He was awarded the honour at the club’s annual general meeting on October 11, and said he was surprised.

“The Rowing Club hold the life members in considerably high esteem,” Munday said.

There has only been 11 life members inducted since the inception of the club in 1908, and Munday said the honour is “fairly unique”.

So unique, that three years ago there were no surviving life members.

Munday started rowing in 1981 and has served the sport as club captain for all but one of the past 27 years, taking a break in 2008.

Club chairman Michael Preece said, “Peter has enjoyed competitive success in open and masters competition over many years and is regarded as pound-for-pound one of the best rowers to compete in Port Pirie colours”.

Munday was nominated for life membership by club members, who pointed out that he was a driving force behind the revival of rowing in Port Pirie this decade.

“He puts in countless volunteer hours refurbishing boats, coaching others and helping manage the sport in Port Pirie,” Preece said.

“Peter’s contribution to rowing in Port Pirie has been tremendous and our members are proud to award him with a well deserved life membership.”

Rowing takes up a lot of Munday’s time, as he coaches new members and as captain, is in charge of equipment maintenance.

The sport also takes Munday and the club to Adelaide, and he said the club competes in four regattas a year at West Lakes, and also in places like Berri and Renmark.

He sees the great fitness benefit in rowing, and he and other members only take the winter months off of their training schedules, and can be seen out on the Pirie River at 6am three days a week.

Throughout his time in the club, Munday said the biggest change has been moving into the new shared boat shed with the Royal Port Pirie Yacht Club, as the retaining wall was built and access to the water was blocked.

And not until 1999 did the rowing club become active again after about a decade, but during that time Munday stayed on as captain.

The competitive rowing season has now started, and Munday will continue to be involved as captain.