Omanu Beach Surf Lifesaving Club remembered Lester Phelps and Sid Salek with a paddle-out on Thursday. Photo / Jamie Troughton, Dscribe Media Services
Omanu Beach Surf Lifesaving Club remembered Lester Phelps and Sid Salek with a paddle-out on Thursday. Photo / Jamie Troughton, Dscribe Media Services
What was a twist in the current turned into the perfect send-off for two top blokes from the Omanu Beach Surf Life Saving Club this week.
Clubbies young and old ventured into the ocean to say their last goodbyes to the late Lester Phelps and Sid Salek with a traditional"paddle-out" on Thursday when their circular shape started to form a love heart.
It was fitting for two men who arguably had no greater love than the one for the ocean or for their club.
A heart shape was formed by the luck of the current. Photo / Jamie Troughton, Dscribe Media Services
Salek, also known as "Super Sid", died earlier this month aged 90, and Phelps died in late December after a short battle with cancer.
It was a proud moment to be a part of for Sid's son, Andy, with clubbies throwing flowers and splashing about after words were shared.
"We discussed it many times before he passed away because that was the way he wanted to be remembered. He spent his life in the ocean."
Swimming, diving, spearfishing, kayaking and ocean swimming were all on Sid's list of hobbies.
Many of Sid Salek's peers would struggle to walk 9.5km, let alone swim the distance through choppy seas, but that's exactly he achieved at age 75 when he took part in the Mōtītī to Mainland Swim Challenge.
Sid Salek at the Omanu Beach Surf Life Saving Club. Photo / File
Salek was in Mount Maunganui for a good 30 years and he had quickly fallen in love with the Omanu Beach Surf Life Saving Club, Andy said.
There is now even an award handed to the most promising youth in his father's name, Andy Salek said.
"I think it speaks to his passion, his enthusiasm, and connection and his joy and inspiration and everything that he lived for really.
"He liked younger people, he didn't like older people. Well, he liked hanging out with younger people because it made him feel alive."
It was his stubbornness that many, including himself, would remember Sid by, he said.
"He was stubborn, not always easy, but passionate, driven.
"His body was a medical experiment and he was always working out how to get the best out of him, like what to do with his diet. He had heart monitors right the way through into his eighties.
Sid Salek aged 75 when pictured after swimming from Mōtītī to Pāpāmoa. Photo / File
Lester Phelps, a life member of the surf lifesaving club, spent many years working with young athletes and also on the club's board.
His son Chris told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend his father's love of the water began way back when he walked a couple of kilometres across his Pāpāmoa farm to go surfing - and it never stopped.
Chris, along with his two siblings Emma and Jared, were involved in surf live saving since they were around 7 years old. He said being able to share their father's passion for the water was "huge".
"From the early days of him pushing us on to waves on surfboards after we had just learnt how to stand up, up until lifeguarding on patrols alongside him, it was something that really pulled us together as a family."
Lester Phelps was always in the sea before his accident in 2005. Photo / File
Chris considers himself lucky to have learnt the lifeguarding skills, as they came into use in 2005 to save Lester after he suffered a spinal injury while surfing at Matakana Island.
Chris and his cousin Issac had to pull his father in to shore after finding him face down in the water. His neck had been damaged in a wave and the pair worked tirelessly to resuscitate him.
A rescue helicopter flew them out and Chris spent 10 weeks in hospital and a spinal unit being told he would never walk again.
"He's a bit of a stubborn bugger ... He made it his mission to prove the doctors wrong. His goal was obviously to be able to be back in the ocean as well."
Traditionally a "paddle-out" was to say goodbye to old club members who had died.
Commotion and laughter filled the ocean as the clubbies paddled back in, catching every wave possible.
Fitting, once again, for the two who would want nothing more than to be joining them.
