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Wett Ones - a brief history

Beginnings

1991	First meeting: October 13
1992	Wett Ones name adopted: October 25  ,Affiliated with AUSSI Masters
1993	Chicago IGLA games, 1 Wett One
1994	Gay Games IV New York: 9 represent Wett Ones ,Swimming stumes with club logo introduced
1995	Wett Ones website begins at IGLA ,First Wett Ones Carnival , Team of 6 travel to IGLA 95 in Montreal
1996	Coaches registered (AUSSI Masters) for Coaching Liability Scheme Australian Gaymes 96 in Sydney. Wett Ones host swim meet with Team Sydney
1997	3rd lane hire begun (busy nights only)
1998	Gay Games V Amsterdam , NSW Masters Short Course Championships Unsuccessful bid to host IGLA Meet 2000
1999	B A U
2000	B A U
2001	Glamourhead Sharks registered in Melbourne to prepare a team for the Sydney Gay Games
2002	Gay Games VI Sydney: Wett Ones host the swimming Vanessa Smith elected NSW and Australian Masters Swimming Coach of the year.
2003	Team Aqualicious registered as a gay and lesbian AUSSI Masters swimming club in Brisbane
2004	B A U
2005	B A U
2006	14 WettOnes Swimmers compete at the 1 st Outgames in Montreal  and collect 20 Gold, 5 Silver & 6 bronze Medaillions
2007	New Wett Ones logo and club colours introduced through a membership vote   New swimwear, tshirts and flags are ordered in time for first AsiaPacific Outgames
2008	AsiaPacific Outgames Melbourne: 36 represent Wett Ones
2009	World Outgames Copenhagen: 18 represent Wett Ones   Wett Ones webpage is rebuilt and redesigned
2010	The Club launches its new logo, new website and club ID. Ian Davis, founding member and long serving committee member dies.

B A U = Business as Usual

Announcement 2010 

The Wett Ones sadly announces the sudden passing of Ian Davis.  Ian was a member of Wett Ones for many, many years and contributed to the club in so many ways.  He was a long-serving committee member and a solid, dependable and highly valued team mate.  Not only did he contribute a great deal to our team, but for years he served Masters Swimming on both the national level, and as president of the New South Wales branch.  For this he was recently given a meritorious service award from Masters Swimming Australia.  For the past two years, Ian has been a valued member of Aqualicious (Brisbane) and our hearts go out to them as they deal with this sudden and shocking news.

This comes as a great shock to those who knew Ian as he was young and vibrant, with a wry sense of humour and a quick wit.  Ian will be sorely missed by many.

To read an article about Ian in Q News click on the following link.
Ian Davis

History

Beginnings

 

By Steve Carlin   Wett Ones began in 1991 on the initiative of Bob McInnes. At the time IGLA and Gay Games were organising international petitions, and Team Sydney had clubs for other sports, but Sydney still lacked a gay and lesbian swimming club.  Bob was swimming with Mi Weekes and Lyn Stanley at North Sydney Masters swimming club (Lyn was president and a coach there), and so the three got together at Mi's place to discuss the possibility of starting up a group.  Bob realised that they would have to secure a training pool before they could begin to collect a team, and fortunately Mi was working at Rozelle hospital at the time so they were able to get use of the 25m pool there.  

Bob advertised a public meeting through the gay press, to meet on Sunday 13th October 1991 at the Gay Centre, Chippendale.  The turn-up was surprisingly large, about 30, and so with that support base the first swimming session was organised for the following Tuesday.  The team then swam (twice weekly with Lyn as coach) through the summer, until the Rozelle pool closed for winter.  At a first club meeting on 1st December, it was agreed that the group members should individually join Team Sydney, to have an umbrella organisation.  Training was extended to 3 times weekly.  Several names were proposed for the group, including 'Wet Ones'.  

original club logo

 

No place like home

Training moved to Heffron Park and Auburn (Lidcombe) pools for winter 1992.  The club was doing well, with around 30 regular swimmers, a decent bank balance and a formal membership of 53.  Wett Ones was unofficially taken as a name, and the 'splashy' logo was adopted by the end of the summer season, but the club still lacked official status.  In June they applied for a training slot on Saturdays at Sydney Uni (Noel Martin) pool as the Rozelle Masters.  

The first AGM was held on October 25th, 1992, at which it was decided to affiliate with AUSSI Masters Swimming as Wett Ones (pink cap, blue logo) based in Rozelle.  A constitution proposed by Peter Lindhe was adopted.  Membership for the first full year, 1993, was $40.

Weekday training returned to Rozelle for summer 92-93, but then had to move again to Auburn pool for April.  Summer training moved briefly to Prince Alfred Park in November 93.  The changes in pool venue and time were taking a toll on membership, as participation would drop at each change then slowly rebuild.  

In December 93, Wett Ones made two important changes which increased the club's security: swimming slots were secured at Sydney Uni and Boy Charlton pools, and a coaching fee was agreed of $20 per session to maintain the high coaching standard.  Members paid a $2 session fee. For a short time all training (3 times weekly) was at Boy Charlton (while Noel Martin was re-tiled), but the routine of Tues/Thurs/Sat was established.  For summer, Monday and Saturday swims were included at Boy Charlton.

 

Competition

 

Gay and Lesbian swimming competitions in Sydney pre-date Wett Ones.  Barry Webb from Southern Cross Outdoors Group (SCOG) and the Sydney Gay Sports Association organised the first Mardi Gras Swimming Carnival for February 22nd, 1985.  From the start it was an evening competition, outdoors at Andrew Boy Charlton Pool.  The first carnival was a success, with 300 spectators and 80 competitors, although small compared with future years.  By 1992, the crowd had grown to 1476, with 160 swimmers.  The Mardi Gras carnival continued until Boy Charlton pool closed for rebuilding in 2001.

Although the Mardi Gras carnival was a great success, it was designed as a fun spectator event as much as a swimmers' carnival.  For example, 200m and 400m events were dropped as they were seen as too time-consuming and boring for spectators. Wett Ones wanted a masters-style swim meet, for which another issue was the number of non-registered swimmers.  Consequently, Wett Ones organised their own competition, which came to be held about a week apart from the SCOG carnival, and the first was held on 25th February 1995 at Sydney Uni Pool. 

Another stimulus for forming Wett Ones came from the need to have club status at international G&L meets.  Individual swimmers from Sydney had competed at various international competitions, including the San Francisco and Vancouver Gay Games.  By the 1994 New York Gay Games, Wett Ones were able to organise a touring team of nine.

 

Women's sessions.

 

In April 1995 it was proposed that Wett Ones have a women's training session.  A few different session times were tried, but participation proved too small and the sessions ended in March 1996.

 

E-Club

 

Wett Ones were early starters in websites and e-mail communication, largely through the efforts of Marcus Tate, Bob McInnes' partner and an early Moist One.  Marcus set up a Wett Ones web page well before such things were widely used, and then showed it to IGLA to demonstrate the concept.  They were convinced, and included a Wett Ones page in their website in 1995.  

Another early advance was the compilation of an e-mail registry, at a time when e-mail was still mainly for communication with work colleagues.  A second club website was set up around 1996 by Alexander Susan, who managed it for several years and added new features as they became available, then passed it back to Marcus, who passed it on to Bill Dunk when he left to work in Paris.  

Bill then organised the club e-mail list server, which became the communication hub and appeared in January 2001.  The e-mail server (groups.yahoo.com/wettones) has operated in parallel with the club website (eventually wettones.org) since.  The e-mail server brought in a new phase for the club, as by then most members had e-mail access, and communication across the club became dramatically easier.  Another advantage of the online club was that the newsletter which had been regularly prepared and posted out with great labour and some cost by Wayne Sherson could be replaced by online bulletins.  These were supplemented by co-president Peter McGee's 'Bleatings from the Bunker', succeeded by Megan McLachlan's 'Mew from the Pew'.

Photo for French Geo magazine taken at the Mardi Gras Carnival, 1997

 

A recollection from Lyn Stanley, Jan 04.  

 

Lyn was one of the three club founders and was initially the club's sole coach.  

"[Bob] had a vision as a keen swimmer himself, that the community needed a club that catered for primarily gay swimmers. He then approached Mi and myself to assist as we knew each other from swimming circles. 

Against a backdrop of very noisy planes in Mi's back yard we got together to formulate his plan.  At that time Mi was working at Roselle, I think from memory it was Callan Park Psychiatric (appropriate really as it might have been a nutty idea) who had a pool that was rarely used to its potential and there we started, with me as the coach, the other two as motivators and committee and a small handful of swimmers from various sources and of dubious standards.  We did, however, manage to have a few fasties who encouraged the others.  Bob, Mi and I had met previously at North Sydney AUSSI where I was the President for three years and occasional coach.  I also coached at Lane Cove for Ken Meredith. 

Many a night I looked at that 25m rather murky pool and warned them "Well I wouldn't get in it but I'm happy to coach".  That was about 11 years ago and everyone survived and learnt something (I think).

Well Bob was right --- from those simple beginnings we grew.  We always seemed to have more guys than girls but that hardly mattered. 

As we outgrew Rozelle we were fortunate to have a very sympathetic Pool Super at the University of Sydney, Ray; so with his encouragement we started there.  As fate would have it, he and his wife Joyce transferred to the Gold Coast a few years ago to live just near me.  Joyce passed away but not without me telling her how grateful we were for their support.  We also swam with a sizeable squad at Boy Charlton, so our humble beginnings were beginning to be a dim memory and, as the club grew, so did the committee. 

I always made it clear that if I was approached on pool deck about the club I would always state that it catered primarily for the gay community but as a coach I would not be party to any form of discrimination towards other swimmers. 

During the time I coached I had this theory that exercise and lifestyle contributed to the wellbeing of those who were HIV positive and, to my knowledge, in my time we never lost anyone.  I always thought this would make an interesting study. 

In the true spirit of AUSSI we, at that time, catered for swimmers of most standards providing they could swim around 100 metres.  This might have contributed to the Committee feeling they should become affiliated.  At the time of my leaving we were becoming more competitive and more people were showing an interest in coaching.  We took quite a large team to the Gay games in New York.  The club was on a roll."

Lyn moved to the Gold Coast and coached the Miami Masters club there for four years.

 At Boy Charlton Pool, Photo by Cath Rogers

 

Co-president's summary 2001/2/3,4,5,6,7,8,9

 

"During the period I was co-chair (2001/2/3), I saw an enormous change in the way the club functioned. We appeared to develop a maturity that was evidenced by free contribution of ideas, the support from various people for different activities, by volunteering to raise money, and assist with specific tasks, leading to an overall sense of commitment to the club. We expanded our activities in water, such as by encouraging ocean swimming and supporting aerobic swims. The club also supported the formation of L & G diving and water polo teams. The club saw several members train to become coaches (see below), officials in Masters Swimming, and the many participants in carnivals included people who never think of themselves as talented or competitive.

The 10th birthday celebration (AGM 2001) was an acknowledgement of our maturity as a club and recognition of the progress L & G swimming had attained over the years in Sydney. We confirmed the importance to support G & L people, whatever their abilities, to swim and encourage others to attain their personal goals. These developments indicate that the contribution by members goes way beyond basic train and swim activities. It also indicates the enormous potential within the club."

 

Committees

 

	2007	2008	2009
Female Co-president	Megan McLachlan	Megan McLachlan
Male Co-president	Matthew Besanko	Matthew Besanko	Matthew Besanko
Secretary	Martina Eyre	Martina Eyre	Haydn Wood
Treasurer	Viktor Desovski	Viktor Desovski	Stephen Kearney
Registrar	Ian Davis	Viktor Desovski	Vassili Efimov
Race Secretary	Ian Davis	Ian Davis	Vassili Efimov
Social Secretary	Gordon Turnbull	Gordon Turnbull	Kerry Dickson
Public Relations Officer	Cecily Black	Cecily Black	Cecily Black
Safety Officer	Tracey Clay	Elizabeth Evatt	Elizabeth Evatt
Female Swimmers Rep	Jo McGuiness	Jo McGuiness	Catherine Rogers
Male Swimmers Rep	Peter McGee	Pascal Blanquer	Pascal Blanquer
Non-portfolio			Ryan Bennett
	2005	2006
Co-president	Wayne Brown	Matt Besanko & Megan Mc Lachlan
Secretary	Martina Eyre	Martina Eyre
Treasurer	Victor Desovski	Victor Desovski
Social Secretay	Cecile Black	Cecile Black
Registrar	Ian Davis	Ian Davis
Schwimmers Reps	Megan Mc lachlan & Peter Mc Gee	Jo Mc Ginnes & Peter Mc Gee
Safety Officer	Rachel Barton	Tracey Clay
PR & Fundraising	Cecile Black	Cecile Black
	2004	2003	2002
Male Co-president	Steve Summerhayes	Peter McGee	Peter McGee
Female Co-president	Megan McLachlan	Megan McLachlan	Vanessa Smith
Secretary/Registrar	Wayne Brown	Ian Davis	Ian Davis
Treasurer	Peter Moxham	Peter Moxham	Greg Elvy
Social Secretary	Cecily Black	Cecily Black	Danny Crowe
Female Swimmers Rep	Belinda Hurdis	Belinda Hurdis	Tracey Clay
Male Swimmers Rep	John Holmes	Steve Summerhayes	Paul Nicholson
Safety Officer	Cath Murphy
Coaches Rep	Vanessa Smith	Vanessa Smith
Race Secretary	Ian Davis	Danny Crowe	Vanessa Smith
Publicity Officer	Clive Miller		Wayne Sherson

	2001	2000	1999
Male Co-president	Peter McGee		Jamie Cole Vassili Efimov
Female Co-president	Vanessa Smith		Tracey Clay
Secretary/Registrar	Ian Davis		Vanessa Smith
Treasurer	Daniel Beltrami		Bob McInnes
Social Secretary	Greg Elvy		Sean Coulson
Female Swimmers Rep	Tracey Clay.		Cath Rogers
Male Swimmers Rep	Paul Nicholson		Shane Hurley
Safety Officer
Coaches Rep			Trisha Daly
Race Secretary	Vanessa Smith		Frank Marcus Vassili Efimov
Publicity Officer	Wayne Sherson		Wayne Sherson

 

	1998	1997	1996
Male Co-president	Jamie Cole	Jamie Cole	David McGrath
Female Co-president	Vanessa Smith	Vanessa Smith	Vanessa Smith
Vice President	David McGrath	Jamie Cole Kathryn Hudson
Secretary/Registrar	Bob McInnes	Bob McInnes
Treasurer	Paul Nicholson	Ian Kavanagh	Ian Kavanagh
Social Secretary	Ray Person	John Campbell Paulo Chung Colin Harris	John Campbell Paulo Chung
Female Swimmers Rep	Cath Rogers	Cath Rogers	Cath Rogers
Male Swimmers Rep	Graham Dann	Nigel Sutton	Nigel Sutton
Safety Officer
Coaches Rep	Bob McInnes	Trisha Daly	Trisha Daly
Race Secretary	Ian Kavanagh	Alex Susan	Reg Neville-Jackson Alex Susan
Social secretary/publicity	Shane Hurley Wayne Sherson	Colin Harris

 

	1995	1994	1993
Male Co-president	Bob McInnes	Bob McInnes	Bob McInnes
Female Co-president	Janet Bolton	Katy Try
Vice President	Tracey Goodhew Peter Lindhe
Secretary/Registrar	Jamie Cole Nigel Sutton	Jamie Cole Nigel Sutton	Mi Weekes
Treasurer	Reg Neville-Jackson	Reg Neville-Jackson	Reg Neville-Jackson
Social Secretary	Peter McGee	Martin Kehoe
Female Swimmers Rep	Cath Rogers	Cath Rogers	Cath Rogers
Male Swimmers Rep	Basil Catsaros	Dave Norrie
Safety Officer
Coaches Rep	Mi Weekes	Lyn Stanley
Race Secretary	Jason Clarke	Jason Clarke
Publicity Officer	Katy Try Rod Sparkes