Team Auckland Masters Swimmers – one of New Zealand’s longest-running GLBT community groups – is turning the big 2 – 0 in January; that’s 20 years of swimming cozzies, chocolate fish and overseas trips! Group founder Ron Judd and early member Cynthia Borne met up with Hannah JV to pore over a few photos from the ’90s in preparation for their big anniversary.


“Looking through a photo album is a great way to remind yourself how much time has gone by,” laughs Ron Judd as he discovers a few leather-clad fancy dress up photos from the late ’90s. In some of these shots I have to look twice to see if they’re even me!”


Team Auckland Masters Swimmers (TAMS) got its start thanks to fresh-faced Ron Judd around 20 years ago when he decided to formalise a group of gay and lesbian swimmers who would want to compete at masters’ level (aged 25-105). 
TAMS started at Auckland’s Tepid Baths in September 1991 and was formalised in early 1992.


“I decided that we should formalise the group because I wanted some permanency with it,” says Ron. “I was into competing and at the time you had to belong to a New Zealand Masters’ Swimming club to compete. I was part of the Waterhole Masters’ Swimming club before, that but it was a group that was very family orientated; as a gay guy, it could be a little lonely. 
“I was aware there were a lot of gay guys out there swimming, so I had the idea to get a group together. There weren’t many gay community groups around at that time – you could go to gay bars, but that was kind of it. We were part of that rise of the gay community group – there are a lot of 20-year anniversaries coming up at the moment.”


Cynthia says, “These guys went to the second Gay Games, but they all went swimming with different groups. What Ron wanted was for all these lesbian and gay people who went to the games to be swimming under one name.”


Ron says the group’s start at the Tepid Baths was no accident, given that the spot was known as a cruising area for many guys. “It was easy to gather my friends who I knew who were down there and get together, but there were a lot of guys who fitted that stereotype of the quiet gay loner who were down at ‘the Teps’ too,” he says.

“At first we had to give people a ring-around on Friday night to see if they were all going to turn up to the pool the next morning. 
“Once things started sticking, we started getting a group together formally and jobs like secretary – me – started coming together.”


Cynthia says the staff at the pools were always friendly and never once gave TAMS grief for being a GLBT group. 
“People at the pools didn’t really notice that we were a gay group at first,” says Cynthia. “Until we started to have this thing called the ‘Chocolate Fish swim meet’! We had a number of straight guys who worked as lifeguards for the event and they weren’t that surprised that we were there as a big gay group – they were more impressed with the fact that we were this masters group that was huge!


“When we’d have these chocolate fish events, we would give out chocolate fish as prizes. It wasn’t an official event – it was the sort of event where if you came first, or last, or somebody liked your togs or your legs, you’d receive a chocolate fish. We would run these events like the ‘Pink Flamingo’ events they have at each Gay Games.”


Once the group had settled into a routine, swimmers worked towards travelling to New York for the Gay Games in 1994. There the team competed in events, as well as the Pink Flamingo, a Gay Games tradition that combines outrageous costumes, music, dance and synchronised swimming with humour and satire, to make for an exciting, fun and somewhat revealing evening.


“Going to the Gay Games for me was such an experience,” says Ron. “I can’t speak for the whole group that was there, but being totally immersed in this gay culture was a new thing for me and I was totally blown away.”


“For the 20th, we’re doing a swim meet on the weekend of Big Gay Out,” says Cynthia. “It will be competitive and non-competitive – it’s mainly a participation meet. We’re going to create a new cup for the event for a relay against Different Strokes from Wellington. We’re going to have a relay to decide who gets the cup each year. After the swim meet, we’re having an anniversary dinner.” 


Anyone who has been part of TAMS over the years is welcome to attend either event, the more the merrier at this special event. For more information, email Cynthia HERE or Damien