Club Says "Goodbye" To A Legend
Posted By: David Smith
on November 23rd, 2004
Peter "chickenman" Gittus was a 'legend'. Peter loved his family, scuba diving and fishing. He enjoyed life to the fullest and encouraged everyone who knew him to do the same. peter was always the optimist, regularly using the words "trust me" when ever there was trouble on the horizon.
Known to his friends as "Chickenman" or "Chicken", Peter got the nicknames because he grew up on a poultry farm. Later, Peter took over the farm from his parents and when he delivered the chickens around the Launceston area. People would say, "here comes Chickenman!"
Scuba diving was a major part in his life. After the poultry farm, Peter went in to a retail business which sold diving, fishing and water skiing equipment. The shop was appropriately named 'scuba, ski and tackle". peter ran dive courses from the shop and taught his two daughters, natalie and rebecca both of whom accompanied Peter on numerous diving trips.
On the game fishing side, Peter was the game fishing club of northern tasmania inc. secretary for 13 years and treasurer for 12 years concurrently. During this time he also became president of the tasmanian game fishing association for a year. Peter loved his club and remained as the secretary/treasurer up until his death this year. Peter is one of the few life members of the club due to the dedication he showed in each of these positions.
One milestone in Peter's life was the day he caught the 135kg striped marlin, which was a 15kg line class tasmania record. Peter was always happy to tell you the story about his miraculous effort and the 3h45m fight in a 15ft boat to finally capture this fish. The cast mounting of this marlin can be seen in Charlton's fishing store in Launceston.
In april this year, peter's battle with cancer finally came to an end. Peter will be sadly missed by all who knew him, but he will never be forgotten.
|