With the Annual Dinner held in October instead of May, Swanny Shorebreak has chosen to honour the various award recipients who had to wait a little longer to be announced, haven't yet seen their name in the Annual Report and will have to pass on their trophy in only 8 months! Second up is The Patron’s Award for the Single Most Outstanding Achievement by an Individual, Jason Williams. Special mention to Sam Rix and Luke Bishop who were amongst the many others who got their hands dirty as part of this achievement. So after venturing down the Club, Swanny Shorebreak managed to call out the following questions to Jason in the Patrol Tower.♥
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¾ How long have you been at Swanny? I’ve been at Swanny around 7 years now, with many more to come. ◊ How did you come to be at Swanny (why choose surf lifesaving and why Swanny?)? I used to work with Tamara Halligan and she would always talk about Swanny. After a couple of years of living in Perth, I wanted to meet some new people, so I came down to one of the Bronze courses she was helping with. The timing was perfect because the Bronze course was in its last week, so I went to the Bronze party that weekend, ended up doing the FIFO equivalent Bronze course♣ and topped it off with my first Country Carnival bus ride to Denmark and hazing by DP♠. I had previously done my Bronze in high school, liked all water sports and wanted to take up ski paddling, so getting back into surf lifesaving ticked all the boxes. What did you do to be awarded The Patron’s Award for the Single Most Outstanding Achievement by an Individual? The patrol tower was shouting out for some love¹, so I made a few calls, organised a couple of trades and got on the tools with other Clubbies to smarten it up, and hopefully get it through another couple of years. It's nice to be recognised, but a big shout out should also go out to those that helped, especially Sam and Luke who also donned the face mask (albeit difficult to find in Bunnings at the time due to COVID) and helped grind back the previous layers of paint and rust. What is it like sharing the same surname as the William’s Sisters? It’s like living in the same shadow as brother Dave 😊!² Na, by definition, Williams means petite super fit rigs, with endless enthusiasm for training and competition, generally resulting in podiums. Given my lack of wins on the board and sometimes reluctance for competition, sharing the same surname is probably where it starts and ends. Who is your favourite ironman/ironwoman? History suggests that Shannon Eckstein and Courtney Hancock is the correct answer here³. I don’t follow the pro’s intently, however it's great to see fellow Tasweign Matt Bevilacqua taking on the big guns. Really, the only difference between myself and Matt is the ability to swim and love of cold water…right? Favourite food? Pretty much anything sweet, I don’t even know what savoury means. What are your plans for being at the Club and training this season? The plan for this season is to enjoy training; so basically, squeezing in skis and boards amongst family time and continuing to neglect my least favourite leg of the ironman. Improvement in the Beer Mile (unsanctioned Swanny event) is also a goal. Unfortunately, this means I’ll be no closer to becoming Matt Bevilacqua.® What do you like about Swanny? Family. Such a fantastic group of people to be around and who I think of as part of my WA family. Anything else that is funny or interesting? Just throwing it out there, would there be any objections if this year I set the training buoys in a pentagon shape to reduce the swim leg and maximize ski/boards? This may assist me in becoming a true Williams winner.© Notes: ♥ (This line is becoming a running gag, after I used it last month for the Patrol Member of the Year and it still works this month as Jason's Single Most Outstanding Achievement by an Individual was for the upgrade of the Patrol Tower.) ◊ Hopefully with many many more to come. Sadly it looks as though we'll be losing our Clubbie of the Month for October to the eastern states for employment. Carelessness on our part :-( Bring back the hard border! ♣ Jason joined the Club a week and half after that Bronze party and did his Bronze Proficiency a fortnight later! ♠ Dave Parsons. I'm sure this was all totally above board and probably just the equivalent of surprise proficiency test! ♦ I wrote this question first as one of the better, surname based questions for some of our awardees. A definite improvement on last month's lame effort. ¹ The Patrol Tower and First Aid Facility was opened by The Honourable Richard Court, MLA, Premier of Western Australia on 15 October 1995 with Funding provided by W.A. Lotteries Commission and the City of Nedlands. So it was almost 25 years old! ² Dave has had his share of bling and podium time. Mim seems to be in the shadows of her over achieving older siblings! At least she's an Engineer and not a health professional! ³ Fantastic that Jason has been reading the previous Clubbies of the Month closely. Hopefully he is reading the back of cereal boxes where Matt Bevilacqua attempted a world first, towing into a giant wave on a paddle board with a helicopter. Got nailed then nailed it! ® What about attempting a world first, towing into a giant wave on a surf ski with a helicopter? © If the Williams were setting the buoys, they'd be 2 km apart on the sand and every leg would be a run! Photos: ¼ Left to Right: Jason Williams, The Patron’s Award for the Single Most Outstanding Achievement by an Individual Trophy, David Honey. ½ Left to Right: Ben Ogden, Jason Williams, Francis Wedin, Andrew Dunning. Denmark Country Carnival 2014, Swanny Super Heroes. ¾ Left to Right: Jason Williams, Ninette Lorenzen (see Clubbies of the Month August 2020) Who is Who: Annual Dinner - Swanny's annual night of nights that includes a dinner.Swanny Shorebreak - This website, newsletter and it's webmasters and editors, named after the wave that breaks on the shore at Swanny. The Patron’s Award for the Single Most Outstanding Achievement by an Individual, as selected by the President each season.Jason Williams, Jason - Active Member at SNSLSC and November Clubbie of the Month. And an Engineer!Sam Rix, Sam - Active Member at SNSLSC and 2018/19 New Bronze Medallion Trophy winner.Luke Bishop, Luke - Active Member at SNSLSC and organiser as Club Captain of Swanny Country Carnival Twenty '14Tamara Halligan - now Tamara Maddock, former Active Member at SNSLSC who sadly never completed her Trainers award.FIFO equivalent Bronze course - A short lived Swanny experiment to train FIFO workers in the Bronze Medallon. Jason may have been it's only successful candidate?Country Carnival - SLSWA annual Carnival in the Country. Swanny owns this carnival except for the competition point score.Denmark - A country in Europe and a town in the country. Technically Country Carnival could be held in both, although for the former it would be a very long bus trip!DP, Dave Parsons - Active Member at SNSLSC and then it all gets a bit hazy!Dave - Dave Williams - Active Member at SNSLSC whose many sisters are very good at running. Dave isn't too shabby himself and has State medals and a silver Aussie medal.Shannon Eckstein - Formerly on the back of a box of cereal, but without a giant wave, a paddle board or a helicopter.Courtney Hancock - Formerly on the back of a box of cereal, but crushing it, where it is a smaller packet of cereal.Matt Bevilacqua, Matt - Formerly on the back of a box of cereal, but despite winning a Nutri-Grain Ironman Series, this was never mentioned once they started on about the giant wave, the paddle board and the helicopter.Beer Mile - Basically you run a mile and drink a beer. If this was an officially sanctioned Swanny event it would be the Beer 1600 Metres and would involve more Kook and kooks.The Honourable Richard Court, MLA, Premier of Western Australia - Club Patron and Member for NedlandsW.A. Lotteries Commission - Now Lotterywest, funder of community groups like ourselves! Thanks Lotterywest!City of Nedlands - Once the Nedlands Roads Board and a year and a half older than the Club.Mim - Miriam Williams - Active Member at SNSLSC and January Clubbie of the Month. And an Engineer! With a Masters Degree!!Ben Ogden - former Active Member at SNSLSC. Is an Engineer so is welcome back anytime!Francis Wedin - former Active Member at SNSLSC. Is a Scientist which means he's basically an Engineer so is welcome back anytime!Andrew Dunning - Active Member at SNSLSC. Not sure of his occupation but probably wishes he was an Engineer.Ninette Lorenzen - Active Member at SNSLSC and August Clubbie of the Month. And an Engineer! When she decides to return to work!!David Honey - Member for Cottesloe and Member at Cottesloe SLSC and Club Vice Patron