Inspiring story from renowned Australian journalist, John Pilger…
“…Most days, growing up, I would walk down a steep hill past blocks of Aussie Gothic with stairwells that stank of cabbage and beer and dogs, through crooked alleyways of fresh tar turned to putty in the heat and rusted iron fences, beyond which were “Bondi semis”, faithful copies of the back-to-backs of northern England.
The comparison stopped there. Nowhere else was the reflected light so bright it hurt, leaving the eyes with a permanent squint. Nowhere else was the air laced with such an intoxicating smell, which came with the salt spray of the South Pacific, the greatest ocean on earth.
I am an inveterate swimmer. I learned to swim when I was very young. In flaming sunrises or hard rain, Reg Clark, a courtly, few-words Iceberger (an Iceberger swam in all seasons) taught me to swim through the white water of 30-foot waves as they broke over Bondi’s ocean baths. “Reach out, reach out,” he would say, as he paced me along the barnacled wall, impervious to each great fist of water. The stroke was freestyle, or crawl as it is known in England; breaststroke was considered, well, sissy. And when Reg said I was ready to race, he arranged for a number to be pinned on me and for the ocean to calm down.
…Same idea as Amazon, simply click on Swimshop logo on the right hand side. Buy some stuff and your club earns a small commission. In case you haven’t come across Swimshop before, here’s a brief bio;
“…Swim Shop have a fantastic range of Swimwear and Swimming Accessories designed to meet the requirements of the Swimmer, Coach, Water Polo Player or Triathlete. The range includes products selected from many Leading International Brands such as Speedo, Nike & Adidas.
They import products from all over the world and this enables them to offer many new and innovative products. Thanks to their buying power you will find substantial savings and discounts on many items.
They hold high stocks of all products, and all orders will be despatched promptly and accurately from their computerised sales and distribution centre at Luton. Their friendly and highly trained sales staff are pleased to offer advice and guidance for product selection or any enquiry you may have…”
Thanks for your support and happy shopping!
Looking for a pain free way to support your club? here’s an idea.
We’ve signed up with Amazon , you might have seen a little amazon box appear on the bottom right of the website.
Well here is how it works;
1. go to the ALSC website and put the product name you want to buy in the Amazon search box
2. go crazy, buy lots of stuff and hit the checkout button….!
3. when your order ships, ALSC earns a small commission at no extra cost to yourself.
In the words of a famous supermarket, every little helps..
Like a good habit its takes a while to get used to so please ask your friends, family, colleagues, anyone you can think of to use our site and buy from Amazon. Likewise, if you can think of other useful partner programmes please let us know.
We plan to set up a similar deal with a swim company in the near future, so please check back soon
From Mail Online:
It holds a staggering 7,500 tonnes of water – roughly equal to three Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Eighty species live in the Kuroshio Sea tank, including yellow-fin tuna, bonito (a type of large mackerel) and manta rays.
But the daddy of them all is the world’s biggest fish, the whale shark – which can grow to be 12 metres long and needs a quarter of a tonne of food every week.
Only three aquariums in the world have tanks large enough to house these giant creatures.
The four whale sharks at Churaumi move around comfortably – swimming diagonally past each other and feeding with their long tails touching the plethora of colourful corals at the bottom of the tank.
Rather than hand-pick fish from around the world and force them to mix in unfamiliar waters, the emphasis in the Kuroshio Sea tank is placed on local sea life.
All the species housed here can be found thriving around Okinawa – and even the water itself is pumped in from 300 metres offshore
Song is Please don’t go by Barcelona.
Welcome to the team’s new website…!
The plan is to update content on a regular basis. We want to make sure it becomes a living, breathing website that reflects the pure energy and talent in our club. Like a shark it needs to keep moving….or else.
It’s designed so all your comments and opinions can be heard and shared…
Please take a few minutes to work your way around the new site and hit the subscribe section . Avoid the hassle of having to check the site for new content, we’ll simply let you know when changes occur…!
We’ve also added features like recent posts, new stories at a glance just in case you’ve been away for a while.
When not reporting on the heroics of our young swimmers in the pool we’ll add updates about ATA (All Things Aquatic).
Please tell your friends about our kids swim lessons. They are a vital element in bringing fresh talent into our club, providing the next generation of top class Aer Lingus swimmers.
Who’s your favourite swimmer? let us know and we might include them in Pool Stars. This month we focus on Australian legend Libby Trickett.
Well that’s it for now…but we have plans to add more features over the coming weeks and months, watch this space…..