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Wednesday November 6 2013
EasySwim proves popular By Dave Crampton An increasing number of local residents – from pre-schoolers, parents to pensioners – wanting to both enjoy and survive in the water are taking swimming lessons with the award winning Northern Suburbs’ EasySwim Swim School. The school does what its name suggests – it aims to make it easy for people to learn how to swim. It currently teaches up to 1500 people living from Porirua to Karori, who swim in the 400 classes offered each week, including school groups. It took on extra staff after increasing its membership by 500 since 2011. Most of the 55 staff members are part time. Manager Todd Morton, himself a former top swimmer with New Zealand and Wellington swimming records, established the school in 2006. It has grown exponentially, primarily through word of
mouth, to be judged by Swimming New Zealand as the quality swim school of the year last year. “It started out as a bit of a challenge - it just kept on going. It’s not that hard to sell,” says Mr Morton. Lessons are primarily taught at Tawa School and the Khandallah pool. Many who have learned how to swim go on to extend their swimming at longer distances. “We set a goal of 400 metres and then we start encouraging them to go to a swimming club,” says Mr Morton. As well as running the swim school, Mr Morton volunteers as a coach with swimming clubs in Tawa and Porirua – and is branching out further. “We`ve worked on building really strong relationships with local clubs. We are in the process of kicking things off in Karori,” says Mr Morton. “People are more likely to join
Esme Knoetze and Juliette Boys ,2, during an Ezy Swim lesson.
swimming clubs if they have a familiar face – if one of our coaches is there.” EasySwim Swim School even built a marquee at Ngaio School, and contributed $20,000 to fit out the pool in 2001. It now uses the school’s pool free of charge when providing
lessons for up to 100 of the schools pupils. Churton Park resident Kim Keegan has had three boys through the EasySwim Swim School. One has since gone on to compete at a national level. She says the school is well run with excellent teachers.
“Children are introduced to the four strokes [backstroke, freestyle, breaststroke and butterfly] in a timely manner, and the transition to the local swimming clubs is aided by EasySwim also.”
District Crime Squad gets underway By Robert Johnson A new police squad providing a 24/7 response to serious crime in the Wellington region started this week. The District Crime Squad, operating out of Johnsonville, includes a team of 26 CIB (criminal investigation branch) staff from the Wellington, Hutt Valley and Kapiti regions has been tasked with initial action and responding to serious crime. Detective Senior Sergeant Warwick McKee says the decision to base the squad in Johnsonville provides a number of positives to both the northern suburbs and the police themselves. “The benefit to the northern suburbs will be the increased presence in the area and for us, being a district resource, Johnsonville is quite central to the areas we will be enforcing.” Mr McKee explains the main strategy
within the police at the moment is prevention and the squad will be putting initiatives in place to help prevent crime before it happens. “We can do it in a number of ways. Educating youth and students about keeping safe is important. We can also identify high-demand locations and allocate more resources to those areas to prevent crime.” The idea for a District Crime Squad was originally formulated in Counties Manakau and has been running effectively up there, leading to the successful model being implemented in the Wellington region. Mr McKee believes the squad will make a difference. “Absolutely, having 24/7 coverage to attend serious crime and get there early will be beneficial to the whole district.”
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Wellington brewer Brayden Rawlinson, who has just released his first commercial beer.
Award-winning brew hops onto market By Robert Johnson A decade of brewing and a few “drain pours” has seen Paparangi resident Brayden Rawlinson launch his first commercial beer. His award-winning drop, Moon Blink, took out the recent Black Battle IPA (Indian Pale Ale) amateur competition and with that, the opportunity to brew 1000 litres of it with Lester the Legend at Wellington bar, The Fork and Brewer. Moon Blink was launched to the public at a function at the bar last Thursday night and is available on tap at the Fork and Brewer and soon at the Malthouse. His business, named NineBarnyardOwls, has caused a bit of confusion among the masses. “I get a lot of people asking me who the other eight people are but it’s just me,” he laughs. “It’s quite simple, you rearrange the letters Brayden Rawlinson and you get the name NineBarnyardOwls.”
Brayden picked up brewing after studying chemistry briefly in sixth form and says sharing it is the best part. “I’ve made some real drain pours in my time but when you produce gold it goes down well with your mates.” He started in wine making originally, but the time taken to get grape to glass left a sour taste in his mouth. “Grain to glass is much quicker. In wine making, a lot of the influence on the end product is dictated by where the grapes are grown. In brewing, the brewer is the influence.” Despite his recent success, Brayden says he has no aspirations to get as big as the likes of Moa, focusing instead on keeping it unique. “I want to specialise in French and Belgian styles, styles that are traditionally bottle-conditioned and brought singularly instead of in a four or six pack. “Real handcrafted beer.”