Final grand parade for Graham Carlisle - a man who left his mark in the sand

freshwater slsc Surf Life Saving Australia, October 11, 2013: Australian Surf Life Saving legend Graham Carlisle has died peacefully aged 82 on Sydney’s Northern Beaches

Carlisle is regarded as the doyen of the Surf Life Saving carnival’s iconic March Past – as both a competitor and a coach with his two beloved clubs Freshwater and Collaroy.

Graham Carlisle Head shot

Through a 50-year career Carlisle amassed an extraordinary record of 20 Australian March Past gold medals – an Aussies total only bettered by the likes of Clint Robinson, Trevor Hendy, Ky Hurst, Shannon Eckstein, Pierce Leonard, Liz Pluimers and Naomi Flood.

In what was a distinguished career Carlisle was inducted into the prestigious Australian Surf Life Saving Hall Of Fame, awarded an OAM for his services to Surf Life Saving and Life Membership of Freshwater and Collaroy SLSC’s as well as Life Membership of the Sydney Northern Beaches and NSW State Centre.

Carlisle learnt from the best – Freshwater’s World War II “desert rat” Harry Knox who led Freshie to Australian March past glory in 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1957 after hours of precisoned training with his squads of up to 20 (before being narrowed to 12) on the beach and in the club house on wet nights.

Freshie-March-Past-Aust-Champions-1952-53

It was the same disciplined approach adopted by Carlisle who followed in the hallowed footsteps of Knox to carve his own niche in the sands of surf life saving, having marched in all of those championship winning Freshwater teams.

Along with coach Knox, Carlisle, rubbed shoulders with stalwarts like Dick Cooper and Graeme Houston before being seconded to coach Collaroy by Dick Twight in 1962.

SLSA historian, the late Barry Galton wrote in “Gladiators of the Surf” that it wasn’t an easy transition for Carlisle.

“Collaroy was suspended from competition at the time for the first half of the 1962-63 season but after competing in only eight carnivals, Collaroy (with Carlisle at the helm) went on to win the NSW State and Australian titles,” wrote Galton.

“Quickly, Graham’s name became synonymous with March Past and he helped write the official (SLSA) handbook.”

Up until 1972 Carlisle had left an indelible mark on the famous red caps of Collaroy, a popular club at the southern end of the Narrabeen stretch of beaches along the peninsula’s Pittwater Rd stretch.

The club won five Australian championships, five NSW titles, seven Metropolitan and nine Manly-Warringah (Sydney Northern Beaches) Branch gold medals, which included a remarkable deduction of no points lost at the 1967 Australians at South Port (SA).

Between 1963 and 1980 Carlisle steered Collaroy to no fewer than 11 Australian gold medals but no sooner had he retired from coaching than he returned to the sands of both Collaroy and Freshwater to coach both clubs – earning the nickname ‘Mandrake’ from his team members.

But it was success back at a rejuvenated Freshwater, alongside the presence of the evergreen Knox and another march past expert in Wally Edmonds that saw the extraordinary gold medal run continue with the maroon and whites featuring at the top of the Australian March Past podium on no fewer than seven occasions between 1986 and 2002.

It was a magical time for the famous Freshwater club who were able to relive the past glories of the Knox era with the same disciplined approach that is required to master the precisioned art form once described by Knox as his “the secrets of beach marching.”

1957 March Past Aust Bondi Champs p 138 Resized-600x0

Carlisle was able to bottle those secrets and transform surf lifesavers from all facets of the club “perfecting the team’s drill” with hours of training, preparing them for an event that had become famous in surf life saving circles as the Grand Parade and March Past – a colourful stream of club banners and costumes from all round Australia.

The master coach recalled in Freshwater’s 100 year history how it all began, when he said: “I was a competent club swimmer but I wasn’t a champion swimmer. Therefore in my day, unless you were a champion swimmer, you had no chance of cracking one of the top teams.

“I liked to be with the crowd and I was asked by the late Harry Knox, would I join the March Past? Which I duly did in 1951 or 1952 and 46 or 47 years later I’m still marching. I like the camaraderie and the fellowship of the fellows. It’s good training.”

Mick Griffin OAM, himself a Freshwater Life Member and a man who marched in seven of the club’s Australian Championship victories between 1986 and 2002 first met Graham Carlisle at the Freshwater Amateur Swimming Club when they were 12.

Graham-Carlisle002

“We then joined the surf club and were in line for the club’s Junior R and R team and we were both going for the final place in the team that went on to win the Australian,” recalled Griffin.

“Graham then went on to the March Past and had great success with the team that originally were 20-man teams and were eventually condensed to 12-man teams and the team under Harry Knox was a precisioned unit.

“After Graham’s stint with Collaroy we decided to get serious about the March Past again at Freshie and we knew that Graham was the man to bring the discipline needed to be the best.

I approached him and he didn’t hesitate to come home – and we enjoyed enormous success under Graham’s coaching – but he was a hard task master and good coach.

“He could be bombastic at times he wasn’t afraid to call a spade a shovel as they say – but you had to be dedicated if you wanted to win and it was a formula that worked.”

Graham Carlisle devoted much of his life to the pursuit of march past excellence – and is one of only three Freshwater members and the only competitive member, to be inducted in to the SLSA Hall of Fame.

Graham was married to devoted wife Aileen (deceased) and is survived by son Craig and daughter Diane and families.Graham was fortunate in having a loving and devoted partner - Robyn and her family in his life.

Members of the Freshwater and Collaroy clubs will form a guard of honour at Graham’s funeral service to be held in the North Chapel, Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Delhi Road, North Ryde on Monday, October 14 at 11.15am and then back at Freshwater Surf Club,

The Freshwater and Collaroy March Past standards and club caps will be draped over Graham’s coffin in honour of a man known as “a legend of the sand

Issued on behalf of Fresh Water SLSC...

Ian Hanson

FOLLOW HMG NEWS & EVENTS ON TWITTER/LIVE UPDATES