Iceberger News 11th November 2020 Editor: Ria Bleathman Melbourne’s year-round open water swimming group Armistice Tribute Remembrance Day is commemorated on the 11th hour of the 11th month each year at the precise moment in 1918 when the Armistice came into effect to bring about the end of World War1. Remembrance Day is honoured by wearing Flanders poppies. Red poppies were among the first plants to grow in the devastated battlefields of northern France and Belgium, collectively known as ‘Flanders Fields’. In soldiers' folklore, the vivid red of the poppy came from the blood of their comrades soaking Weary Dunlop – WW2 Survivor Hand-made poppies. Photo: Lou Lockwood. the ground. and poppy wearer. Iceberger Lou Lockwood will again be placing her daughter-in-law’s (Colleen’s) hand-made poppies on the front fences of the neighbours in Hawthorn on Remembrance Day as she did earlier this year on Anzac Day because no-one was able to attend the Dawn Service or commemorate in groups. World War1 involved two well-known swimming Australians: Cecil Healy was a freestyle swimmer who won gold and silver medals at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. He was an early proponent of the new ‘Australian Crawl’ stroke and, after the Games, toured Europe exhibiting this new swimming style. Cecil was killed in Battle of the Somme in August 1918 and he remains the only Australian Olympic Gold medallist to die on the battlefield. Melburnian Frank Beaurepaire won three silver and three bronze medals in three separate Olympic games from 1908 to 1924. In between his Olympic medals he served in Europe in WW1. After the war in 1922, Frank with fellow lifesaver, Jack Chalmers achieved fame after rescuing a shark attack victim at Coogee Beach. Frank used the money raised from a fund set up in their honour to start Beaurepaires which became a national tyre business. He died in 1956 just before the Melbourne Olympic Games. Frank was posthumously inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1967. th 11 November 2020 © RBYC Melbourne Australia Miscellanies - Open Water Fears and Phobias It seems there are more words to describe our fears associated with the sea than there are to describe our love of the sea. There is a Greek-derived phobia for just about every fear we might have experienced as open water swimmers. Here is a shortened list: Autophobia fear of being alone (in open water). Bathophobia fear of depths or swimming in deep water. Fykiaphobia fear of seaweed. Galeophobia or Selachophobia fear of sharks. Ichthyophobia fear of fish. Kymophobia fear of waves. Submechanophobia fear of submerged objects like sunken ships. Thalassophobia fear of the sea or being in the sea. To the extent that the suffix -phobia denotes fear, the antonym or opposite is the suffix -philia. Given that fear of the sea is thalassophobia then our love of the sea is thalassophilia thus making Icebergers thalassophiliacs! This edition of the News coincides with Friday 13th. Fear of Friday 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia, which potentially causes another fear, that being a fear of long words which is called Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia and thereby creating a unique conundrum in that, by describing one fear, another is induced! Back at the home of the Brighton Icebergers LtoR: Rupert Hugh-Jones, Russell Parrington, Don Fisher, Warren Fisher Fran Johnson Michael Bruce LtoR: Peter Miglic, Jenny Vran, Andrew Mulholland, Peter Grose, Peter Maddison 20:20:20 2020 This edition of the News is dated 11/11 which is a numerical palindrome. I became only too aware of such a phenomenon during those grinding days of lockdown. I would wait expectantly each day for that instant at 8:20pm and 20 seconds when my 24-hour digital clock registered 20:20:20 2020. This event became a daily highlight in my otherwise featureless day and provided a poignant contrast with my pe-lockdown days of seemingly unrestrained excitement - those days are returning, ever so slowly. [Ed]. th 11 November 2020 © RBYC Melbourne Australia .