Brett Connellan’s documentary Attacking Life – which captures his inspiring journey to recovery after a life threatening shark attack – is debuting on Stan this Thursday 9 March after three years in the making.  The local surfer started as a motivational speaker four months after the 2016 attack on Bombo Beach and has been telling his story ever since. It wasn’t until Brett and friend Sam Tolhurst made an introductory video for his talks that they decided his story deserved a full feature in order to do it justice.While his motivational speaking tells the story through his own perspective, the documentary offers new angles from his parents, the people who saved his life on the beach, his surgeon and physio. It features the Moloka’i 2 O’ahu challenge Brett conquered last year, which involved a 54km ocean paddle between two islands in Hawaii. “A lot of the things that I experienced throughout the recovery applied to the paddle itself as it was both a physical and mental challenge,” Brett says. “It was also a good way to prove my attitude towards sharks which is one that is filled with respect and is very positive despite what's happened.”  With a single minded goal in life to use his experience to help others, Brett hopes the documentary will do just that. “When people go through challenges in life, it is easy to focus on the negative. I want to get people to look at struggle differently,” he says. “Whilst it’s easy to look at a negative experience like a shark attack, for me it was more of a positive experience especially looking back on it with the things I’ve learnt and the experiences I’ve gained.”While watching his story, Brett wants others to draw out their own experiences and use them as an inspiration to overcome the challenges that lie ahead.  “Everyone has their own version of that shark attack. People should seek inspiration from their own stories and not necessarily mine because I’m just a regular person that something very irregular happened to,” he says.You can hear him talk at Werri Beach as part of Gerringong’s SurfLife Music Festival on 1 April.

Kiama Preschool teacher Lindy Verryt is this month celebrating 40 years of teaching generations of our little ones.She says that one of the reasons she has stayed at this preschool for so long is because of the “lovely staff I’ve had the opportunity to work with over the years”.“People who come to this preschool stay,” says Lindy (known to all as Lindy Lou). “It’s a not-for-profit community-based school and all the teachers here work for the benefit of the children. In fact, most of the kids here think we teachers actually live at the preschool!”Two of the current staff members, Shayd Flegg, 25, and Marli Delfino, 17, are former students of Lindy’s, as are many of the parents. Lindy has seen many changes in the school – when she started the playground was just a vast space with some tiny trees and not much else. Now the trees provide shade for the kids, there are chickens, an award-winning vegetable garden, climbing frames and a wooden boat sailing in a stone river.“Kiama has really changed over those years, from a country town to the little metropolis that it now is. “The other major change is that both parents are working so this school is often not the first one the children have been to. So, we don’t have to ply them off their parents at the gate as they suffer from separation anxiety. “We used to stand at that gate and say, ‘mum and dad will be back soon’ and then we would distract them by saying, ‘look at those horses up on the hill’. Well now the horses are gone and it’s all houses instead!”Shayd says that what has stayed the same over the years is the community aspect of this school. “There have been so many changes in the wider aspect of education. We are very up to date with our professional development, reporting and parent interaction here, but the strong sense of community is still the same.” Marli says that while there were no chickens when she was here as a student, “We are strong on environmental and sustainable learning, looking after and being respectful of the world.”

If you thought Kiama’s hills were difficult to climb, how would you like to traverse 8,848 metres to the top of Mt Everest? Well, one Kiama resident has done just that. John Dover reached the summit of Mt Everest on 17 May after a one-and-a-half month journey, but his obsession with climbing the world’s tallest mountain started in earnest back in 2017.Kerry brought husband John on a trip to Nepal to travel to the Everest Base Camp, a 12-day round trip and the final stop before mountaineers make for the summit. Once they arrived, John told Kerry, “Well, that’s great that we’re here but if I’m standing here, then really I want to be at the top.” John, who is a helicopter pilot Lieutenant Commander in the Australian Defence Force, signed himself up for all the mountaineering and climbing courses he could as soon as the couple returned home.  Over the next few years, he took on climbing some of the world’s tallest peaks in preparation, including Mt Cook in New Zealand, Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America, Mont Blanc in the Alps and Nepal’s Ama Dablam, known as a “mountaineers mountain.” John went back to the Everest Base Camp as soon as he could, and spent two weeks with Kerry trekking to acclimatise to the high altitude. Before climbing Everest, however, the group climbed a 6,119 metre mountain called Lobouche as additional training. Talk about a warm up!After a second acclimation mission through the Khumbu icefalls, the group, which included two Americans, a Cuban, lead guide and three sherpas, had to wait for a 7-8 day gap of clear weather before they made the ascent safely. Such a gap appeared on 12 May, and the group set off at midnight. While the Cuban mountaineer became the first from his country to climb Everest, not everyone in the group was so lucky. One of the other climbers, one of the Americans, suffered a stroke at 8,000 metres on the way back down, and was carried back to camp before being helivaced to a hospital in Kathmandu. Thankfully, he is doing fine now, and is waiting to fly back home when he can. While surviving relatively unscathed, even John still suffered from a small bout of frostbite on his feet but feels fortunate to have made it without anything worse happening.  This year has been particularly deadly for Everest climbers, with 12 reported deaths and five others still missing, along with the countless rescue missions that take place. So, if you’re a Kiama resident thinking of making the climb, stay safe and rug up! Have a story you’d like to share? Tell us about it [email protected]

Today marks a very special milestone for a Uniting Mayflower resident, Gwen Wilson, who is celebrating her 103rd birthday.Gwen has called Gerringong home for over 45 years, living on Werri Beach in a house built with her late husband, David, until she was 100 years old.She has been visiting the town since 1957 when she and David, with her twin sister Jeane and her husband, built a holiday home.“We were down here just about every weekend and all school holidays," says Gwen, who has two daughters Janice and Judith.“It was a wonderful lifestyle and the kids loved it. They made friends down here and so did we."The four were founding members of the Gerringong Bowling Club and did volunteer work in the kitchen.“Other than being the family taxi driver, I didn’t have time for anything else, I was too busy playing bowls."Gwen and David celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.Gwen and David were married for 58 years. “When he asked me to marry him, I thought, ‘well, he’s too nice to let go so I’ll have to say yes’."Her tip for a long and healthy life is an unconventional one; “I always say it’s sunshine – because I used to bake myself – and salt water”.Although Gabby, the cook at Mayflower, believes it’s her bacon and egg breakfast she cooks her; “That’s how she got to be 103."As children, Gwen and Jeane spent a lot of time on the beach, where Gwen later took up surfing on the old blow up ‘Surf-o-Planes’.“I surfed down at Gerroa, even when I was quite old when no one was around. I was just an ordinary run of the mill.”When asked what her hobbies are now, she said, “Well, I’ve got an iPad”.“I’m never bored. I do jigsaw puzzles and solitaire on my iPad and when that’s charging, I read books or I watch my electric photo frame which goes round and round.”Gwen with her five grandchildren and nine great grandchildren celebrated her milestone on Sunday with a traditional espresso martini in hand.“On my 99th birthday, Danny [at Gerringong Bowling Club] put this martini in front of me.“Well, every birthday since, I’ve had one. I love them.”

Kiama’s love affair with ball sports is well-documented, but there’s a wealth of athletic success stories from lesser-known sports happening all the time.One of those recent success stories is 14-year-old motocross rider Jack Nunn, who is poised to become one of Australia’s best riders if his recent track record keeps up.Jack recently came within mere points of winning the Australian motocross title for his age bracket, placing second in NSW and Australia, and is waiting to see whether he’s qualified for the World Motocross Junior World Event in Romania in July this year.Jack’s passion for riding started when he received a bike at just five or six.“It was a little Chinese-made 50cc and it just grew from there. Dad’s always been into bikes so I was always looking at them anyway.”Around three years ago, Jack was lucky enough to be introduced to Matt Moss, a nine-time Australian motocross champion, who took him under his wing and began coaching him.From then on, Jack’s loved everything about motocross. “It’s everything really. Adrenaline, the support you get and you find out who supports you and it makes you grateful for that. Mum and Dad always have my back. I can’t put my finger on one thing.”Jack’s parents, Claire and Michael, are 100% supportive of their son’s dreams to make it as a motocross rider, but it’s not always easy keeping that dream alive on the South Coast of NSW.“It’s nowhere near as popular as football,” Claire told The Bugle. “There’s certainly a motocross community but you do have to travel if you want to be good at the sport to find the best tracks.” Jack says the best tracks closeby are in Nowra and Wollongong, but the most popular track is in Oakdale, a 90 minute drive from Kiama.That hasn’t slowed Jack down whatsoever, and the local community has pitched in where they can to help promote his races.“The very first person to give us any assistance was Kiama Cellars, which was right before the 2019 Australian titles,” Jack’s dad Michael told The Bugle.“We got some posters made up, which Red Rooster paid for and some of the local shops put up posters in their windows. The owner of Kiama Cellars gave Jack $50 on the spot, and that was the first time anybody believed in us to financially support us.”Jack’s also earned himself a handful of sponsors, his main sponsor being Pascall Plumbing and Excavations based in Nowra.His sights are firmly set on taking out the NSW and Australian titles next year, but as for the distant future, Jack wants to be a successful rider in the United States, the biggest market for the sport.He wouldn’t be the first successful Australian motocross champion in the states though; Jack looks up to brothers Jett and Hunter Lawrence, who have recently found success riding in America.“I’ve always had idols like Eli Tomac, but to have a couple of Aussies go over there and start killing it has been an inspiration that Aussies can make it over there and do well,” Jack says.