History of the Club
The idea of a surf club at Kawana was first raised when the Kawana Apex Club was looking for a service project in 1980. Several tragic drownings had occurred in the area and when it was discovered that 6 or so Apexians held Bronze Medallions and had been in surf clubs before, a common goal was forged and on 12.9.80 the club was formed.
Many years of hard work followed with a patrol shed (built by volunteer labour and bricks collected from building sites in the area, with permission of course), and then a club house (built through a loan from the Commonwealth Bank at Kawana) being opened on 21.11.82. It was a remarkable achievement and the club grew in strength, and by the 10th anniversary, had repaid the original loan of $99,000 (with 10 personal guarantors of the loan heaving a sigh of relief).
Since then, several small additions (boat shed, radio room, BBQ area etc) were added with membership levels growing and falling over the years. The last big extension to the club (new kitchen, training room and outdoor area), done in 1996, saw a big growth in our Supporters Club as well as our Surf Club. We have done a refurbishment (including a new craft shed), put in a new bar, and changed the position of the gaming room, and are looking forward to the next extension / renovation of the Supporters Club area. Our growth seems to go in cycles and over the last few years, have maintained over 160 active patrolling members, and well over 100 nippers and over 2000 supporters.
Kawana Waters has had many successes in competition over the years, producing several State Champions in boats, beach, IRB and more recently, Ironman and other open carnival events. Our competitive profile was lifted with the addition of Zane Holmes and his family to our club, and we regularly achieved top 10 in State and National titles, and went on to win the World Titles held in Lorne, Australia in 2006. Although Zane has moved back to the Gold Coast to further his business career, we still boast champions amongst our ranks, including some talented Masters and some young guys coming up through the ranks.
We have hosted some major carnivals e.g. State IRB titles in 1996, National IRB titles in June 2000, and have held the State Titles here in 2007 and 2009 with more to come. The 2009 National IRB Titles are again being hosted by our club as we've proved we have the best position, the area and the workforce to pull off a successful carnival.
Now after nealy 30 years of operations, Kawana Waters Surf Club has become a great social venue and community facility,a great family club, as well as providing an award-winning quality of safety for the beach going public of this growing area of the Sunshine Coast.
