(From the Sydney Mum archive, originally published 2018.)

“We are like them, we were only born with the silver spoon on our mouth”, said Vanessa to me, one of the awesome Maroubra Surfing Mums, who entered a team at the SurfAidCup. She was talking about the mothers in Indonesia, one of the countries the Non-Profit humanitarian Organisation SurfAid is raising money for. SurfAid “aims to improve the health, wellbeing and self-reliance of families living in isolated regions connected to us through surfing”, it says on their website. Who, if not the Surfing Mums, should be aware of that and should try to help those mothers and their kids? This is why the SurfingMums group Maroubra decided to enter a team at a surf cup, where they most likely don’t have a chance to win – but that doesn’t matter. The four mothers from Maroubra (and Coogee) Kuntamari Crofts, Vanessa Richards, Liz Taylor and me, Ragna Swyter, want to raise the money (each team has to raise $5000 to participate) and HELP! What started as a crazy idea (which woman would like to compete against mostly male half professional and professional surfer? Who would think about raising at least $5000 when not working in a big business or without any connections to one?) has now grown into a VERY BIG thing! Three weeks ago we decided to organise an event to generate more money. We knew a raffle would be good, a sausage sizzle wouldn’t be bad either. We had a DJ (a former male surfing mum) and a venue – the M-Club – was luckily happy to host us. We sorted a date (SUNDAY, 15th of APRIL – 3pm-7pm!!!) and named it SUNDAY SESSIONS. The social media machine was starting to roll and after a slow start, we now get the donated prizes thrown at us! It is overwhelming and a huge sign of the great community in Maroubra and surf community Sydney wide! Just in this week we got our biggest prize donated: a handcrafted surfboard, value $1000 – from the shaper PB Custom in Mona Vale. We have got a lot of local businesses like The North End Café, Symmetry Massage, Life Coach Vashti Harper, M-Club, photographer Laurie Miller and Mary Oomens, the Southend Boardriders and the Maroubra Surfers Association and many more who support us, believe in us and in SurfAid and try to make this world a little bit better! If you want to come and support us (and want to try your luck in the raffle) come around on Sunday to the M-Club from 3pm. MClub (Maroubra Bowlo), 525 Malabar Rd, Maroubra. Whereas for us Surfing Mums, there are still four weeks to go to train for the big surf competition. We will try our best to show everyone we can do it! And of course, we will have a lot of fun and will be proud to represent the Surfing Mums and Maroubra!! The event will take place in Bondi on Friday, 18th of May. Come around and support us mums amongst all those shredding guys! About Writer, Ragna Swyter: Ragna is a full-time mum and therefore pretty busy raising her two beautiful kids. But in her earlier life, she was a journalist. The German immigrant loves to write so she is super happy to contribute to Sydneymum. When she has some time off you will usually find her in the water. Thanks to the wonderful group of the Surfing Mums ( www.surfingmums.com ), an Australia wide not-for-profit association, she can even get wet when her husband is at work! Ragna is one of the coordinators of the Surfing Mums, Maroubra.