Life's a beach for Surfing Mums group

A group of Dunsborough mums are passing up customary indoor mothers’ group meets to catch waves together.

Dunsborough Surfing Mums’ coordinator Katherine Olszewski formed the group last month soon after she moved to town.

“Basically, I formed this group to get together with likeminded people and make some friends,” she said.

“I’ve never really clicked with the usual playgroup bunch and I wanted to start something up with other people that like to get out and surf.”

The group meets at different local beaches every Tuesday morning and surfs from 9.30am to 11.30am, rotating so that each mum surfs for an hour and minds the children for the other hour.

“We want to maintain a ratio of one mum on the beach for every two kids and stick to patrolled beaches,” she said.

Ms Olszewski, a mum of two, hails from Secret Harbour, where she was involved with the Perth Surfing Mum’s group, the biggest group in Australia.

Surfing Mums Inc started on the East Coast, meeting at local beaches to swap child-minding duties for waves.

There are more than 51,000 women surfers in Australia. Almost 90 per cent of Australian women will become mothers.

Ms Olszewski said being a mum was a “24-hour a day, seven-day a week job”, and the Surfing Mums’ activities meant mothers could take a quick surf while their children were asleep or playing on the sand, knowing their family was being looked after.

“Once surfing is in your blood you can’t get enough of it. It’s my addiction that I will always be chasing,” she said.