A COVID-19 NOTE

We are committed to the health and safety of our Staff, Members and Guests and continue to encourage all who visit to adhere to social distancing of 1.5m between others where possible. Please wear a mask while you order drinks and meals. We support good hand hygiene with hand sanitiser readily available throughout the club, entry & capacity restrictions, re-arrangement of our tables/chairs within dining and lounge areas and regular cleaning of high-touch areas. A full list of safety precautions is outlined in an approved Industry COVID Safe Plan, which is on display and available at the Club Reception. We thank you for your continued support and patronage.

The Surf Club Ocean Grove team look forward to seeing you around the Club soon.

Keep up to date with the OGSLSC COVID changes.

This was carried at the next Annual general Meeting. The following year, Bob Millett and Noel Emselle were awarded life membership for their long service to the club.

Alf Barnshaw succeeded Claude as president for two years followed in 1965 by Bob Millett who was to remain in the post until 1970.

During the early to mid sixties much effort had gone into the Herald Learn to Swim campaign where club members donated their time to teach young children to swim. This was done in the Barwon river. However this concept took a step further in January, 1969 with the introduction of the “Little Nippers” to the Ocean Grove SLSC. Under the leadership of Bob Millett and Ian McConnell a total of 41 nippers joined the club, of whom 24 gained their appropriate award.

A highlight in the 1971/72 season was Victoria’s first interstate nipper competition with Ocean Grove hosting and accommodating two teams from South Australia to compete against other Bellarine clubs and Portland.

Ocean Grove continued its efforts as a boat club with some successes at carnivals and many keen boaties, at one stage having four crews. Notable personalities of the sixties include Barry ‘Ribs’ Renton, Arthur Williamson, Ken and Perry Leach, Bruce McGeorge, the McPherson boys and Keith ‘Hook’ Norris. The club was deeply shaken by the death of John Bishop in a level crossing crash in December 1965. John had been a club stalwart and he is remembered each year by the awarding of the John Bishop Memorial Best Clubman Award, the most prized of the all the club’s awards.

The decade finished with the 1970 Australian Surf Life Saving Championships at the Ocean Grove beach. As usual the event was meticulously planned by Bob Millett but the perfect weather in the preceding week left everyone unprepared for the severity of the change on the weekend. The appalling conditions required a change of venue for some events and to this day at almost every surf club over Australia, if you mention the name Ocean Grove, somebody will be only too willing to tell you about the day it “snowed” at the Aussies. The carnival would have been a financial disaster were it not for the energy of Bob who pursued a reluctant insurance company until they paid out on their bad weather policy.

Later in the year tragedy struck Ocean Grove for the second time when Barry ‘Ribs’ Renton was killed in a car crash. Barry was one of those people who lived for the club and whose input into the club was immeasurable. His ashes were scattered over the Ocean Grove ‘Bommi’ in one of the largest gatherings of surf boats ever seen at the Grove. A perpetual trophy named in his honour is presented yearly to the best competitor, not necessarily the most successful, but someone whose philosophy matched that of Barry.

The number of active members in 1969/70 was 87. Notable members of the late sixties and early seventies include Daryl Barnett, Hugh Strahan, Dick Bedford, Stuart Dickson, Fred Leiper, Dave Renton, Albert ‘Dody’ Dodman, Norm Dickens, Ray Johnson and Ian ‘Doc’ McConnell.