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This is the heart-warming tale of a chance meeting, an unbreakable friendship and a fantastic initiative to open up a world of surfing fun to those who may not otherwise have the opportunity.
Growing up as a nipper in the Bulli Surf Life Saving Club, and later joining Towradgi SLSC, Ian Picton remembers always cherishing the surf, though he never considered the beach to be a potential workplace until a friend told him about a job advertisement for lifeguards in Wollongong.
From 1985 until 2005, Ian patrolled at all 17 of Wollongong City Council’s beaches, spending his last 10 years of service supervising the stretch of coast between Stanwell Park and Bulli.
In 1993, while he was on the job at Bulli Beach, Ian had a friendly encounter with a Windang local and double amputee, Len Snowden, that changed the course of his life.
“I rocked up there to start my shift and I didn’t know [about] anything that was happening, I didn’t know that there was an event booked in,” Ian said.“I was just down the beach and got a tap on the shoulder, and it was Lenny.”
Lenny, a former train driver at the BlueScope steelworks in Port Kembla, was involved in a workplace accident in December 1992, which resulted in the loss of 98 per cent of his right arm and all of his right leg and hip.
In 1993, after spotting an ad in the local paper for a surfing day for people with disabilities, Lenny – who’d had no interest in the sport prior to his accident – couldn’t see a reason to pass it up. In fact, the thought of surfing suddenly excited him.
As it was his first trip to the beach since his accident, Lenny was unsure where to store his prosthetic limbs. Equally unsure, Disabled Surfers Association South Coast branch founder and local high school teacher Jim Bradley told Lenny to approach the nearby lifeguards.
“[Jim said] to just go over there and introduce yourself and when they say, ‘Can I help you?’, just give them your limbs and you’ll be right,” Lenny said.
“And I did that, and Ian Picton came down and said, ‘Hey, mate, how can I help you?’, and I said, ‘Can you hold these limbs so I can go for a surf?’”
The shock on Ian’s face was priceless, Lenny said, but he was more than willing to oblige.
“He took great care of them. He observed us all whilst we were out in the water, and when it was time to come in and get changed, to put my limbs back on, goodness gracious me – there was Ian with a big smile on his face saying, ‘Here you go, mate’.”
Ian said: “From that day, 30 years later, we’re still best of mates.”
Not only did the Disabled Surfers Association Hands-On Day back in 1993 forge a lifelong friendship between Ian and Lenny, but both have been actively involved in the organisation every summer since – Lenny as a surfing participant and volunteer, with a stint as branch president in the 90s, and Ian first as a volunteer before taking the reins as branch president 28 years ago.
The Disabled Surfers Association Australia was founded in Sydney in 1986 by surfer Gary Blaschke. Over the past three decades, the association has grown to 19 branches across the country and one in New Zealand. When Ian and Lenny became involved, it had just two branches.
Ian said the greatest change he’s seen has been the development of accessible equipment, including amphibious wheelchairs and canvas lifting devices, which help disabled participants move to and from the water’s edge.
“To get Lenny down the beach, I used to carry him on my shoulder,” Ian said.“That’s why I’m so proud now that we’ve got and we’ve been working with a number of companies over the years to make these beach wheelchairs, just to give the people who come down the beach and need access to the water, they can have that access with dignity.”
The Disabled Surfers Association South Coast relies on sponsorships and community donations, and it all goes towards equipment that is essential to run their four annual surfing days – held in Mollymook, Thirroul, Port Kembla, and Gerroa.
While all donations are valuable, Ian said nothing was more important than volunteers.
“I’ve said it thousands of times before when talking to people – we could have a million dollars in the bank, but if we don’t get volunteers on our day to help, we don’t operate [and] we don’t go on the water,” he said.
“We really rely on the community spirit and the volunteers from around our area to get those people into the water and for them to have a smile on their face when they leave, and we certainly do that.”
On their most recent surfing day, held at Thirroul on 3 December, more than 100 people turned up, ready to catch a wave or lend a hand. There’s always a minimum standard applied in the water of six volunteers to every one participant, but sometimes at DSA events those numbers can range up to 30 volunteers per surfer.
“Without the Disabled Surfers Association team and their volunteers, there’s no way that a lot of our participants would be able to go to the beach,” Lenny said.
“We have trained volunteers to take participants out in a safe environment.”
The next event will be on February 26 at Port Kembla Beach. With a considerable percentage of first-time volunteers at every surfing day, Ian and Lenny have invited anyone to come along and contribute. They said participants’ euphoric tears and squeals of joy make it all worthwhile.
“If they have a love for the water and the beach and the sand, and they’ve got a heart and are community orientated, then they’re already on their way to being part of the Disabled Surfing family,” Lenny said.
“We always welcome them into our family and hope that they come back; that their first experience at Disabled Surfers Association Day is something that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives,” Ian said.
It certainly was for Ian and Lenny.
DSA South Coast will be back at the beach on February 26 at Port Kembla, then March 19 at Gerroa. To get involved, contact Ian Picton on 0421 601 222 or President-South-Coast@disabledsurfers.org
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