Bondi Surf Life Saver Lauren Tischendorf first woman to swim solo around Lord Howe Island!

Lauren recently became the first woman to swim a solo, single session, 32km swim around Lord Howe Island where she faced sharks, strong currents, 25 knot winds and 2.5m swell. Lauren is an Athlete for The Minerva Network, a group that supports female athletes, and a member of various global swimming clubs and associations. Lauren grew up in South Africa, came to Australian in 1999, joined Bondi Bathers Surf Life Saving Club in 2024.

In this interview, we discuss:
1.What was it like growing up in South Africa?
2.Why swim around Lord Howe island?
3.How do you prepare? What are the mental and physical challenges?
4.You’ve made a film about the swim; tell us more!
5.What is the Minerva Network?
6.Who is your patrol named after? McDonald?
7.What do you think of shark nets?

If you want to contact Lauren about her film, here are the contact details:

Email: nextepicadventure01@gmail.com
Website: https://laurentischendorf.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nextepicadventure_lt21/profilecard/?igsh=MWltaTFuanJ3a2Nraw==


Thank you for listening to this episode. thank you to our long term supporters City Ford Sydney; we appreciate your support of the Bondi Blue Water Challenge – this enables our club to raise money for the life saving service we provide the community; if you want to get involved, wether for our Nippers program if you have young kids, or you want to become a volunteer surf life saver, you can learn more at www.bondisurfclub.com

Over 300 lives were lost at Australian beaches last year– So please, swim at a patrolled beach and swim between the flags.

The Bondi Patrol Podcast: Liz Webb, Club President

About Liz:

Liz was born in Griffith Country NSW. She has lived and worked in various regional places in the Murray Darling Basin (Wagga Wagga, Albury, Leeton) and then worked overseas. Liz moved to Sydney for work in 2001, moved to Bondi and completed her Bronze medallion in 2002.

Liz’s experience in the club is as an active patroller for many years, takin on the vice captain role for Meagher patrol back in the day. Liz has held various roles in Nippers – having been the Director of Nippers for the previous three years, and before that Deputy Director Nippers, and Age Manager for the Yellow Caps. She is now President of our Club

In this episode we discuss:

· Moving to Bondi and starting at the club in 2021 in an active patrolling role with Meagher Patrol.

· Scaling back while having children and while they were younger and then re-engaging with Nippers and taking on various roles as Age Manager, Deputy Nippers Director then Director of Nippers.

· Worked with the Nippers Committee during the COVID period – navigating our way through COVID and beach number restrictions to maintain the Nippers program within the rules and then the post COVID rebuild of the Bondi Nippers program with a different rhythm, more agile and more flexibility.

· Role and obligation of a Club President is to work with the Club Directors and members and help lead the club and ensure it remains relevant into the future. As the first Female President of Bondi Surf Life Savers Club, Liz discusses the significance of taking opportunities to normalise women in leadership role by getting in and just doing it.

· Life outside of club – Liz is the CEO of an environmental advisory and consultancy business of 300 people that do technical studies for major projects to obtain their environmental approval. Projects like Snowy 2.0, solar and wind farms, transmission lines, mines and infrastructure projects. Liz’s is a hydrogeologist – studying both science and engineering with a focus on water management.