Surfing fun for all

By Caitlin Sloan

This is the heart-warming tale of a chance meeting, an unbreakable friendship and a fantastic initiative to open up a world of surfing fun to those who may not otherwise have the opportunity.

Growing up as a nipper in the Bulli Surf Life Saving Club, and later joining Towradgi SLSC, Ian Picton remembers always cherishing the surf, though he never considered the beach to be a potential workplace until a friend told him about a job advertisement for lifeguards in Wollongong.

From 1985 until 2005, Ian patrolled at all 17 of Wollongong City Council’s beaches, spending his last 10 years of service supervising the stretch of coast between Stanwell Park and Bulli.

In 1993, while he was on the job at Bulli Beach, Ian had a friendly encounter with a Windang local and double amputee, Len Snowden, that changed the course of his life.

“I rocked up there to start my shift and I didn’t know [about] anything that was happening, I didn’t know that there was an event booked in,” Ian said.“I was just down the beach and got a tap on the shoulder, and it was Lenny.”

Lenny, a former train driver at the BlueScope steelworks in Port Kembla, was involved in a workplace accident in December 1992, which resulted in the loss of 98 per cent of his right arm and all of his right leg and hip.

In 1993, after spotting an ad in the local paper for a surfing day for people with disabilities, Lenny – who’d had no interest in the sport prior to his accident – couldn’t see a reason to pass it up. In