FRESHIE GREAT CAMERON DUNN GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN

By Ian Hanson

AUSTRALIAN SURF LIFE SAVING, October 19, 2012: Fellow Freshwater Surf Club surf teams gold medallist Jon Harker summed up his team mate Cameron Dunn perfectly when he said: “If Eddie would go…then Cameron had already gone.”

ON THE MARCH: Cameron Dunn (No 3) in the Freshwater Senior R and R team at the Australian Championships with Graeme Carroll (6) and John De Mestre (1).

Drawing a comparison with fearless Hawaiian lifeguard and surfer, the late Eddie Aikau is probably the ultimate sporting compliment for one of his best mates and the former Freshie great who died last week on the Gold Coast after a short illness.

Today Cameron Dunn’s mates, who had been alongside him through thick and thin, gathered at the Currumbin Beach Vikings (Freshwater’s Gold Coast sister club) to pay their respects to a man they loved and respected; who was such an intricate part of their lives and who contributed to so many of their triumphs.

Names like Australian champions Darren Bogg, Tim Ford, Graeme Carroll, Barry Newman and Harker – names synonymous with Freshwater’s golden era of the late 70s and 80s who gathered to honour Cameron Dunn – NSW and Australian champion and NSW and Australian representative.

They were there to support Cam’s Mum Pat and his hero, father and former Wallaby Peter Dunn, sister Julie and little brother Ryun who worshiped the ground Cam walked on.
Harker recalls that Cameron was not only a great swimmer, superb surfer, Australian representative, Australian champion but also a great fisherman and waterman.
“Cameron’s achievements go beyond the stats and the medals,” said Harker.

OLD GUARD (L-R): Graeme Carroll, Bob Eggleton, George Mullins and Greg Reddan remember one of Freshwater’s greats Cameron Dunn at the Currumbin Vikings Room.

“Argue all you like about who was the best bodysurfer Freshwater ever produced, but any conversation about the bravest that doesn’t include the name C Dunn could only be had by people who never ventured out the back in a storm swell with Cam.

“If Eddy would go, Cam had already gone.

“His insatiable appetite for great waves was matched only by his love of a good time.

“Cameron was a peerless practical joker. Fall asleep, tired and emotional around Cam and you risked waking with half an eyebrow or worse.

“The next morning he could look you square in the eye and say “no way mate, it wasn’t me, it was Grub (Carroll) or Dags (Bogg) - fair dinkum they’re bastards, you can’t trust ‘em.

“As a team-mate he always lifted, hitting the finish line spent, for he loved winning with his mates more than winning himself. In 1979 he could easily have won Australian surf race gold on the Sunday. But gold in the teams on Saturday meant partying through the night and the next day.”
Carroll recalls Dunn as a mate with Anzac spirit.

(Left) SURF TEAMS GOLD (L-R): Peter Obern, Cameron Dunn, Darren Bogg and Barry Newman.
(Right) CHAMPION: Cameron Dunn in his heyday at Freshwater.

“The Surf life Saving Association was built on such mate-ship and Cameron had these traits. He was always there if you needed him, he always gave his mates 100 percent attention , he was dedicated to his family, a softly spoken gentleman who would not tolerate fools,” said Carroll.

“Courageous and tough and like Harks said when it came to surf he was fearless. A tenacious competitor who loved representing Australia.

“A great practical joker who never got caught .Yet he always had a great laugh with his mates. When I visited him last week he was so happy and enjoyed the company and there is no doubt his dad was his hero.”

Cameron Dunn was an intricate part of Freshwater life when he first burst onto the scene alongside a group of his stillwater swimming mates as they went about re-writing the record books giving the famous Northern Beaches club yet another golden era – a time that would change their lives forever.

But as the medals mounted so too did the aura surrounding one of its most likeable larrikins - with stories of riding monster waves, surviving in surf that swallowed up older and more experienced rivals – of pranks and parties and of fun and games that were synonymous with surf club antics.

Of cold showers, shaved eye-brows, the famed three-man lift and celebrating long and hard as if there was no tomorrow.

The bigger the surf the better Cameron liked it, none better than when he won a NSW Inter-Branch open surf race championship for Manly-Warringah in a surf that saw three metre waves pounding Wanda Beach.

The entire field, complete with Australian champions and Olympians alike were swept down the beach and engulfed by set after set of turbulent white water.

With eyes peeled and binoculars poised, officials, coaches and fellow competitors and a large crowd waited and waited for anyone to return – for anyone to survive.
Then after what seemed an eternity one young man in the red white and blue cap emerged from the mist of the boiling sea a clear winner.

Dunn ran 200 metres along the beach to the finishing line with no other competitor in sight.

But it was as a surf teams swimmer that Cameron Dunn made his name – alongside “The famed “Freshie kids” who thrived under the mentorship and guidance of their coach the legendary “Barney” Mullins and the expertise of the great John Mills.

It started in 1977 when Dunn lined up with Darren Bogg, Barry Newman and Peter Obern to win the Metropolitan, NSW and Australian cadet surf teams titles - taking the Aussies in freezing conditions at Bancoora Beach in Victoria.

FLAG BEARERS: Freshwater family (Back row L-R) Barry Newman, Life Member John Mills, Ryun Dunn, Jon Harker, Graeme Carroll, David Lawes, Tim Ford. (Front row L-R) Darren Bogg, Ted Wise gather to pay their respects to Cameron Dunn.

So began an era that featured some of the greatest moments in the club’s history and C Dunn was up to his neck in it both in and out of the water. It seemed that he thrived on a lifestyle that so many great champions who adorn the club’s wall of fame had set up before him.

In 1978 at Kingscliff Dunn and Bogg graduated to the under 18s to join Carroll and Steve Ford for silver in the Australian surf teams which they turned into gold 12 months later at Trigg Island with the team of Dunn, Ford, Harker and Brad Hill.

Although still under 18 this talented group would often back up winning State and Aussie gold in both their age and open company and in any conditions – and so the legend was created.

It took full flight in 1980 at the Aussies at Maroochydore when the Freshwater team of Dunn, Bogg, Carroll and Tim Ford left the Paul Moorfoot led Southport and the Max Metzker led Maroubra in their wake to claim the club’s first ever open surf teams crown. (Moorfoot and Metzker would that year represent Australia at the Moscow Olympics.)

Not to be outdone the boys in the maroon and white quartered caps with Obern coming into replace Carroll turned around to win the under 18 gold medal as well.
It was the year Bogg also added the National under 18 surf race championship and hot on his heels was his little mate Cameron Dunn, who gave Freshwater a spectacular quinella.

The amazing chapter continued when Dunn, Bogg and Ford again combined with Carroll to win back to back Australian open surf teams titles at Wanda the following year when Ford and Carroll were whisked away in the dead of night after Federal Parliament voted they could both have special leave from the AIS to attend the Championships – much to the dismay of AIS boss Don Talbot.

Dunn had earlier in his career emerged as one of the toughest young 200m butterflyers in Terry Gathercole’s Killarney Heights squad – excelling in NSW and Australian Championships – working as hard as any swimmer in a squad chockfull of champions.

There will be more tears to come and a lump in the throat when Cameron Dunn’s ashes are scattered at his beloved Freshie later in the year.

“He loved Freshie more than anything else,” said Jon Harker “and when we stand on the club balcony together we’ll all remember that twinkle in his eye, that infectious laugh and the memories of the outrageous and the courageous that will stay with us all, forever.”