Berry's Graham Ford recognised for service to Surf Lifesaving at international and national levels

Mr Ford began his career with Bronte Surf Life Saving Club in the late 1980s when his children signed up to nippers.

Little did he know that his initial volunteer role would eventually see him become the sixth president of Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA), lobbying and meeting with senior federal ministers, to travelling the world as president of the International Life Saving Federation.

Mr Ford's dedication to surf lifesaving during his tenure has ensured that the future of the service is in a strong position.

In 2014, he initiated the ground work for a corpus fund that has now raised more than $23 million for the community organisation.

He has been awarded numerous state and branch awards, along with being the recipient of more than 120 national awards including SLSA Life Membership in 2017.

While the awards are very humbling for Mr Ford, he said that it "of course" is not why he does what he does.

"What we do, is not for seeking recognition, it's a passion to keep our beaches safe," he said.

"It (SLSA) is such a great organisation and there's so many passionate individuals out there that want to protect the public, it's quite a unique organisation, it probably is the largest volunteer group in Australia, what they do is just very iconic."

"When I think about Australia, some natural things come to mind like the Australian Digger and I think the Surf Lifesaver is closely aligned with that."

While Mr Ford has travelled to club's all around Australia, his heart still lies at his original club, Bronte.

Despite living in Berry, he still makes the trip all the way up to Sydney to patrol Bronte Beach.

"I still do my patrols, I just completed 30 years of patrols at Bronte, I thought it was really important throughout my journey to keep my toes in the sand, and keep as close as possible to the volunteers," Mr Ford said.

"I think if you hold a role, you have to be firmly placed at the grassroots level, where your membership is."

The greatest lesson that Mr Ford has learned from his time in a leadership role, is how important it is to be in touch with the volunteers.

"You have to listen to the what the volunteers are saying," he said.

"When I took on the role as president, I just had one goal and that was to make the lives of our volunteers easier."

Mr Ford and his wife Trish have travelled to beaches all across the country and done patrols, and listened to everything the volunteers had to say about factors that affected them.

He removed a lot of the paperwork for volunteers, used technology to deliver frontline services, introduced several initiatives to simplify rules, regulations and policies, while also continuing to remove barriers to participation.

"At the end of the day our volunteers are the ones on the frontline, they are the ones out there saving lives, so we have to do whatever we can to support them."

Mr Ford has had multiple generations of his family go through the same club at Bronte, many of whom he still patrols with this day.

"There is nothing better than being on patrol with one of your kids and on top of that, have your grandkids there as well, what other organisation allows you to do that," he said.

"I think that's what's unique about surf lifesaving, at every level, it's a family environment."

Mr Ford said for him, his personal greatest achievement throughout his career has been helping to break down the gender imbalance in leadership positions within Surf Life Saving Australia.

"In 1980 they finally admitted women into surf life saving, I thought it was important we have women in leadership roles."

He was able to convince the Australian board to expand to have independent directors as well as increasing diversity.

Mr Ford was the sixth president to be elected in 103 years, and prior to his time as president there had never been any women on the board.

Currently, the Surf Life Saving Australia board now has four women in high leadership positions.

"It was a real 'blokey' organisation, with the genesis of the organisation coming after the war, but we've worked hard to break down those barriers, we are always encouraging young members to step up into leadership roles."

"That has made a huge difference, we now have almost 50 per cent of our membership who are women, and they are continuing to take up a lot of leadership roles.," he said.

"I think surf lifesaving teaches our youth to believe in themselves and know they can overcome any challenges."

Mr Ford said he will continue to patrol his patch and work closely with the organisation until time comes for him to give it up.

"I will be at Bronte until the day that I'm no longer able to be," he said.

"My message to people who are thinking of joining is to do it, just enjoy yourself, have fun and make the surf club your second home."

"It's a place you can be safe, secure and there's so many different opportunities for our members."