Bazza drops a bomb of Olympic proportions during a catch-up with mates at the pub.
"Know All" Ron rubbed his chin.
“I am not saying they were faster swimmers back in the '60s and '70s… I just reckon we held our own better. Take a look at the Olympic medal tallies. The likes of Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose and Shane Gould still dominate the top spots.”
Various nods of agreement and Ron paused to clear his throat.
“You see the average Australian public swimming pool was built in the 1960’s and with our climate and lack of things to do, swimming was huge. Swimming clubs popped up and half my class at school was doing laps come 6.00am most mornings. No wonder we were producing swimming gold medalists at the Olympics in the '60s and '70s.”
Mick took a decent sip.
“By gee, you are across a lot of information, Ron. Why ask Google when we can just ask Ron? You should really think about going on one of those quiz shows.”
“I reckon Ron is only half right with this one.”
An awkward silence as Bazza took a measured sip.
“Going to the local pool was certainly one of the things to do in the '60s and '70s but the real reason we had more gold medalists back then is ‘bombing’.”
Multiple shakes of heads before Mick eyeballed Bazza.
“What are you on about, Bazza? Stay on topic.”
Bazza grinned.
As kids, the key reason to go to the local pool was to ‘bomb’ in the deep end. You had the ‘Buddha’, where you jumped and crossed your legs mid air to create a splash. The ‘Peg Leg’ which required one knee to be held to the chest while entering the water at a precise angle was a speciality bomb.
Now… everybody could master the ‘Cannonball’ where you jumped and curled yourself into a ball. All good fun with the aim to create the biggest splash.
A low whistle from "Timeless" Tom.
Ahhh yes… I remember bombing at the local pool. We had different names for some of those bombs, Bazza. We called one ‘Nutcracker’, which is too painful to describe and another we called the ‘Jesus’ where, after a massive run-up, you tried to run across the pool.
Now… my favourite was the ‘Horsey’… you jumped face down with bent knees, a curled back and palms facing the water. On impact, you straightened out the body to create the splash. If you got the timing wrong it could be pretty painful… in fact, more painful than the ‘Nutcracker’.
"Know All" Ron screwed his eyes.
“I’m confused, Bazza. How does bombing at the local pool translate to Australia winning so many swimming gold medals at the Olympics back in the '60s and '70s.”
Bazza pursed his lips.
I thought it would be obvious, Ron. You see the collateral damage of all this bombing was the serious lap swimmers. In fact, sometimes they were even targeted. It meant they had to swim faster to avoid being bombed.
I reckon the bombers at the pools Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose and Shane Gould trained at must have been world class. They really should be recognised in some kind of ‘Hall of Fame of Pool Bombers’.
Bazza paused for another sip.
“Swimming went downhill in Australia when they banned bombing at local pools.”
John Longhurst is a former industrial advocate and political adviser. He currently works as an English and History teacher on the South Coast of NSW.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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