Queensland’s Damon Kendrick (63) is a former springboard diving champion, a one-time trapeze artist and these days a competitive swimmer.
He’s also been a poster boy for blood donation for the past half century after having his right leg below the knee surgically amputated following a shark attack just south of Durban, South Africa in the summer of 1974.
That’s when the fourteen-year-old Damon was swimming at dusk with some friends training for an upcoming surf lifesaving competition.
It’s a remarkable backstory best told by the age-yellowed newspaper clippings from the time.
They tell the harrowing tale of how the shark attacked with two quick lunges as the then Natal junior diving champion, weighing just 47kg, was in waist deep water less than two metres from the safety of the shoreline.
And how one of his mates – a young fellow with the every-man-would-love name of Joe Kool – had sustained a bite moments earlier, a slice to his knee just deep enough to scent and stain red the waters into which Damon unknowingly swam.
And cue the surprised looks – one event he’ll take part in is the 4km ocean swim at the iconic Mermaid Beach on the final day of competition on Sunday 13 November.
“I read somewhere that every time you go in the water there’s a one in 7.5 million chance that you will be bitten by a shark, so, I’ve probably got about 7.4 million more swims before I should start getting worried again,” Damon said.
“I haven’t done an open water swim for a while, but I think I’ll be right. I never really lost my love of ocean swimming, the freedom of being in the water.
“And as with a lot of long-distance swimmers, the mental challenges of long-distance races are always greater than the physical barriers,” he said
It should be no surprise that Damon will be lining up in several swimming events given what he has achieved in and out of the water since that fateful day.
Less than 12 months after leaving hospital he took a bronze medal at the 1975 Natal Senior Diving Championships before representing the Western Province from 1979 for nine years in a row.
In 1986 Damon joined the Masters of the Sky troupe as a trapeze artist before fixing his gaze on pool and ocean events with ultimately amazing results.
At the three World Masters Games he has competed in so far, he has taken away 12 gold and a silver medal for swimmers with a disability.
And a decade on, the trained exercise physiologist who has lectured in health science for the past 30 years, is ready to do it all again.
As well as the ocean swim, he’ll compete in the 50m butterfly and 100m, 200m and 800m freestyle at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre – the culmination of many months of following the endless black line at the bottom of the Russell Island pool.
But it’s a schedule that doesn’t daunt the affable athlete who was first introduced to swimming at 4 months of age.
“Swimming is where I am most comfortable these days; it just feels right and natural,” Damon said.
He says his move to Australia three decades ago, his marriage to husband Andre and his swimming direction were ordained by a combination of age and international politics.
“I competed in diving for many years in South Africa and then my career and age got in the way, and I haven’t been on the springboard for a good 20 years.
“The South Africa economy was pretty much shot and the apartheid government pretty well screwed the country economically and many other ways and I knew there wasn’t a lot the new government could have done.
“So because my mum is a Kiwi – she’s 95 years of age now – I was able to apply for Australian citizenship and I’ve never looked back,” he said.
The 2022 Pan Pacific Masters Games return after a four-year pandemic-induced break with 11 non-stop days of sport and entertainment and a new ‘Big Top’ Games Village at Kurrawa Park at Broadbeach.
For Damon it’s a welcome return to competition on the Gold Coast.
“I’m really excited about lining up in the Pan Pacs after such an interrupted past few years; it’ll be great to get back in the water at an event that is always so much fun to compete in,” he said.
People wanting more information on the Games can visit www.mastersgames.com.au
They are organised by Events Management Queensland and are proudly supported by the Queensland Government, through Tourism and Events Queensland, and features on the It’s Live! in Queensland events calendar.
