Presidents Winter 2026 Prattle

Welcome to the Weird, Wonderful, Warm hearted, Worldy wise (debatable) witty (even more debatable) and worthy Winter edition of the Prattle. Well, well, well, what do we have for you as we wade through winter. We have our coaches of course, who work tirelessly providing year round training programs to keep you fit and healthy. And also to help you remove some winter body wobbles from eating to many heart warming meat pies. Winter brings, at times, particularly challenging conditions to our beach, which at times, can be daunting. I ask all new swimmers to the ocean, to confide in our own salty sea dogs,( and we have many!) at Doddis before swimming. They will always be helpful, particularly our older (gentlemanly) male swimmers, who, if you hang around them for too long, will start telling you their younger achievements. their theory being, “the older I get, the better I was. It is always interesting travelling, meeting other like-minded swim groups. Lovely groups like The Dongara dugongs, Shark bay slugs and Geraldton NKNC group ( I found this to be No kilometre, No Cake group,) who swim at champion bay. See! While everyone thinks I have been on holiday, I have been exhaustingly networking!! Enough Frivolity, As the Prattle is important, as it includes updates and information that are imperative you are aware of.

SWIMMING EVENTS / RECAP

We start with Easter and the Albany Harbour Swim Easter Sat- A 4km swim across Princess Royal Harbour. Well done to Karen Sims & Bev Johnson.

The Sun Smart Southern Ocean mile, Easter Sun - A 1.6km ocean swim is held at Ocean beach in Denmark which is well known for its surfing conditions- great job Marcus, Karen & Bev for competing.

The out of event Rottnest Channel swim: and Third time lucky !!.... the weather gods were kind enough at last to put on brilliant conditions to allow Colleen Wray & Karen Sims' training and determination to come to fruition! A big congratulations for completing the Tandem solo event in 6:25:43 - a terrific time that you must be very proud of! And Of course this event was only possible with the fabulous support crew of G1, G2, Alyce & Coach Barb.

MSWA State Championships was held at MARC on 11th & 12th April: Well done to Gerda, Karen, Jenny, Maz, Suszanne & Richard for competing in the event and representing our Club so admirably! Special congratulations to Gerda for winning her age group AND getting 2 State Records, and to the women's freestyle relay team for blitzing the field to win !

- A big thank-you to all of our members who helped out with all of the jobs required prior to, and on the 2 days of the event. It was much appreciated!

- Also, special mention to the officials from our Club! Wayne, Maz & Des your contribution to ensuring the swimmers 'play by the rules' is greatly appreciated!

- Last, but certainly not least, thanks to Kath for organising the raffle prizes, and to all members who donated prizes, as well as to 'Venues West' who donated 2 tickets to the West Coast Fever v Melbourne Mavericks netball game that was held at the RAC Arena in May.

- Total earnings from the raffles over the 2 days was $860 -and we also gratefully accepted the $300 offered by MSWA for our volunteer assistance to run the Event.

Karen Sims is once again, on a mission!! In April Karen completed an English Channel Qualifying event (a continuous, 6hr, non-wetsuit open water swim in water 16oC or colder). Preparation is on track for the big event in July this year!

Masters Swimming Australian National Championships took place in Brisbane this year. Tough competition and well-done John, Erica & Kim.

BEHIND THE SCENES - SOME OF WHAT THE COMMITTEE HAS BEEN UP TO……

Updated Club Rules of Assoc & By-laws The updated Club Rules of Assoc (formerly known as 'The Constitution') has been approved by the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety. Both it and the associated By-laws can be found on the Club website: Mandurah Masters Swimming Club website

MMS Bunnings Sausage sizzle fundraisers: These have been cancelled for 2026 - they may be considered again in the future

MMS Whatsapp groups - the Club Pool Whatsapp group was closed down, so now we just have the Mandurah Masters Swimming group. Updated guidelines for use are available in the group description

Pop up Pizza night: Thanks to Kath Sheehan for organising another successful social event and to Sue & Keith Giles for hosting it at their home around their fabulous fire pits! Helen even showed off her hidden talent by linking all 9 of the baby photos to the right member!

Easter egg and Bailey's Club tradition on Easter Sat. This has become a loved Easter tradition at Doddi's beach and future purchases of the easter eggs and Baileys will be reimbursed/ purchased by the Club

Inspector of turns (IOT) and Judge of strokes (JOS) courses: MSWA ran these courses to encourage more people to become technical swim officials in these areas and ultimately help out at pool events. Maz, Suszanne & Liz attended - they have a few more hurdles to jump to get their competencies, but they will hopefully be fully fledged officials in these areas prior to the Nationals being held in WA next year (see the MSWA website link below for further details of this event)

Maz as Club delegated timekeeper: The Committee fully supported Club member Maz in this position - she has had timekeeping experience in Tasmania and is currently working towards Chief Timekeeper accreditation as an MSWA official - well done Maz!

Club Captain: We welcomed Karen Boyce to the Committee as Club Captain

Mandurah's Act, Belong, Commit Club Challenge (ABCCC) Carnival: Please mark 1st November 2026 in your Calendar as we hope to have lots of Mandurah Masters swimmers competing. Events will be swum over 100m, 50m and 25m in all four strokes (and individual medley over 100m).

6 month membership option: Masters Swimming Australia (MSA) has just introduced this as an option to purchase for Masters Swimming Clubs (available from June). This for purchase, along with our other membership options, via the Swim Central Website

If your keen on improving your swimming, check out the following:

Masters Swimming WA - it has lots to offer for poolies and open water swimmers alike, no matter what your swimming capabilities are. It even has member event challenges that run throughout the whole year.... Masters Swimming WA (MSWA) website

Swimming WA: Open Water Swimming (OWS) Series - Australia's largest open water event series. With 9 events spanning from Sept - March ranging from 500m - 10km.

Fun swimming fact!

Swimming is an incredible full-body workout that engages almost every muscle group. Because water supports the body, it takes the pressure off your joints—but it can still burn 30% to 40% more calories per hour than running or biking.

To finish; 9 year old Steve came rushing in to see his grandmother and asked “ grandma, what is it called when two people sleep in the same room on top of each other?” Gran sheepishly responded “its called sexual relations” Steve rushed outside, then returned 5 minutes later. “ Gran, you are wrong, its bunk beds! And Paul’s mum is coming over to see you!!

On that note, please let any of the committee members know if you’d like anything included in the presidents Prattle -eg; swimming achievements, good news stories, favourite pre event recipes, funny things that have happened at swimming etc; or email: mandurahmannas@gmail.com

Bill Whalley

President