"I'm passionate about swimming and find it a challenge. It is part of my every day living," he said.
Tremaine (79), an early riser, starts his two-hour coaching stint at Moana Pool at 6am seven days a week. He has no intention of retiring.
His wife, Dorothy (79), who has lived around swimming pools since 1946, is the administrator for the squad and registers the swimmers.
Tremaine believes a lot of swimmers train too much and too hard.
"You can overdo it," he said. "I only train them once a day. I like them to enjoy it."
Coaching was a recreational interest when he was general manager for MMM Meats in the South Island for 20 years. It became his full-time interest when he retired in 1984 with appointments as manager at the Cromwell and Ashburton pools. He returned to Dunedin in 1990.
Tremaine learned to swim at the old Moray Place pool at the age of six when he was a pupil at George Street Normal School.
He remembers Professor Olds, Pop Mathieson and Miss Parry who were in charge of the pool and taught him to swim.
Tremaine was coached by Rema Johnson at the Kiwi Swimming Club.
"Club nights were important in those days," he recalled. "Any New Zealand champion or representative had to coach on club nights."
Tremaine first represented Otago in 1942 and was runner-up in the 75yd and 100yd breaststroke at the New Zealand junior championships two years later.
He won the national junior 100yd breaststroke title in Dunedin in 1948 and was also third in the senior 75yd and 100yd breaststroke.
Tremaine also represented Otago at water polo from 1949 to 1960 and was in the New Zealand team for the demonstration sport at the 1950 Empire Games in Auckland.
He became the New Zealand national coach for juniors in the 1960s and coached the national water polo team on tours to Australia in 1965 and the early 1980s.
Tremaine was a strong beltman and represented St Kilda at the New Zealand surf life-saving championships in Dunedin in 1948.
He was a versatile sportsman and played senior basketball for Celtic and premier rugby for Union.
Tremaine had immediate success as a swimming coach when his sister, Fay Forsyth, broke the New Zealand junior 100yd and 200yd backstroke records. She also won two New Zealand senior titles - 100m butterfly in 1948 and 200m breaststroke in 1950.
Another sister, Jan Duthie, won the New Zealand senior 200m and 400m individual titles in 1956.
His most successful swimmer was Rae Currie, who won 10 New Zealand breaststroke titles from 1951-55.
Tremaine still has a squad of 14 swimmers, with his present star being the feisty Aleisha Ruske, who won four medals - gold in the 100m butterfly, two silver and one bronze - at the national age group championships in Wellington this year. Her tally included five Otago age group records.
He has coached under the shadow of Duncan Laing, Andy Adair and Gennadiy Labara and his success has gone under the radar.
Punch Tremaine
- Swim king
• Age: 79.
• Sports: Swimming, water polo.
• Roles: Coach of champion swimmers Rae Currie, Fay Forsyth, Jan Duthie, Jim Marks, Aleisha Ruske and David Mauger; NZ water polo coach.
