Sawtell Beach Water Rats continue 30 years of support for Nippers Coffs Coast Coffs Coast - popup ad by News Of The Area - Modern Media - March 9, 2025 Sawtell Beach Water Rats Les Davis OAM and Frank Watkin donating a Kracka fiberglass rescue board to Sawtell Surf Club Nippers. LAST Tuesday morning on Sawtell Beach at dawn, Les Davis OAM and Frank Watkin presented a Kracka fibre glass rescue board to the Sawtell Surf Club Nippers on behalf of the Sawtell Beach Water Rats. The Water Rats are a group of senior surfers who catch the waves at Sawtell Beach at 6am every day of the year, as they have since 1996 when Frank and several other Nippers’ parents and friends officially formed the group. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au Back in those early days, Frank and his colleagues raised enough funds through raffles at local pubs and clubs to donate 10 rescue boards, costing $700 each then, to the Nippers. The latest board cost $1750 and was funded by Les Davis Photography. Les Davis joined the Water Rats when he moved to Sawtell from Armidale in 2020. As a keen photographer, he has taken hundreds of photos of the sunrise at Sawtell Beach, Last September, his Water Rats mates told him how much they liked his dawn photos of their favourite stretch of sand. The local News Hub newsagent in Sawtell said they wanted some local postcards and canvas prints of the photos to sell to tourists, so Les went into business with them. The Sawtell Hotel loved Les’s Sawtell Beach sunrises and bought them to put up in all their guest rooms and upstairs hallways. Les also sold pictures of Sawtell Beach sunrises on beach towels, blankets, cushions, jigsaw puzzles, coffee mugs, fridge magnets, thongs and yoga mats through his Les Davis Photography business. He has also produced a Sawtell Beach 2025 calendar. It is from these proceeds that Les has taken funds to purchase the rescue board for the Sawtell Nippers. A collection of Les’s merchandise is on show at Sawtell Art Gallery along with his entry in Sawtell Art Group’s “Loved and Domestic Bliss” exhibition now showing until Sunday 9 March. Les and his wife Libby will be leaving Sawtell and moving to the Woodglen Retirement Village at Erina on the NSW Central Coast next week. They will be remembered for their contribution to the Coffs Coast cultural scene as the mentors and founders of ArtsNational Coffs Coast, which provides interesting arts-related talks, and of course, for Les’s Sawtell Beach Sunrise Photos. Les is donating the copyright of these photos to the Sawtell Chamber of Commerce for them to use to promote Sawtell Beach. By Andrea FERRARI Sawtell Beach Water Rats in foreground and Sawtell Surf Club Nippers at back, before dawn in February 2025. Les Davis’s ‘Lovers at First Light on Sawtell Beach’ photos and merchandise at Sawtell Art Gallery. Across the ocean at Sawtell Beach at dawn, by Les Davis. ‘Sawtell Beach’ by Les Davis.
