30 Years of Keith

Keith was recruited to Penrhos to assist then-Rowing Coordinator, Sandy Burt. He had already helped to start PLC Rowing and was coaching at St Hilda’s out of the Hale Rowing Shed but was encouraged by his peers to take up the opportunity to coach the 1st VIII team at Penrhos. Of course, Keith was excited to be recognised for the top spot in coaching, but throughout our chat (which involved over an hour of rowing stories and lots of exciting travel tales – to come…) Keith was very clear that he is passionate about coaching regardless of the division or category.

“It’s about providing a safe environment where rowers can flourish… where they can train, build their skills and resilience. It still makes me really proud when I hear alumni say they loved rowing at school.

For every girl that carries on with rowing beyond Penrhos – whether it’s to row with a club, at uni or intervarsity, for WA, Australia or at the Olympics – I’m equally proud of them.”

Naturally, with 30 years at Penrhos, Keith is across all the highs and lows. Of the highest highs, the early-2000s were the glory days of Penrhos Rowing and Keith remembers them as the time “we won everything.” Looking through the books, since 1995, Penrhos has logged two1st VIII trophies, five Wendy Zuideveld Perpetual Trophies for Schoolgirl Head of the River Regatta Champion School, and nine Perpetual Trophies for Schoolgirl Premiers.

In 2017, we experienced our biggest low: after 25 years, Penrhos had to leave the rowing shed at Canning Bridge (which wasn’t our decision, and that’s all we’ll say about that…). This created many challenges, most notably in the access to our boats for training; from a full bay at Canning Bridge (which housed eight Eights, five Quads and singles), to half a bay (two Eights and a few quads) at Wesley (who kindly took us in, for which we remain very grateful). For the past seven years, this has meant sharing boats between squads and year groups (not ideal for training sessions), training around Wesley’s schedule and essentially having no base to call our own.

Then came COVID, when regattas stopped and training was reduced to one morning or afternoon per week, per rower – of course, these were individual sessions. And with social distancing in place, Keith recalls using a pully system to haul the speed boats in and out of the water by himself. While describing this to me, my mind went to the fact that Keith’s determination and passion to keep the rowing program going, meant he adapted to a COVID-way of rowing when he could have otherwise taken a paid break (…once again with the resilience!).

In noting his determination to keep rowing alive through COVID, I was prompted to ask Keith who he looks up to; who is someone he admires – and why?

“Cameron Edwards was the Captain of the UWA Boat Club before me and was a lateral thinker – he didn’t think in a straight line but went outside the box. Always asking, ‘how can we make this better?’ I think that’s a great way to think about things: where it’s obvious what needs to be done, I like to think how else we can do it.

“Because that’s what we’re here for; to make sure the girls make good life choices and keep on doing so.”

Looking forward, Keith says the new boatshed will be a “game changer” and he’s excited for the chance to get the wider Penrhos community involved in rowing again. Did you know: Penrhos used to host a staff comp, wherein Keith would train staff over a three-week period, which then culminated in a race – often with up to 60 staff members getting involved, all in good fun! When we lost our own shed – and with that, easy access to many of our boats – the staff rowing program was lost, too. This ended the friendly office banter about, and culture towards, rowing. With the new boatshed, where we’ll have a massive two-and-a-half bays (so many boats!), Keith is excited to build that up again.

Outside rowing, Keith loves his wife, Emma, and two step-kids (now in their 20s) – and travel. Where Emma and Keith travel together to places like Italy, Keith also enjoys cycling and/or trekking through remote regions, explaining that “walking and thinking about my next step [on the trek or in life] relaxes me.” 

He has trekked through South America, Tibet, India, Nepal and Sikkim, including traveling through the Himalayas 12 times; and cycled from Bangkok to Singapore, through southern Thailand and the whole of Malaysia into Singapore, from north to south Vietnam and into Cambodia, and through East Timor. Since Emma likes the classic type of travel (like most of us!), Keith has usually done the cycling trips with friends – but notes that many of them aren’t up to it anymore. So, where Keith is well into his 60s but is himself ‘still up to it’, I’m left wondering if rowing played its part in that… Perhaps we all need to get involved?!

Keith applies this type of “pure adventure” travel to Penrhos through Service and Leadership expeditions, having travelled to Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos with Penrhos groups. These trips involve living in villages for three weeks, trekking in jungles and helping in remote communities to build classrooms, toilets and student accommodation. 

“With the service trips, I can really see the good in them; what it does for those communities and the resilience it builds in the girls – plus, there’s no phones!”

If ever you find yourself in a room with Keith, ask him about his travels. The stories aren’t your typical travel accounts; I heard about leaches, near-misses with venomous snakes, village chiefs, running out of food in the Amazon, assisting on missing-person searches – and there’s lots more, I’m sure. We just ran out of time.

To finish, Keith’s own words describe why he’s dedicated almost half his life to Penrhos: