Riptide Magazine

2010 Goose Gosby Memorial Reminder

Wednesday, 10 March 2010 13:49

Just a quick reminder to get your entries in ASAP for the "2010 Goose Gosby Memorial". The 20th of March Comp date is only a week and half away and entries close on 12th March to guarantee your T-Shirt.

You can still enter on the day, but I can't guarantee that you will receive a T-shirt and the entry price will remain the same. There'll be plenty of fun and prizes (hopefully for all), so make sure you don't miss out!

Check out the PMBA MySpace to keep updated on the event

Download your Entry Forms here

About Goose.

His name was David Robert Gosby, born 14th October 1971. Born to be loved and remembered.

David grew up with his parents and older brother Andrew in Port Macquarie. He went to Hastings Primary School and then onto Eastport High. Schoolwork didn’t come easy for Goose and in Year 10 he decided to quit and try something else. He was accepted into the Hospitality Course at TAFE which he really enjoyed. However, at the end of that year he decided he would go back to school and give Years 11 and 12 his best shot. And so he did.

Those 2 years were definitely the best years in David’s entire life – because he ACHIEVED. He made it in all aspects of his life. After a lifetime of struggling with a congenital heart condition and undergoing open heart surgery at the age of 12 (1983), David, for the first time ever, started to enjoy good health. He programmed and disciplined himself to develop his fitness and muscles by surfing and exercising each day, proper diet and sleep. David also worked very hard with his studies in Years 11 and 12 and his efforts were to be rewarded.

His real love was always the surf. At 13 he worked weekends and after school to save up for his first surfboard. Goose loved surfing with his friends every opportunity he could get. It wasn’t until David had to have a pacemaker after his heart operation that he decided to trade his surfboard for a bodyboard because he felt it was safer for him. And his love for the surf then turned to a passion! He always said “I don’t live to surf, I surf to live!”

Goose was one of the original members of the Hastings Body Boarding Club founded in Port Macquarie September 1987. Along with good friends Michael Eppelstun, Peter Gleeson, Ashley & Adam Murray, Simon Andrews, Stewart Clark, Matthew Hay, Simon & Patrick Navin, Wayne Hadfield, Todd DeGraff, Anthony Summers and many others, Goose competed to win local and state competitions.

He regularly came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd and was finally recognised in 1988 as 10th best bodyboarder in New South Wales. He was thrilled to receive sponsorship in July 1990 by Fox Wetsuits and Hot Buttered, which encouraged him greatly. He surfed early mornings before school and again after school.

On 19th September 1990 one Wednesday afternoon after school (having completed the HSC Trials and only 3 weeks off his 19th birthday) David went surfing with a mate at Lighthouse Beach. We’ll never know the real reason he drowned that day because he was a very competent bodyboarder. Only God knows and that’s Gods’ business. Goose’s faith in God was real. The man who pulled him out of the sea was a songwriter – he wrote a song which went to air called “Brave Young Heart” and the words expressed Goose’s courage and zest for life.

Dave suffered much during his life and yet never complained of pain. No-one ever knew. He could always see the positive side to things. He was always there for his friends and could see good in everyone. His philosophy in those last 2 years was “No grog, no drugs, live life the best you can, for God, for country, for self”.

In his Bodyboarding Resume David wrote:

Goose said “I don’t want to be famous. I just want to be remembered”.