescue tube to effect a rescue.
Once I have got my IRB drivers, I will be two courses short of the full set of surf lifesaving qualifications. As it stands right now, I can take on the role of patrol captain, but in reality that’s not going to happen until I get my driver’s.
My family and other animals
My kid brother and his girlfriend came down to visit us all this Easter. They arrived at midday on Friday, having only been delayed by five hours due to extensive track work on the railways. Which just goes to show you, that some things really are the same the world over. The next day, Liz invited them down to her athletics meet, which was taking place about an hour south of here. I lent my brother some trainers and wished him well – as it happens he came in third place even with a one-minute handicap.
My brother’s girlfriend has decided to return to America to complete a four-year course in yoga. They had both made it clear that they weren’t going there seperate ways – it was just that the course was only available in the states. My mother, who is renowned subtlety, greeted her arrival the question “So you and James are splitting up then?”
