Since he was four years old, Pete Carter has been a part of the Avalon Beach Surf Life Saving Club and strives to continue serving the community as a mentor for new generations.
His surf club journey began with his parents ‘forcing’ him join Nippers on the weekend, a squabble that quickly developed into a lifetime love of the beach.
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t really like Nippers at the start. I really hated waves as a kid,” Pete explains.
Forty-four years later and now a life member, Pete has held a variety of different roles for the club, including boat captain, club captain, and deputy president, on-and-off for 20 years.
“The club has become a second family,” he says.
“It has changed so much of my life for the better.”
A landscaper by trade, Pete is now a protective service officer with the Australian Federal Police, yet still describes himself as a ‘simple unit.’
With so much of his life dedicated to the club, it was only fate that he would meet his wife, Tammy, there.
He says their healthy relationship is built on their competitiveness, reluctantly telling Peninsula Living that she had won a state gold medal in surf sports before he did.
“It’s something that she loves to bring up, nothing like a bit of couple rivalry,” he smiles.
Carrying on their parents’ legacy, Pete is pleased to say that his two daughters are also actively engaged in the club. He ‘loves rowing with and coaching his eldest daughter’ and enjoys being ‘a positive influence on the kids’.
While he enjoys the fitness and lifestyle aspect, Pete says it is ‘the club’s amazing sense of teamwork and camaraderie’ that he initially saw him fall in love.
Losing his father in his early teens, Pete emphasises the profound impact of his mentors, Warren Young and Rick Millar, on his life when he was younger.
“I’m so glad I had great people surrounding me; they really pushed me and kept me in line,” he says.
Subsequently, their impact on Pete pushed him to dedicate a large part of his own life doing the same for the younger generations as a coach of several surf boat crews.
“I am so happy to have had them at the time, and I want others to have the same opportunity,” he said.
“They really instilled in me the importance of giving back.”
With his best memories and stories attributed to his lifelong mates in the surf boat crews, Pete says the hard work over the years has made the achievements of the group ‘so much better’.
Still an ‘extremely active’ patrolling member, Pete has received several awards from Surf Life Saving Australia, including a bravery award for a rescue performed during large surf in an Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB).
The lifesaving veteran safely brought to shore a couple of rock fishermen that had been washed from the headland.
Until recently, Pete was the youngest life member of the club, before good friend Nate Wellings ‘came along and stole his thunder’.
With no plans of stopping ‘until his deathbed’, Pete plans to continue his role as a mentor and coach for the surf club well into the future.