Symbolic move to launch swim program in Cronulla
Sixteen years after the infamous Cronulla race riots, a new learn to swim program targeted at teaching surf safety to men from diverse communities launched at North Cronulla Beach.
Omar Mahmoud and Feroz Sattar formed Swim Brothers in 2019 after a group of men from a mosque in western Sydney embarked on a father-son camping weekend near Forster that saw some of the group swept out to sea after wading into a rip. Luckily, two off-duty lifesavers saved them.
Swim Brothers has partnered with Surf Life Saving NSW to teach water and surf safety to men from diverse backgrounds at North Cronulla Beach. Credit:Edwina Pickles
After hearing the story, Mr Mahmoud and Mr Sattar created Swim Brothers to help mitigate the significant cultural and linguistic barriers to learning beach and water safety in Australia.
On Sunday, members put two weeks of training at Auburn Pool into action as they hit North Cronulla Beach to learn from Sutherland Shire Council lifeguards and Surf Life Saving NSW trainers.
“There’s so much symbolism behind why we chose Cronulla to launch this weekend, many of our participants had not returned to the shire since the Australia Day riots in 2005,” Mr Sattar said.
“To have the head lifeguards come down, shake our members’ hands and teach them all about beach safety and how to spot a rip was really important not only for their surf literacy but an important demonstration they’re welcome to use the beach”.
According to the NSW 2020 Coastal Safety Report, men made up 88 per cent of people who drowned during the 2019/2020 season. Over the past week, four men have drowned in NSW.
The Swim Brothers program has two main goals; to be the driving force of water safety for men, and to create generational change in attitudes towards the beach in multicultural communities.
Surf Life Saving NSW’s community education manager Mike Anderson says programs like this are instrumental in avoiding drownings. He said “men are very over represented in drowning statistics” and the Swim Brothers program will “help bridge this gap”.
Swim Brothers participants from Lakemba; (Left to right) father and son Syed and Abdullah Mahmud with friend Shaykh Abdul Karim. Credit:Edwina Pickles
The program was inspired by the successful Swim Sisters group which partnered with the Garie Surf Life Saving Club in southern Sydney to assist women to achieve their bronze medallions and become surf lifesavers.
Surf Brothers has proven especially successful with Islamic men, many of whom have long shied away from traditional learn to swim programs because they are not gender segregated.
“One of the barriers [for Islamic Australians] involves the separation of men and women when their being together is not required in a professional or emergency capacity. This has been the case in Islamic tradition as a way to preserve the modesty of the two sexes,” Swim Brothers participant Abdullah Syed said.
Mr Syed said Islamic people often avoid the beach because it requires socialising of women and men, creating poor swimming skills and inadequate knowledge of beach and surf safety in emergencies. “Swim Brothers recognises these cultural sensitivities for migrants and Islamic people and facilitates for these communities,” he said.
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Amelia McGuire is a producer at The Sydney Morning Herald.