Keep chipping away

This is a story about doing something you didn’t realise you were capable of, inspired by someone you respected, and not giving up, even when you were out of your comfort zone and sometimes slightly scared. 

Today I completed the inflatable rescue boat (IRB) driver’s exam at Fremantle Surf Lifesaving club. It’s been an intense effort training for this over the last 5 weekends and getting to this point has also been a bit of a journey across two countries.

I started IRB drivers in New Zealand but ended up moving to Australia before I could finish it. There’s a few differences between countries so over here it was back to the beginning to redo the Bronze Medallion and Crew and wait for the Drivers course to come around at my club. 

Learning to drive an IRB and progressing to doing that in decent-sized surf was never previously on my radar and put me right out of my comfort zone. But a 22-year old intensive care nurse who taught me first aid for my bronze medallion and tapped a few of us on the shoulder to do crew then drivers back in NZ was the inspiration. 

If Gabe thought I could do it I’d give it a go. I was in awe of his unflappability at his age and I wrote more about how he inspired us to push through the initial fear in a previous post: https://lnkd.in/gCHuZSa5

Through learning by doing we became confident driving in what previously seemed like daunting-sized surf, and even started to enjoy it!

Fast forward 2.5 years and I was a bit rusty but wanted to finish off what I started. Here we’ve had a pretty intense 5 weeks of training every weekend morning, in a range of weather and surf conditions. In Western Australia you also need to complete your Skipper’s ticket to drive an IRB so there has been a fair amount to fit in over the last few weeks. 

The group at Fremantle has been a mix of mature and younger clubbies and led by a group of passionate trainers who race rescue boats during the winter. 

The commitment, camaraderie and support in the group has been awesome and while it’s been a significant time commitment, it’s been great spending so much time at the club and just feeling connected to the wider community there. 

One of my favourite moments of the training was explaining to a group of fascinated young kids what the boats were for and what we were doing while we were washing down the boats after training one day. They were about to start nippers so hopefully I’ve given them inspiration too.

When I moved here, I just really wanted to finish what I’d started and be able to do more things on our volunteer patrols. It feels like a milestone to get to this point.

So whatever you’re focusing your efforts on, keep chipping away, and don’t give up. The journey might take unexpected turns with curveballs but you can get there in the end.

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