Author: hayden

on the 17th of December the club held our AGM cross Christmas party at our local haunt, the Sir Charles Hotham Hotel. Firstly apologies for not having any photos from the night, I was too busy just enjoying talking to people face to face!

I would like to thank the 2020-21 committee for all of their work in keeping the club running during these trying times, and welcome our new committee for the 21-22 season. The committee consists of:

Core Positions
President	Hayden
Vice President	Gerard
Secretary	Russell
Treasurer	Pete
Additional Committee members
	Daniel
	Louis
	Trent
	Luke Bellamy
	Campbell Allen-Greg

I would also like to congratulate our competition winners:

Club Spearfishing Championship
1st: Nam Luong
2nd: Richard Just
3rd: Gerard Saunders

Species Showdown – Squid
1st: Malcolm Murphy
2nd: Gerard Saunders
3rd: Daniel Madden

And finally we finished the night with a species quiz to end all species quizzes which Daniel took the prize.

Dont forget tonight is our AGM and Christmas Party. There will be food and drinks, prizes and fun times. We will be in the front bar at the Sir Charles Hotham Hotel and starting at 7pm

We will be running a safety induction this coming Monday the 6th of Dec. It’s mandatory for anyone attending pool training to have completed a safety induction first. Due to coaches availability we will only be offering Safety Inductions bi-monthly so best to get in quick! Sign up is done via the members page at: https://geelongfreedivers.org.au/pool-training/

Geelong Freedivers will be holding out annual general meeting and Christmas party on the 17th of Dec at the Sir Charles Hotham Hotel’s front bar area at 7pm. As usual there will be prizes to be awarded for the previous seasons competitions, door prizes, finger food and great company.

All committee positions need to be nominated and voted in for the new season so if you want to be more involved in the running of the club then now is the time to do it.

After so long in lock downs and not being able to gather as a group I am very excited to see you all!

Due to easing restrictions and by popular demand pool training is back on!

Safety inductions are required for new people.

Sign up at https://geelongfreedivers.org.au/pool-training/

When: Monday nights at 6:30 (rock up early so we can hit the pool on time)

With some of us still in lockdown and capacity limits on venues we have decided to make tonights meeting virtual. Club meetings are open to the general public so feel free to drop in and say hello.

Time: 6:30pm
Location: Zoom

Next safety induction will be held on the 31st of May starting at 6:30. It is a requirement to complete this before you can attend pool training. Sign up via the website at https://geelongfreedivers.org.au/pool-training/ and you can also preview the induction materials at https://geelongfreedivers.org.au/safety-induction/

Pool training is starting up on Monday with everyone being run through the safety induction again. If you have already done one then you would have been inducted by one of our ocean snorkelling coaches or a more senior member of the club. This time however we have a real professional who has volunteered to do this for us as well as review our induction materials. So a BIG thanks to Matt for doing this.

For those of you who don’t know Matt he is a certified freediving instructor who…. well I’ll let Matt speak for himself…

“I discovered freediving on a surfing trip to Indonesia in 2015. I really enjoyed freediving right from the beginning and did the ssi level 1 & 2 courses back to back. It was the next year that my obsession for freediving started to grow substantially. In 2016 did a master course and a level 3 course in Koh Tao. From this point my life very quickly started to become just all about freediving. I had found my passion! A couple of years later I had some good instructing experience under my belt and had done a pb dive of 81m in competition at the end of 2018. In the year leading up to covid(2019), I had further increased my instructing and diving skills. Plus I did an Australian National record dive to 81m with bifins.” – Matt Anderson

So be sure to take advantage of this opportunity and book in now

Good news – we’ll be restarting the pool training sessions. All details below, hope to see you all! You must be a member of Geelong Freedivers to attend.

When: Every Monday, 7pm. Starting on February 1st

Where: Geelong Aquatic Centre (https://g.page/GeelongAquaticCentre?share)

How to join: Please book here: https://geelongfreedivers.org.au/pool-training/

Why: Pool training is mainly about improving your freediving technique – breath hold, finning, relaxation. It’s a great way to improve your skills – whether for freediving or spearfishing – and hangout with your amazing club colleagues

Note: We normally require everyone coming in for the first time to do a safety induction. But since we haven’t had the sessions in over a year, we’ll be doing a safety induction for everyone this first session. Probably a shorter refresher for old members and a full session for new ones. Many thanks to everyone who put their hand up to help!

Happy new year fellow spearos! In the closing moments of 2020 GFD held our AGM/Xmas party.

I would to thank our sponsors, your continued support of the club is greatly appreciated and allows us to run such a variety of events. Thanks to:
Geelong Dive Centre
Ninepin Wetsuits
Continuum fins
Ironbark Logistics
Sir Charles Hotham Hotel

I would like to thank our committee members for the 2019/20 season for all your hard work in keeping the club running:
President: Hayden McFadyen
Vice President: Gerard Saunders
Secretary: Russell O’Flynn
Treasurer: Peter Field
Membership Secretary: Russell O’Flynn
Safety and training officer: Danny Hurst
Weighmaster: Julian Kenny
Events coordinator: Richard Just
VSC liaison: Nam Luong

For the new season we decided to take a more relaxed approach to the committee and have the positions required by government and then to have just generic “committee member” positions. And so I would like to welcome our new committee for the 2020/21 season. The new committee consists of:
President: Hayden McFadyen
Vice President: Gerard Saunders
Secretary: Russell O’Flynn
Treasurer: Peter Field
VSC liaison: Nam Luong
Committee Member: Catherine Birch
Committee Member: Louis Attard
Committee Member: Richard Just
Committee Member: Ivan Galic

Its great to see some of our newer members step up, having members willing to work on the committee will ensure the longevity of the club.

Whilst we had cancelled our competition series due to COVID there was still plenty of swag up for grabs. Apologies, in the excitement of actually seeing people again I forgot to take any photos! We had prizes for club records, door prizes and even a fun competition where people made spearguns out of rubber bands and paddle pop sticks.

It was a great night and so good to see so many of you after so long. I’m looking forward to the new season and all its challenges and getting in the water with you all!

Regards
Hayden McFadyen
President Geelong Freedivers