FIRST DIPS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 781, 30 September 1929, Page 11

FIRST DIPS

Shivering Swimmers On Parade Tomorrow THOSE JOYS OF SUMMER B-r-r-r! Parnell and Shelly Beach swimming pools open tomorrow, offici ally. 4 ND yet . Will taneous answer to the call of bath , mg? One cannot forget the chill of . late-September winds, which manage somehow to reappear in October: the winds are really Old Man Winter s vt minder that he still can deal Auckland : a vigorous blow. Many a well-mean ing surfer has wilted before thos. I breezes. Shuddering, and deridiug hi< i own Temerity for displaying his new bathing suit in a low temperature, the ! surfer has scampered back to the j fireside. But Parnell and Shelly Beach will : have their visitors tomorrow. After all. what Aucklander does iu>; know that October 1 means the open ing of the bathing season— officially? At this time of the year it is wrong, on principle, to talk of sunlit beaches, ot the island of Motuihi shimmering in n haze of heat, the golden curves of Milford. Takapuna or Cheltenham, of the beckoning of the nooks and the islands of Hauraki. of yachts an*l launches plunging and dipping into blue seas; the delight of Summer litv should not have its sheen despoiled by yawning expectations. LAUDED BACH LIFE So with the lauded bacli-life of tin North Shore. More certain is it than the Summer season itself that Bill, the mechanic. Anthony, the bank clerk and Joan, typiste and girl friend, will show their merriment along the beaches. Bill and Anthony, riotous perhaps, are charming fellows, all the same; so is Joan. For Summer is youth’s season, an«l Bill, or Anthony, or Joan, is the popu lar personification of youth and modernity. It is useless to associate peace and a more sober appreciation of Auek land’s beaches with exuberant youth But it is good fun. Milford. Takapuna and Cheltenham -would not be the same without Auckland’s youth. A So it is with Parnell and Shell' Beach. The Bills, the Anthonys and the Joans will be there for the opening. They will appreciate the Improvements made, where necessary, since last season. Within the next few weeks, perhaps by Labour Day. that other stepping stone to Summer, Parnell and Shelly Beach will be beginning to feel Unreal pressure of crowds. Bronzed faces and arms will make their season debut on Queen Street, too. PRACTICAL YOUTH As a whole. Auckland’s youth is a practical class. It waits calm'y enough for the entertainments » f Summer. It has not much in common with that remarkable, and admirable, group of Aucklanders, the all-the-yeai bathers. It is a grievous slight ou the powers of these bathers to call them by that loose and hackneyed term, “hardy pioneers.’’ They are not really; they are a class of their own and are proud of it. How can ordinary citizens fathom the creed of health which impels all-the-year bathers into Winter’s icy combers? The ques tion is unapproachable. Perhaps it is analogous to the notion which sends mild, middle-aged clerks tumbling from their beds of mornings, swinging dumb-bells more or less cheerfully.