Duke's Day at Freshwater Beach, Sydney

We're enjoying our weekends this summer with the warm weather. It was forecast to reach 39C in Sydney today after another warm night. I woke my family early at 7am to head out to one of our local beaches before it got too crowded. Little did we know that it was already crowded when we arrived as it was Duke's Day at Freshwater today. According the to Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club website, Duke's Day is a day to "honour and revere the father of surfing in Australia Duke Kahanamoku". It is also a day to raise awareness about the our coastal environment and how to look after it so that all can live in harmony and enjoy.

There were a number of different events held at the beach as well as the surf club to attract everyone - Testosterone Free Zone Surfing (strictly for females only), Tandem Surfing Tips and Demonstration by two couples (one was a 10 y.o. girl with her Dad), Vintage Classic Cars and Combi Vans display. There was also a sausage sizzle and a two stalls promoting coastal care.

We watched the ladies and young girls (youngest was 9 y.o) surfers and were impressed by their skills. It is not easy to surf, balance, walk the board etc but they did it well, despite getting dunk a few times. The next event really impressed all on the beach - tandem surfing. I have never seen this before but the two couples were awesome. One of the couple - Simon and Nicole - were more experienced. Simon was also very strong, he made it so easy to pick up Nicole, lift her high and Nicole was graceful in her moves.

Pair of Tandem Surfers

Apologies for the quality of photos, I only had my iPhone with me.