Even at this early date, discussions had been organised with the City Council about building a club shed. Sketch plans were made and fundraising was set in motion.

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Scorching Bay, in those days, was a very different place. There was, however, a large section of grass where the council had just built new brick public changing rooms and there was also a tap in the middle of the beach for freshwater. Across the road from the beach were half a dozen or so seaside baches and there were three or four old houses at the northern end of the bay. Also across the road, there were public toilets and a telephone box. There was also a dairy that sold most things but also offered afternoon tea and ice creams to Scorching Bay visitors. The dairy building once contained a dance floor/cabaret on a 3rd level but it had been burnt out some years before.

 

Luckily for the Scorching Bay ladies, the Bramley family (keen Worser Bay supporters) owned one of the baches across the road which they hardly ever used. They offered it to the club as a temporary clubroom and as a place to store the club’s reel.

 

The membership of the club was up to 50 at the end of the first season. These were mostly girls from the surrounding area or friends and sisters of Worser Bay club members. With a concentrated effort, the club trained enough members to enter a qualified 4 man team at the Wellington champs.

 

For the next few years, the club membership continued to hover around the 50 mark. Some of the initial members were too young to qualify, others struggled with the surf exam qualifying requirement that the candidate be able to swim 440 yards in under 9 minutes. Many of those struggling to qualify stayed on as members and took on the jobs of Secretary and Treasurer. This allowed the qualified members to concentrate on training.

 

By the end of the second season, the club had enough qualified members to enter a 4 and 6 teams at most carnivals, but never quite enough for a full march past team. While the club never attracted any swimming superstars, Scorching Bay teams usually made it to the finals of events because of the quality of their beach drills. Perfecting the drills meant lots of effort from everyone. These were the days of fluorescent socks so everyone wore them to training to help them keep in step.

 

The club happily operated from Bramley’s bach for a few years but then the council decided to grass the whole top area of the beach. This meant that the baches had to go and the houses were to all be knocked down. It became very urgent that a clubhouse be built.

 

Fundraising became the club’s main focus with bottle drives, door knocks, sales of work, raffles, dances, housie evenings and papers delivered.

 

Right from the start, there was an informal committee of supporters who were very keen to keep the club at the beach. One of these was the Seatoun hairdresser Mrs M. Frizell who had three daughters she wanted to become active members. She eventually became the club’s elected President and spent most of her time dealing with building the clubshed.

 

The completed shed was an excellent facility and was opened in 1962 by local MP Bill Fox in late November. Many local officials attended the ceremony and the club flag was flown from the flagpole. The opening was followed by a dinner for all the club members and supporters.

 

Fundraising of course, didn’t end there. There was always a need for money – new gear, new togs, things for the clubshed etc. One of the more unusual and successful fundraisers was organised by Mrs Bullock. It was an art exhibition at the clubhouse run by the Seatoun Arts and Craft Club. The art was sold on a commission basis, with all the commission going to the club. The exhibition not only raised a good amount of money, but it also helped raise the profile of the club.

 

The new clubhouse proved to be a Godsend. Members now had somewhere to meet, store gear, get changed and have a shower (initially cold). Opening days became dress-up affairs and a social occasion. But the shed was not without its problems. Members arrived one winters morning to find the floor covered with two or three inches of water. It was discovered the clubhouse had been built on top of a previously hidden underground spring. The council rectified this problem with some drainage. Eventually, when the club had raised some money, lino was put on the floor and gas hot water added to the shower.

 

A second aluminium reel was donated by one of the members' fathers and the club then bought a surf ski.

 

The club teams always looked good but a planned trip to the nationals prompted a special effort. It was decided to get black blazers, with a green and white pocket. Club badges were also commissioned similar to Worser Bay’s but in green. It was also noted that the club’s bright green hats were easy to find and were a great advertisement for the club. Green became the predominant colour over the years – lime green T-shirts, green tracksuits, green black and white sunhats. There was one disaster when white bikinis were purchased that unfortunately turned out to be see-through.

 

As time went on, getting to Scorching Bay proved to a problem because most members didn’t own a car. Public transport was severely limited. Most people had to walk to the bay or ride a bike – which presumably helped with team fitness. A standing joke on training nights was that if teams were too tired to walk home, there was always the possibility of getting a lift with the night cart – which still used to call at the one remaining old house.

 

Like Worser Bay, Scorching Bay was a very safe each and rescues were few and far between. Most of the time patrol members were asked to help find lost children or fix up cut toes.

 

On one memorable Sunday, however, when the patrol came back from lunch, members were told that a man had been to walk across the rocks and then dive in. He hadn’t been seen again. The patrol immediately went into action and some of the older swimmers went out to the rocks and swam around in the thick kelp looking for the swimmer. Other members took out the ski and paddled around the rocks. After an hour of searching, without success, the patrol members re-grouped.

 

Then a man arrived at the beach with diving gear and offered to help. It wasn’t long before he found the man floating in kelp and the victim was bought to shore on the club’s ski. Our helpful diver had been a lifesaver so he immediately set about attempting resuscitation – but mostly to satisfy the onlookers. Someone had also called the police and an ambulance arrived. After consultation, all agreed that there was no way the victim could be revived. The ambulance crew suggested that in their view, the victim had actually died from a heart attack and not from drowning

 

Over the years there was a marked turnover of members through people getting married, leaving the district or finding it hard to fit in training and work. The Government Equal Opportunities Bill meant that all make clubs were obliged to have female members. This meant that many of the sisters and friends of the Worser Bay members began to join the Worser Club.

 

Membership declined to the point that Scorching Bay was unable to compete or maintain patrols.

 

Eventually, in 1978, Klyne Phipps Black who had family members at both Worser Bay and Scorching Bay, negotiated an agreement that both clubs should combine – which they did.