Bellambi patrol behind Pride Boards

In March 2021, during a quiet, drizzly afternoon patrol, a team of Bellambi Surf Life Saving Club volunteers were brainstorming ways to counter dwindling membership numbers by engaging more of the community with surf lifesaving.

Then, they had it. Patrol team member Dion Dissanayake had recently joined Lifesavers with Pride, an alliance of same-sex attracted and gender diverse lifesavers with more than 1000 members across Australia. The team agreed that building a more visibly inclusive, safe and accepting space in the surf lifesaving community could encourage more people to volunteer their time.

It was on that same patrol – which also included Samantha Phillips, Mitchell Howard and Alice O’Toole – that they coined the term ‘Pride Board’. Shortly after that, patrol team member Matt Theris, Bellambi SLSC's deputy president, mocked up the first sketches of their idea.

“Dion and Alice were both on that patrol, and they identify as queer, and they were like, ‘There's so many people in the community that don't have safe spaces in some community organisations',” Matt said.

“We just, kind of, identified at a very quick and a higher level, why don't we do something targeted at this community to show that everything [here] is inclusive?

“They both obviously were very safe and felt at home on our patrol, and we just went, 'How about we do or try and incorporate some of the [LGBTQIA+] colour schemes onto some rescue equipment?', and that's where we started.

“[From] those very early and embarrassing designs, we basically started the Pride Board idea from day one.”

Almost two years after that first brainstorming session, Surf Life Saving Australia officially launched the Pride Board at a media event at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, February 7, with Matt and Dion in attendance. The launch comes as Sydney prepares to celebrate WorldPride 2023. The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras begins on February 17, kicking off with Lifesavers with Pride’s annual Rainbow Beaches Day.

The process of developing the boards was neither quick nor easy, with Matt and Dion trialling several designs that had to comply with Surf Life Saving Australia colour and placement requirements. They also collaborated with Lifesavers with Pride for their assessment of the design and liaised with approved local board manufacturers to discuss production feasibility over the course of more than 18 months – all in addition to their full-time jobs and volunteer responsibilities.

The team spent some time searching for a suitable board manufacturer and eventually found the Sutherland Shire's Infront Surfcraft, who jumped onboard the project “instantly".

“I was just very keen to take up the opportunity to do it, [and] I knew we could do it,” Infront Surfcraft owner and director Mark Simpson said.

“I was already a follower of Lifesavers with Pride [as] I've got a few mates that are heavily involved in that group.”

Matt remembers the feeling of seeing photos of the first Pride Board to be manufactured.

“[Mark] actually texts them to me personally, and I was just like, ‘Wow, that is awesome', and, sure enough, about a month after that, the [expressions of interest] started going out,” he said.

Now, more than 130 boards have been sent to surf lifesaving clubs across the country and one to the United Kingdom, with more expected to follow by the end of Sydney WorldPride. Neither Matt nor Mark anticipated the reception they have already received.

“I never expected that it was gonna be a nationwide, big thing that was going to be backed by [Surf Life Saving Australia]. I thought that it was just going to be a little thing where, you know, we put some boards throughout Sydney, maybe the South Coast,” Mark said.

“We're obviously very proud of it [and] stoked that we were able to be a part of it.”

It was only after their official launch at Bondi that Matt realised how much his role in developing the concept, designing the board and bringing the Pride Boards to life has meant to LGBTQIA+ members of the surf lifesaving community.

“It wasn't until the event at Bondi that I realised how big of an achievement it was, because I'd been involved in it for almost two years, I knew about it, I knew the steps and things that we went through, but when people were coming up to me and thanking me and talking to me about it… it only hit me then what we've been able to achieve,” Matt said.

“After the launch… I just kind of chilled out at the surf club for about half an hour before I drove back to work because I had to kind of sit there and recover.

“I was sort of in shock about how much this meant to everyone.

“It proved how worth it the whole journey has been.”

The Bellambi club – which has just two dozen volunteers – hopes that an initiative like the Pride Board will help boost participation numbers at surf clubs around the country. The club's own Pride Board will take to the surf for the first time this Thursday, February 16, with all invited to attend.