Meet Australia’s OLDEST LIFESAVER!
AT 88, BILLY RYAN HAS NO PLANS ON HANGING UP HIS GOGGLES
Strapping on his swim cap and diving into the waves is a constant joy for Billy Ryan, who has been a surf lifesaver for over seven decades.
Billy, now 88, spent his teenage years in the water swimming at Maroubra Beach in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. He then got his Bronze Medallion to become a surf lifesaver at 17, and went on to work as a Beach Inspector in his twenties.
“It’s changed so much since I started,” Billy tells New Idea. “There were no tubes, boards, jet skis or radios then.
“All we had were ropes and reels. Sometimes we just had to swim out on our own to save a struggling swimmer.”
A regular face in the local paper for performing countless rescues over the years, Billy remembers a few standouts, one in particular in the early 1960s when Coogee Beach was closed due to strong winds. In 20foot-high waves, Billy had to do three rescues in a day, including saving a 12-year-old boy who got caught in a rip in the treacherous conditions.
“Saving lives wasn’t my only duty,” Billy recalls, adding that beach rules were extremely strict in those days and women were prohibited from wearing bikinis on the beach.
“I used to have to politely ask them to leave and escort them off the sand.”
Billy would eventually embark on a career in the navy, where he spent 20 years on the ocean, before settling in the Gold Coast to patrol our beaches. This time he had the welcome addition of more advanced firstaid apparatus and rescue equipment.
In fact, it was taking to a rescue board that kick-started Billy’s passion for competing in surf lifesaving competitions and carnivals.
Training twice a day, every day, Billy was a natural athlete, and his solo and team events included the board race, beach run, flag race and surf race.
Soon his medal and trophy cabinet was overflowing with honours from national titles and world championships.
“At the 2021 Australian Surf Lifesaving Championships, I was the oldest athlete,” says Billy, who three years ago lost the love of his life, Lynne, to breast cancer aged just 57. He also has a daughter, Julie, from a previous relationship.
“It’s the companionship and all the good people that you meet that I love.
“Most of my friends are younger than me, so they keep me young in my heart and head, and they keep me fit. I’ll never stop surf lifesaving.”
‘It’s changed so much since I started’