Team Auckland Masters Swimmers – one of New Zealand’s longest-running GLBT community groups – is turning the big 2 – 0 in January; that’s 20 years of swimming cozzies, chocolate fish and overseas trips! Group founder Ron Judd and early member Cynthia Borne met up with Hannah JV to pore over a few photos from the ’90s in preparation for their big anniversary.
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Team Auckland Masters Swimmers (TAMS) got its start thanks to fresh-faced Ron Judd around 20 years ago when he decided to formalise a group of gay and lesbian swimmers who would want to compete at masters’ level (aged 25-105). TAMS started at Auckland’s Tepid Baths in September 1991 and was formalised in early 1992.
“I decided that we should formalise the group because I wanted some permanency with it,” says Ron. “I was into competing and at the time you had to belong to a New Zealand Masters’ Swimming club to compete. I was part of the Waterhole Masters’ Swimming club before, that but it was a group that was very family orientated; as a gay guy, it could be a little lonely. “I was aware there were a lot of gay guys out there swimming, so I had the idea to get a group together. There weren’t many gay community groups around at that time – you could go to gay bars, but that was kind of it. We were part of that rise of the gay community group – there are a lot of 20-year anniversaries coming up at the moment.”
Cynthia says, “These guys went to the second Gay Games, but they all went swimming with different groups. What Ron wanted was for all these lesbian and gay people who went to the games to be swimming under one name.”
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“When we’d have these chocolate fish events, we would give out chocolate fish as prizes. It wasn’t an official event – it was the sort of event where if you came first, or last, or somebody liked your togs or your legs, you’d receive a chocolate fish. We would run these events like the ‘Pink Flamingo’ events they have at each Gay Games.”
Once the group had settled into a routine, swimmers worked towards travelling to New York for the Gay Games in 1994. There the team competed in events, as well as the Pink Flamingo, a Gay Games tradition that combines outrageous costumes, music, dance and synchronised swimming with humour and satire, to make for an exciting, fun and somewhat revealing evening.
“Going to the Gay Games for me was such an experience,” says Ron. “I can’t speak for the whole group that was there, but being totally immersed in this gay culture was a new thing for me and I was totally blown away.”
“For the 20th, we’re doing a swim meet on the weekend of Big Gay Out,” says Cynthia. “It will be competitive and non-competitive – it’s mainly a participation meet. We’re going to create a new cup for the event for a relay against Different Strokes from Wellington. We’re going to have a relay to decide who gets the cup each year. After the swim meet, we’re having an anniversary dinner.”
Read the full interview HERE.
Visit the club's website HERE.
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