Almost a decade ago, when Darren Gould and his family were living down the road from the beach in Baldivis, his wife Susan told him she wanted their seven-year-old daughter Sydnee to grow up safe around the ocean and suggested they enrol her in surf lifesaving.
Little did the family know at the time, that suggestion would change the courses of all of their lives forever.
"We decided to take Sydnee to Nippers, and we tried to enrol her in Secret Harbour but they were full at the time, so we went 10km down the road to Mandurah Surf Lifesaving Club and Susan and Sydnee both joined up there," Darren said.
"Susan ended up telling me I needed to come down there and have a look because I would enjoy it - and the following year I was a volunteer and then became a lifesaver myself."
Darren's son Liam, who was 13 at the time, also joined the club, and all four Goulds spent every Sunday down at the beach learning about water safety.
Ten years on, the family are leaders at Mandurah Surf Lifesaving Club, have bronze medallions and Nipper rescue certificates, and regularly run patrols together.
"For the last five years I've been on the committee - in the first year I was director of lifesaving, for the next three years I was the club president, and this year I'm the club captain.
"It's such a family club, which is something we really love.
"We just clicked over 500 members and about 250 of them would be little Nippers, kids from 5-13."
During his time as a club leader, Darren watched his son and his daughter grow into their leadership roles and achieve every goal they set for themselves.
"I think for me the thing I enjoyed the most was being able to do my bronze medallion with Liam, and then getting to train my daughter for her bronze medallion.
"Now all three of us will be out on patrol at the same time on the beach."
It instilled in our kids the essence of giving back to the community.
Darren said he and Susan valued that lifesaving gave their family the ability to provide a service to the community.
"Both Susan and I are ex-army, and coming out of the army and finding surf lifesaving gave us that purpose again.
"It instilled in our kids the essence of giving back to the community."
Liam and Sydnee's volunteer work didn't go unrecognised, with both lifesavers being nominated for or winning both state and Peel sporting awards.
"Sydnee was named State Youth Lifesaver of the year in 2020 at just 14 years old.
"That was a very proud moment from my perspective - she was up against all the other kids under 15 in the state.
"And a year ago to the day Liam was named community leader of the year for the Australia Day awards and that was an extremely proud moment for me as well."
In 2021, Sydnee, Liam and Darren were all nominated for Mandurah Sport awards.
"Sydnee was nominated for youth volunteer and Liam and I were up against each other which was quite fun... neither of us won, so it was okay," Darren laughed.
Sydnee, who is now 16, is a lifesaver, youth trainer and Nipper age group manager and Liam, who is 22, is a director of education, trainer, patrol captain, jetski operator and IRB driver.
"I also think it really helped shape Liam to go in the direction he did after finishing high school.
"He is completing his nursing degree, and the heavy first aid courses during training really opened those doors for him as to what he should do."
Darren said that no matter how busy his family gets, they always make time to do what they love.
"We are still there every Sunday - we still get involved in the little things.
"This Christmas when it was 45 degrees we were down there from 9am-2pm and went home and had our Christmas after we got home.
"On average, between us we've probably done combined about 400 hours of patrolling every year."
When the Goulds aren't patrolling at the beach, they're spending time together in other ways - including the occasional dabble into community theatre.
"Sydnee even managed to fit some theatre in this past year - we haven't done one in a while."
Darren said he would recommend getting into surf lifesaving to anyone, and that the sport "created future leaders".
"I honestly believe lifesaving builds leaders - one of our focuses at the club is developing our youth and we have brilliant youth leaders.
"It really does give kids and families skills for life on and off the beach."