At 75-years-of-age he describes himself as "ancient" but with his age comes the remarkable achievement of almost 60 years of patrols and surf life saving competitions.

His eyes have watched over swimmers at Coogee, Collaroy and with the arrival of spring and warmer ocean temperatures, he will be rostered as a patrolling member with Crowdy Head Surf Lifesaving Club.

This year Crowdy Head Surf Lifes Saving Club will host the Raising of the Flags ceremony for the Lower North Coast branch. The event signals the start of the patrolling season and John, as the oldest patrolling member will raise the flags with Odin Augey, the youngest patrolling member, who is aged 14.

The ceremony will begin at 10am and standing with them on the beach will be NSW Surf Lifesaver of the Year 2014 and Crowdy Head SLSC president, Allan Davis, Crowdy Head director of life saving, Adam Eady and president of Surf Life Saving Lower North Coast, Brian Wilcox along with life members of the club. It is also expected that state and federal politicians will attend.

Crowdy Head SLSC is keen for the community to attend the event which is also the sign-on day for existing and new club members.

John's voice will be one among many who will seek to share the benefits of club membership with potential new members.

He signed-up to Coogee Surf Life Saving Club at 15-years-of-age after being spotted as a possible talent in his swimming club.

He now hopes to recruit a few newcomers for Crowdy.

John says he was one of a team of seven to form the first Coogee Surf Club junior rescue and resuscitation team and it was from that simple start that he developed a love of competition, mateship and community that came with being part of a surf club.

He says he signed on the dotted line to join Coogee in October 1955 and on Christmas Eve 1955 he gained his bronze, which allowed him to began his patrolling career.

From that point on John began to structure his life around patrol rosters, competitions, training and eventually coaching.

Season after season saw John develop his skills and in time earn a raft of competition titles. John was with Coogee until 1971.

He then decided to call Collaroy Surf Life Saving Club home after he married Margaret and their choice of home saw the need to move a little north.

Thirty-one years later John and Margaret decided to look even further north to Harrington - surf life saving had given him mates in the area and so in April 2001, John claimed Crowdy Head Surf Life Saving Club as his community. However, John made sure his membership with Coogee and Collaroy remained active.

Mateship, larrikinism and physical exercise are the aspects of surf life saving that John cites as his reasons for choosing to make it an integral part of his life.

"You've got friends for life. If you've got a problem, you don't even have to put your hand-up and you will get assistance," John explained.

In six decades John has observed surf life saving evolve from an environment that was men-only and very focused

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