Ferris Bueller's Two Months Off

After a short “fortnight,” David and Luke are back in the saddle. We unpack the seasonal switch-on across Australia, celebrate a rare “on time, on budget” pool upgrade, and run through a few notable industry moves.

 Luke recaps SPARK, the joint ASSA x ARI NSW conference and we touch on recent Swimposium and global events on the horizon. 

We finish with a level-headed take on Royal Life’s latest drowning data. Stick around for the debut of “LDS: Leadership Download Snippet,” where a Lisbon monument turns into a lesson on teams, trade routes… and mullets.

Transcript

David (00:00)
Well, we are back. seemed like a long time because in reality it probably has been a long time. As Ferris Bueller said, life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. And boy, boy, have we missed you, Aquatics only audience. Luke Daly, great to be back with you.

Luke Daly (00:19)
Really good to be back. Was that a direct quote from Ferris Bueller? Because I can't actually fact check you because I've never seen it. But like were you word for word or were you just like paraphrasing there, do you think?

David (00:27)
I was very,

very close to word for word. There was one time in my life where I did know pretty much every line to that movie, as any good eighties kids would know as well. So the boys probably have Ferris Bueller's day off and the girls had dirty dancing. And I don't think I've ever watched all of dirty dancing. There's a confession right now for the audience that was unexpected, but I'm just putting it out there.

Luke Daly (00:34)
impressive.

confessions of a podcast host. could be our next podcast. Well, Dave, think you alluded to it being a little while, but you know, we run a fortnightly podcast. We just haven't done one for two months.

David (00:52)
That's right.

Yeah, a fortnightly podcast that runs every two months. That's exactly right. Hey, but you know, because we stretched out our time between podcasts, Luke, because you've, you know, I hate the word and we all use it, but there's not a better word in English. We have been busy. We have been captivated by other things and travel and we're going to walk through a bunch of that today. We've got a whole lot to touch base on and talk through, but it has been our first anniversary. We've been doing this for over a year now,

Luke Daly (01:25)
We have, yeah. August 8th, I think I've got it on record there from last year was our first episode. So, yeah, one year, one month, probably at the time of this recording. There it is August 8th. That's how good my memory is. And you know what? We're still picking up a few listeners here and there. think the distance between podcasts, they say distance makes a heart grow fonder. and we certainly felt that we've done a couple of events, some together, some you've cheated on me with another host, but that's all right.

David (01:49)
This is

This is true. Well, look, it's gone both ways. It's been a bit of an open relationship in some ways, Luke, but it's nice to be back in the saddle with you, mate. My true love.

Luke Daly (02:00)
Yes, yes. Brokeback podcast. Let's go. No, we have had some commentary from our listeners out there going, hey, when are you guys going to put another podcast out? So mean, that's nice. I think, you know, it's just because they can work out whether they want to unsubscribe or block our communications, but steadily, steadily, we seem to still be picking up some listeners somehow.

David (02:17)
Well, it's lovely to have you joining us. And for those who were listening a few months ago, where I talking of confessions of a podcast, maybe that should become a segment. I did make a significant confession on my swimming capabilities as somebody in the industry who can't swim, can't swim more than 50 meters without being exhausted. I made a commitment to do adult learn to swim and yeah, that's, that's been going really well. Hasn't it Luke?

Luke Daly (02:42)
Yeah, tell me a bit about that because I mean, it was a great response from the industry. Your local swimming pool up there at Kawana Aquatics, reached out, Radcliffe Swimming reached out to give you some lessons.

David (02:50)
They did. Yeah. Rackley swimming

reached out through CVM. So thank you very much for that. And I've done exactly zero in response to that. So I want to credit CVM and Rackley swimming for reaching out to help me at my local. Kim Rigby, you absolute legend of a swim teacher, industry giant that you are. I look forward to reaching out to you soon. just, I've looked, I got fat over winter.

Luke Daly (03:00)
Alright.

David (03:15)
and it's too cold and I've been weak and wimpy and it's pathetic and really I don't have an excuse but we're gonna get there!

Luke Daly (03:21)
If

you keep coming up with excuses, we'll run out of time on this podcast because you cover them off on them all basically. Betty White, I think it was, she said she'd rather be fat and happy. That's certainly what you are at the moment,

David (03:34)
I don't know. Hopefully, I don't know them either at the moment. I've lost a little bit of weight. I'm coming back. Okay, like what's this place? Look, but it is is 200 years. Yeah.

Luke Daly (03:40)
All right. Well, do you think, do you think, sorry,

just to jump in, do you think Kim's actually going to be able to teach you? Like she's, she's taught a lot of different people. I've heard a lot of stories from Kim, but do you reckon you're a bridge too far?

David (03:50)
Yeah.

I don't honestly, um, I think you're asking that as a joke, but as a serious point, I don't know. am, I am genuinely within myself a bit fearful that I can't be taught that my breathing's not going to be right, that it's too hard and that I'm going to be the one who doesn't, you know, is unable to, get there. And the goal just as a reminder to everyone is to be able to swim 750 meters in open water so I can do a sprint distance triathlon and finally beat my wife.

because she beats me every time because I'm not even getting in the water to start the race. but look, Luke, that's what it is. I think for me right now, it's getting back to spring. The weather here in Queensland is definitely getting warmer. can sniff summer outside at the moment. It's that smell in the air. Yeah, that's right. But there's that warmth coming back. We know seasons are changing.

Luke Daly (04:34)
Is that your hay fever?

David (04:41)
And I think it's time to get in the pool. having said that seasonal pools, mate, there's there's a bunch going on around the country right now. So much work in aquatics being done teams coming together. But covers coming off chlorination being done green pools cleaned up. I mean, what is happening out there Luke?

Luke Daly (04:59)
Well, it's that time of year, the seasonal pools are reopening. Spring has sprung. Like you've said, it's all the development works that happen in the, the quiet season are coming towards an end. And we've covered off on a few of them that, well, haven't come to an end at all. And maybe never will, which is the downside, but there are a lot of good news stories out there as well. Yeah. The team's coming together. think I get fascinated, right? Because it is the Aquatics Only podcast and it's on the fringe of the aquatics industry, but Roz Pullen from Raging Waters in Sydney, well known to

a lot of our industry in Sydney and beyond to form a chair of Alara. She is the general manager in charge of raging waters in Sydney, a big wet and wild equivalent for those Queenslanders listening. And the amount of staffing and the flux that happens, you know, goes from a ghost town during winter, straight up to this massive casualized workforce. So it's workforce, it's getting our slides up to scratch, it's getting our pools up to speed.

David (05:29)
Hello?

Luke Daly (05:51)
Getting our customer service ready getting those killer pythons stocked up at the front counter there because you know what that's that's what it's all about

David (05:55)
Try to have

a kilopithin, people.

Luke Daly (05:59)
I actually saw that, you know, know, talk about value. Sorry. This is a tangent for those listening, but I, I'm a big fan of killer pythons in swim schools specifically. And if I do a swim school inspection and there's no killer pythons, they're going to mark down. ⁓ but you know, the, the it's often discussed, you know, what could you, should you charge for killer Python? I to the service station yesterday to fuel up my car and I saw two killer pythons for three bucks. Like that was a good deal. And I'm like, you know what?

David (06:11)
Yeah, yeah.

There should be a dollar each. That's inflationary. What's happened right there.

Luke Daly (06:30)
Yeah, but it's value right like it was right there in front of me bang I didn't buy any just by the way because I know that can get them cheaper at swim schools

David (06:36)
You have captured global economic markets and forces at a service station with killer pythons, beautifully inflationary, upwards pressure, all of that stuff. tell you what though, speaking of, we have talked about on this podcast, I've had my rant before and I'll probably rant again on projects that run over time, over budget that reflect badly on our industry to a consumer. who's left footing the bill, for, for poor management, poor design, whatever it is. Okay.

being very, very critical, but boy, oh boy, do we have a story here Luke. Tell us about this one that I'm referring to.

Luke Daly (07:16)
Well, the irony is you've set it up as a big dramatic thing, but it's realistically shouldn't be a big dramatic thing. Now, the reason that you did that for those playing along at home, you know, sitting, you know, you've driven off the motorway because you're so excited about what we're about to talk about, or, you know, sitting on the edge of your chair and you can't focus on your work because David's built the hype up so much. For those of you playing along at home, it's the Andrew Boy Charlton pool in Sydney, which has undergone significant structural and behind the scenes upgrades.

David (07:21)
This is true. That's right.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm a hype man.

Yeah.

Luke Daly (07:45)
And from all

accounts being delivered on time and on budget, David, that's the news. I know, that's why you drive off the motorway.

David (07:49)
No. No.

Slap me with a fish. I- No.

Luke Daly (07:54)
Yeah.

Yeah. And we're not talking about just a scrubbing or a new coronate or a new pump, but we're talking about some pretty significant things. And for those of you who haven't seen the pool, we might share a photo on our social media. In fact, one of your people, Dave, Josh Darrow, who does listen to the podcast occasionally. It'll be a delay, just a bit of a knock on the block, but he put a wonderful photo up there. think some of your lane ropes are in there.

David (07:57)
Love it.

I like you all.

Luke Daly (08:19)
But new tiling and waterproof membranes in both the pools refurbished pool deck and grandstand seating a new lift for accessibility plant room improvements replacement of gas boilers with electric heat pumps for more sustainable heating and they were and they were all finished on time on budget ahead of the opening. ⁓ It shouldn't be a miracle but it feels like it at this point doesn't it?

David (08:32)
Hallelujah.

It does look, and I think that's going to be something we're going to cover off too in the, in the weeks, months, and probably years ahead. This energy efficiency around pools. Great to see the old gas boilers disappearing for more energy efficient heat pumps in place. lots of good stuff. Look, they're back open. They've got plenty of activity around that center as we all do. Look, it, as we said, the centers are reopening the regional centers, the seasonal centers are reopening. There's plenty going on. as we mentioned, Josh Darrah, who's, ⁓

part of my team with Maitronics. are being absolutely inundated as I'm sure everyone in the industry on supply side is right now. We love it. This is where we get to gear up, go out, get it done and see things come to life again. So that's always a privilege. Look, busy time, industry moves. People are moving about, decisions are being made as we set up for a big season ahead. Let's talk a little bit about some of those moves, Luke.

Luke Daly (09:32)
So yeah, you and I both just over a year in the industry now call it the greater aquatic space. And so, ⁓ in our old space, I think you may have heard me use it, but I used to call it the merry-go-round, where, know, one person with one organization would poach a person and then there'd be this whole merry-go-round and the music would stop in September. and then we'd go again. And I don't think it's me. No, I'm immovable my friend. I am immovable. am.

David (09:37)
Yeah.

So where are you moving to Luke? Yeah.

I'm an unstoppable force

meets an immovable object or something. That's why we work so well. ⁓

Luke Daly (10:01)
All right. I am velocity. no,

I, I'm not moving anywhere. My point is in this industry, it doesn't seem to be as dramatic, not as much shuffling though. are some changes. Uh, the two that we're going to mention today, a recent appointment by line leisure for their group operations manager, John Clark. Uh, so former CEO of the Southeast leisure group down there in Melbourne. Oh, that's very fresh. Uh, fresh news there. Well, fresh ish to week old, but that's exciting.

David (10:21)
Okay. Okay.

Luke Daly (10:29)
for a line and for John so a bit of a

David (10:31)
Given we haven't made any

announcements publicly for the last two months, that's very fresh. Hey, ⁓ exactly. Now, congratulations, John Clark, Aligned Leisure wishing you every success as I'm sure you will have in developing that role.

Luke Daly (10:36)
Well for us it is. That's right. That's right.

Yep. And then also Bluefit have announced a new COO Josh Mahoney, David. So that's an exciting appointment there.

David (10:52)
Mahoney or Marnie? Do we know?

Luke Daly (10:56)
If we took a, if we did this live, we could take caller feedback ⁓ in the moment, but now he's joined as a Blue Fits chief operating officer, lots of senior executive roles with the AFL. Most recently, the general manager of football performance. So a bit of a quote here from Todd McHardy Josh's ability to connect culture performance and community outcomes aligns perfectly with our mission to inspire community activity. And Josh says that he's excited.

David (10:59)
Yeah.

Yes, I agree.

Very good.

Fabulous.

Luke Daly (11:23)
What he's excited about is what excites me about BlueFeed is its clear purpose of inspiring community activity along with its values and growth opportunities. ⁓

David (11:30)
Well, there we go. Community activity

being the goal with BlueFit, which is exactly right. And I would say that aligns, hello, Align Leisure Group. We just talked about you. So let's use aligns with exactly what we see in this podcast. And we wasn't in want as an industry. are only as good as our community activity, involvement, engagement, and love of what we do. Again, why our projects need to be delivered on time and on budget and to meet a particular outcome and purpose for our local communities, right?

Luke Daly (11:58)
Spot on, Stenotopolis.

David (11:59)
Awesome.

All right. So it looks, there's some big industry moves through blue fit and aligned. If you've got any others that you want to share with us, please let us know. We'll announce those too. Um, you and I, we talked about being busy before. a, it's a rubbish word. Sometimes we use it as a bit of an excuse, sorry I'm busy. Um, but we, really don't. No, no, no, no, no fat, lazy, cold, not, not busy. Um, I.

Luke Daly (12:18)
You didn't actually use that one for learning to swim, did you? You used every single other one except that one.

Generally soft.

David (12:29)
Life is priorities, isn't it? Like you've set a priority. It's a choice at the end of the day. We do what we actually want to feel like we need to do. So past events, mate, that you and I have been around. Why don't we start with one that was near and dear and close to your heart. So you up on stage quite a bit, ranting, raving, being the G up guy, the hype man, but actually really delivering some cool inspiration for industry through spark conference. Give us the recap on that, mate.

Luke Daly (12:59)
Yeah, I mean, it was a brilliant three or four days. I kind of lost track at this point. It all blurred into one. We might show some snippets as well from some recordings you did while we were there. But I suppose to understand where we've been, the conversation started and I'll keep talking about a year ago where industry called for some more collaboration as much as possible to minimize some dates and minimize some costs as well, frankly, at the end of the day. And that's where ARI New South Wales and ASSA were able to come together.

and create the Spark Conference. Spark, I don't know if you guys know the theme song for Spark Dave, I don't know if you're in the room that early, because I think you might have had a few big nights there. Or late nights, maybe not big, just late. ⁓

David (13:37)
No,

look, I wasn't in the room for everything. We all had late nights, but also had some other pending appointments and work to do in my job too, mate.

Luke Daly (13:45)
Yeah. So now look, Spark is and was designed around sparking interest and sparking hype, sparking that next thought. And we had this little tagline. It only takes a small spark to start a big conversation. And there was lots of those that were started fundamentally focused obviously on the aquatics and the swim school side of things as well. We had a bunch of panels. So a lot of different people sharing their views. So instead of just people, you know, this is how to do it. There was a lot of different people that sharing those voices. We had some amazing keynotes.

Speaking as well, Michael McQueen was a highlight. Mike Knapp speaking about neurodiversity. I'm the K Hassan or Amna Kara Hassan on Thursday open for those of those of the people that could join us after the ASSA awards on the Wednesday night. She was wonderful. We had a lot of really big conversations that started to happen and the feedback ⁓ says that it was a good event. So that's what matters to me.

David (14:36)
It was. Some of the peripheral things are where the connection really happens and it's always fun at these events. So we're going to cut to a little bit of tape now that you'll hear. We all headed down to Bondi Beach at 6am as the sun was rising down there at the... What do they call those guys who swim down there early in the morning? I've just forgotten the polar bears or something.

Luke Daly (14:58)
I just call it the icebergs pool, but...

David (15:00)
icebergs.

That's what they are. And so we headed down there was a massive group of us here. Let's just cut and have a quick listen and recap to what happened down there.

A lot of fun for everybody down there. Luke, in the morning, it was absolutely beautiful. And those are the things that make memories, connections to industry for a long time ahead.

Luke Daly (15:19)
Yeah. And I did win the splash about trophy just for the record. Well, not the relay trophy. So half the people had hopped out. So the competition was halved, but I still, I still got a trophy and

David (15:22)
Yeah.

Was that for just the question

about the most?

Luke Daly (15:32)
I was pretty good. But no, you know, do you want to know my biggest compliment that I got out of that? It was from a legendary New Zealand coach actually who reviewed the footage for us. Brett Naylor, so legendary New Zealand coach. And he reviewed it and he was a big fan of my straight arm freestyle. It's a big, slappy arm that comes through the water, just bouncing everyone else out of the pool.

David (15:33)
You call them.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Yep. Sorry.

Fair... Come on.

Which

is you representing AO and making up for my lack of swimming ability. So I appreciate you really carrying me on your back there and representing AO. right. Other events. It's not all about you, mate. Not all about... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, this is true. Big shoulders, mate. Big shoulders. Look, it's not all about you. There's been other things going on too, mate. So look, Royal Life, New South Wales had their Swimposium recently. I preached, I suppose, at that around things that we talk about on the AO podcast about...

Luke Daly (16:06)
Been doing it for years, mate, carrying years, so no point stopping now.

David (16:25)
You know, if we don't get engagement with community, right. And if we don't get our infrastructure projects, right, then what happens? And if we don't get our maintenance procedures, right. And accidents on site happens, which they do all the time through lack of training and attention to detail and compliance with regulatory matters, with dangerous goods, et cetera, et cetera. Then what happens consumers all of a sudden stop engaging with us and as blue fit.

were explaining early as we capped on that. It's about community activity and engagement. We need to do everything to protect that. So important. So Royal Life's Swimposium a lot of stuff going on there, looking at infrastructure in the future. Australian Water Safety Summit there as well. LIWA, I made it across to the West, another event in WA. Waves New Zealand, I didn't make it across there. I haven't heard too much about that, but I assume that was a success for those that went. Yeah.

Luke Daly (17:14)
It looks good from

all records. Alex Calwell who listens to our podcast, he said it was good. I reviewed his little post there on LinkedIn. by all accounts, it was a great night, a great conference as well.

David (17:25)
Yeah. And look, I do want to touch on the Australian water safety summit because that goes into the drowning report. We're to do a bit of a recap and a discussion on that soon, Luke. So just hold your horses on that one for me, because I know there's things to talk about there. But just before we get to that part of our discussion, upcoming events, let's look, we've got looked at the past. Let's get into what's not so much a crystal ball, but just the calendar. It's all on there. We don't need to be in Australiamos. Just look at the calendar.

Luke Daly (17:49)
Well, we,

we hope it's all on there and forgive me for anyone that we've forgotten about the events that have happened over the last few months. There's been an immense amount of them. I did forget about the African swim schools association that just had their conference very recently as well. The inaugural run inaugural, should say one there. ⁓ no, maybe it was in, it was in Cape town. So it looked great. It looked like a good conference too. So

David (18:05)
Sorry, let's just kind of give some. That will.

All right,

amazing.

Luke Daly (18:15)
Can't

forget about that one overseas. The US Swim Schools Conference is coming up as well, along with, you know, more very soon, I guess you'd say next week, assuming that I can launch this podcast within the next day or two. Next week is ARV in Melbourne. David, you're heading down.

David (18:33)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I understand you're going to be presenting on a panel with your expert opinion on whatever thing it is that will be discussed. I'll be there with Maitronics commercial exhibiting. Come and say good day. Plenty going on. If you're there, turn up. We look forward to seeing you. High fives, drinks all around. Buy us a drink. Always happy.

Luke Daly (18:54)
Don't have too many drinks though, because we'll probably try and record a podcast or two. So if you want to come on the podcast, can bring the mics. Here they are. Bring the mics and we'll record one with you if you've got something to say.

David (19:02)
Yeah, no, I think we can incorporate,

I think we can incorporate both together and that will be more fun. ⁓

Luke Daly (19:08)
We do

actually get a lot of calls for that as in when can we just do one at the pub? ⁓ And the cool part is you just never know if we have or not. We just haven't told anyone.

David (19:12)
Yeah, I think let's do it. Let's do it. I have eight.

Yeah, well, I,

to be honest, I don't know if I've told you this, so I'm releasing this to you now, but ARV were definitely interested in us setting up and doing a podcast at the conference. ⁓ yeah, so we're, we're going to do that, Luke. So let's go. look, a couple of other events straight after ARV, ⁓ across to Adelaide for SwimCon, and their event over there into a couple of weeks later. Or in fact, I don't even know when it is, but it's coming up soon though. The Ari Awards night.

Luke Daly (19:27)
Well, haven't shared that with me. That sounds awesome.

Mid October I

think, yeah.

David (19:46)
And then look, end of year, connects are about to start happening. Can't believe we're talking about end of year, but I think there's obviously the overseas things happening as well. Pool Horizons, Piscina Barcelona.

Luke Daly (19:59)
Equinale.

David (20:00)
Well, Aquanale, funny you mentioned Aquanale, FSB, that's in Cologne or Cologne? No, no, ⁓ no, no, this is in, no, not there, no, this is West Germany, get your East and West correct. So Cologne is in, or Cologne is in what was West Germany. But anyway, amazing, amazing conference over there, amazing trade show with FSB and Aquanale and a whole bunch of you.

Luke Daly (20:05)
Is FSB like the old school KGB? ⁓ But it was.

Right.

You've been.

David (20:26)
are heading over there have an amazing time. I wish I could join you. I have had the pleasure of being at that show once before two years ago. It is a whole lot of fun and there's a whole lot of learning to be had. IACS as well, obviously meeting over there, which a bunch of you are involved in. So Luke, I think we need to make sure we finish with some more in-depth content and thought around the drowning report recap. The drowning figures released.

very recently by Royal Life, their annual drowning report. Not great, showing some figures that as an industry wouldn't be happy with. We saw all the photos going up online, everybody holding the sign with their profile and then getting their photo taken with the sign. But what does it actually mean? I think you and I should have a look and break down those figures, particularly from your side, Luke, very passionate in your paid employment role, but it's a passion project for you two around swimming.

and teaching youngsters to swim and not even just youngsters, but learn to swim generally. So thoughts around some of the numbers there and, your role in that.

Luke Daly (21:29)
Yeah, so I think I largely penned a lot of my thoughts on my LinkedIn profile when it first came out and it's

David (21:34)
Shameless plug from Luke

on his LinkedIn profile, by the way, and you should. Some good stuff.

Luke Daly (21:39)
Occasionally I put some good stuff up. Mostly it's just photos of me. Because heaven forbid I use Instagram to put photos up on. No, look, in all seriousness, I do like to put a little bit of thought out there, I guess. And I think about things quite deeply, specifically in this space. I suppose it's tough to articulate and it took me actually a long time to write the post that I put out because it is a very sensitive space. Drowning is confronting. It's the first line in my post and it just is. I don't think it's ever good.

and

Certainly the report paint paints a bleak picture overall, 27 % up on the, on the 10 year average is not great. And I think it's important though, when we do consider these things to delve down into the data, uh, cause at the end of the day, we all want to make solutions. want to provide solutions so that we can prevent preventable drownings. No, it just shouldn't happen when it's preventable. And so we look at that. And so my other line that I've written about is that there's, there's hope in the data.

There are some categories and some groups that, provide us with a hope. And obviously in my paid employment, in my job as the CEO of the Australian Swim Schools. Yeah. Well, you look at it, right? You look at it. have for children, age zero to four, drowning deaths are down 21%. Bearing in mind that every single, so bearing in mind that every single drowning death is sad and a tragedy for children, age zero to four.

David (22:48)
Let's go like, me the good news. Give me the good news.

Say that again. Say that again. Sorry?

Luke Daly (23:05)
Years the drowning deaths are down 21 % on the 10 year average and for children for sorry, five to 14 that the numbers are steady when almost every other age bracket has happened. Sorry, has risen.

David (23:16)
So

even the communists knew, give me a child to the age of seven, I'll show you the man. If we can teach children how to be safe around water, which is obviously what's happening in those statistics more and more there, this is generational change for the future and the improvement of the decrease of drowning statistics.

Luke Daly (23:36)
Yeah. And look, the future stats will be interesting to see as well. The challenge I suppose that we have as an industry completely is maintaining and keeping people swimming as long as possible, whether that's through swimming lessons at school. But the proof is here in the pudding that swim schools work and it's there in the numbers. So if we can work out how to, and we're never going to cover it off on this podcast because I could probably speak to it for about an hour and a half, but you we need to reconnect the sport of swimming with learn to swim because it's that middle area that

that is suffering, and looking at that. So maintaining people in swimming lessons for as long as possible, and connecting the love. Like if we look at it and we had Matt Simpson from Swimming Australia present at the Spark Conference about that, the pathways between learner swim, and high performance swimming. But for me, it's about instilling swimming as a sport again, as an institutional sport. And I'm probably a bit biased towards that because I grew up swimming every Friday night. that was just what I did. So.

That's the passion piece for me is keeping people in swimming as long as possible because yeah, you're right. If you learn those skills and you find a passion for those skills, you're more likely to keep going.

David (24:41)
Community engagement again, that community activity piece. In a future podcast, I'm going to flag this. I want to talk about a segment of the statistics that are going the wrong way, why that's happening and how we can reduce it. I think there is a technology in place to do that. I don't want to have that discussion today. I think we've gone long enough on our returning podcast, but I do want to talk about that segment of older Australians who are engaging with the water and not always coming out of the water.

which is unacceptable and where it's preventable, we should be preventing it and there are things we can do. So we'll talk about that.

Luke Daly (25:13)
And I

think that's where we do want to talk about solutions. Yeah, we don't just want to dwell in these numbers. We want to talk about solutions so we can ⁓ work to increase the water safety data in all, all groups, in all age groups as well and areas.

David (25:19)
Yep. Yep.

Correct.

But the work that's been done at the zero to four level is obviously paying off and incredible. So look, congratulations, not to you, Luke, but to all of the swim school professionals around this country, the corporates that sit behind them to build those programs, promote those programs, anybody who's got anything to do with the marketing, the development, the process, the finance, the admin and the in the pool lessons.

You are doing a great job and we applaud you for making it a priority in this country amongst mums and dads. It's obviously working. Luke, as we come to leave this podcast, I think

You know, you and I both love good leadership stories, snippets as well. And I'd like to leave with one, think. And there's a picture that I know is important to you sitting beyond your right shoulder that I'd love you just to share with us a little bit about for a minute on what that picture is and what it means to you.

Luke Daly (26:26)
Yeah, so I think this is gonna be a new segment, right? It's not just a one-off thing that we're gonna look at. We're gonna try and chat through some. Go on.

David (26:30)
I think I've got a name for it. Your name

is Luke Daly. My name is David Stennett. You put those initials together, it's LDS. And so it becomes the Leadership Download Snippet.

Luke Daly (26:44)
okay. The LDS.

David (26:46)
The LDS. I'm saying, I'm just saying,

just something like that. Anyway, you got that picture. Just finish this off. Tell us a little bit about what it is, man. What's going on there?

Luke Daly (26:55)
Yeah. And so, yeah, just let's expand on this, just a little bit, this segment, because I think it's an important one. We all have busy schedules and we don't like that we're busy, but it is a reality of our life, particularly coming through into summer. And so if this is the kind of leadership takeaway that you can have for a fortnight, and that's probably what we'll bring to it as well. What's a leadership thought that we've had or are thinking about or a book that's inspired us over the past fortnight For me, that photo there, and we'll share something on social media too, but

It's a photo of the monument to the discoveries. So I'm starting to hit an age where I'm starting to appreciate these kinds of things. I think when we're young, we don't quite realize the impact and the importance of them. But a couple of years ago, I was actually with you, Dave, when we went on this trip to Lisbon and we walked down or we scooted down across the cobblestone pathways and got an arm workout on the way.

David (27:42)
That was a rattling,

jaw-breaking, just brain-shaking experience. Scootering for about six kilometres over the rough cobblestone.

Luke Daly (27:52)
Wondering where the heck we were going and then all of a sudden we pull up here at what we now know to be is a monument of discoveries which is a beautiful statue a beautiful monument down there on the river in In Lisbon the reason it struck me so much. I haven't been taken by something quite as much Before and perhaps not even again because I stood there and it just took me back I didn't know much about Portugal until we went I'd not that well traveled but this

David (27:54)
have no idea.

Luke Daly (28:18)
monument and well, well, you can see the photo behind me kind of, but basically, the Port, Portugal is only a small country, right Dave? You know more about, I suppose, geopolitics than I do, but it's quite a small country physically.

David (28:28)
Yeah, and facing

out onto the open ocean out there onto the Atlantic Ocean, it missed out on all the trade going around the Mediterranean down to the south that Spain took a hold of and all the nations around the Mediterranean were getting a hold of for, you know, a thousand plus years previous. And it was a bit isolated out onto the open ocean going out to, you know, at that point nowhere where their little fishing boat's going to get them.

Luke Daly (28:53)
Yep. So they basically invented, guess you'd say, ⁓ pioneered a new form of sail called the caravel, which back then in these times, they allowed their boats to go faster, further, which gave them the advantage on a trade perspective, obviously, but also from ⁓ a defense or attack perspective as well. And that really put them on the map from a trade perspective and they managed to control a lot of those movements up through Europe. So quite a powerful little country.

David (29:04)
Further? Carry more?

Well, trade,

they created the trade route that moved all of the spices because it was getting harder and harder to move it through the Middle East and contentions there through the Ottoman Empire at the time. So they created the trade route that went out through the Mediterranean down south along the coast of Africa, back up around the coast of India. So you will see, you know, the port of Goa in India is a Portuguese port, all down the coast of Africa were Portuguese ports, where they set up that all international trade.

basically had to stop their restock, get their boats fixed, and they had to deal and pay their taxes and services to the Portuguese who controlled it. And all the way around to our neck of the woods at Jakarta, anyone who's been to Jakarta would know that the setup through there from the Portuguese too, at one time before the Dutch.

Luke Daly (30:04)
South America as well, right? Brazil. So for me, the leadership effort here is it's displayed in this monument. You won't see it on my photo, but I'll post a photo on social media. It's a really cool representation of it takes everyone. takes all different types of people to make something really great. It wasn't just the leader of the pack or the captain that made it great. The photo you'll see there's preachers, there's probably servants, I guess, in that era as well. There's military, there's

David (30:06)
Yep.

Luke Daly (30:32)
priests, there's Kings, there's Royals and the captain out the front there showing where to go, I guess. But it's a, for me, it's a really, yeah, to me, it's a really, there's also navigators on there. So to me, it's a really visual representation of we need to acknowledge that, you know, we may be good at one thing, but it takes another team member to be good at another thing to truly make something great. That's the leadership takeaway for me there, Dave.

David (30:37)
Yep. Navigating the way forward.

Yeah, look, I'd add one more thing to that. And quite clearly, there's another consistency between all of them. And based on this, my 19 year old son will be carved into a statue one day and that's they all had mullets.

Luke Daly (31:09)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's a bow. They weren't me mullet.

David (31:10)
that mean mullet. Those,

you got to zoom in. you get a look at this, you got to zoom in. There's some really mean mullets on this statue too. So just keep that in mind as well. It could be all of the things Luke spoke about. It could just be a haircut.

Luke Daly (31:24)
No, it's definitely not just the haircuts and there's also ⁓ artists on there as well and musicians. just, yeah, I really like. They definitely did. They still do to be fair. I wonder if they had piercings and tattoos back in this era, but anyway, no, for me, yeah, I think remembering as, as leaders, remembering that it's not just us out there. We need people as well. And as if we're just a functional, player in the game as well in this moment.

David (31:30)
they had the best mullets.

That's right. ⁓

Luke Daly (31:50)
then it does take the peers around us. So, you the age old battle between sales and marketing or sales and finance or operations versus sales or it seems to be everyone versus sales.

David (32:00)
Well, I'm

telling you, even in this story, mate, it took a new form of a sale to get them where they needed to go. So I've always relied on sales. That's one of the sales people out there. Everybody's in sales on that argument. We're going to leave you to argue about that in the car and the workplace, wherever you are. It is awesome to be back. We've, we've missed you. We, we hope you've missed us a little bit too. Looking forward to seeing it ARV and around the various places coming up. Luke, you good? Well.

Luke Daly (32:06)
⁓ well, Salsie is very important, David.

I'm good. You good?

David (32:29)
On that case then, A-O.

Luke Daly (32:32)
Let's go.