Ian Sakoff had been club captain at Thirroul, on the coast south of Sydney, and thought he knew the town. Then he volunteered with Meals on Wheels and met the other Thirroul: people who had the beach at the end of the street and nobody to walk it with, people marking the week by the one visit that was not this Friday but the Friday after. So he started a Thursday group at the clubhouse. It is part of Silver Salties, a program Surf Life Saving Australia runs for people over sixty five at clubs around the country, and the shape of it is deliberately gentle: a walk along the sand to the next beach for those who want the distance, the promenade for those who want the company, a swim if the water looks kind, and then coffee and the papers on the veranda. No surf experience is needed and at most clubs it costs nothing. Thirroul's group began with a handful and now has thirty on the books and twenty turning up every week. Nationally more than three thousand people have joined, most of whom never belonged to a surf club in their lives.
The ones who did are the best part. Col Bruton, a former marathon surf ski paddler and a life member, was eighty nine when the Illawarra Flame visited; he sketches portraits of the group and writes its newsletter, the Silver Salties Sentinel. Two other life members, Allan Hutton and Hagen Kreusser, had drifted away from the club for years and walked back in through this door the week they both turned seventy. That is the quiet transformation the program is built for. The surf club that once needed your strength turns out to need your company, your stories and your Thursday mornings, and a place you thought you had finished with becomes somewhere you are expected. The new lifesaving season begins across the country at the end of September, and most clubs restart their Salties groups with it. If you are sixty five and curious, the clubhouse veranda is open.
Questions you might have
Do I need to be a swimmer?
No. Many groups are walking and coffee groups first and swimming groups second. Each club shapes its own, so the simplest thing is to ask at the clubhouse.
What does it cost?
At most clubs nothing, or a small club membership. There is no surf lifesaving test and no uniform; the red and yellow caps are optional.
What if my local club does not run one?
Ask them to. Silver Salties is a national program and Surf Life Saving Australia helps clubs start a group. Thirroul's began with one person who noticed who was missing.
Our short take: the Thirroul group was reported by Genevieve Swart for the Illawarra Flame, 9 June 2023. Program figures from Surf Life Saving Australia, 2026. Photograph: Unsplash.
