Main Beach was abuzz with activity last Saturday when Noosa Surf Lifesaving Club hosted its annual adaptive surf carnival, bringing together surf lifesaving clubs to celebrate inclusion and provide opportunities for individuals with disabilities to experience surf lifesaving.
Deputy president of the club and one of the founders of Noosa Seahorse Nippers Steve Mawby said Noosa’s adaptive surf festival also aimed to create awareness around different pathways in surf lifesaving for volunteers, participants and the community, and provided an opportunity for clubs wishing to commence an adaptive program to come along, observe and learn.
This year’s carnival brought together about 60 participants and 100 volunteer lifesavers, with about a dozen clubs, (an increase from nine last year) represented, from Port Douglas, Cairns, Noosa, Sunshine Beach, Peregian Beach, Coolum Beach, Dickie Beach, Kurrawa, North Burleigh, Pambula and Coolangatta.
The carnival serves as a platform for members of different clubs to come together, share experiences and challenges, and improve the growth and sustainability of their adaptive programs.
This year clubs from Coolangatta and Cairns were looking to start their own adaptive programs, and the event provided them with a chance to observe and learn from the experiences of established programs like Same Wave, Starfish, Pippies, Turtles, and Seahorse, Steve said.
“The objective for ourselves and many other clubs operating in this space is to give every surf club in Australia the opportunity to commence, deliver or participate in an adaptive program.
“Most importantly it provides a very wide opportunity for families living with disability to experience an annual adaptive event delivering surf life saving-based activities and vital lifesaving skills at Noosa Main Beach.”
Michelle and Peter Bootes pioneered the first ever Surf Life Saving inclusion program in Australia and have operated the Same Wave program in Pambula for 27 years. This year they brought four members to Noosa from Pambula.
During the carnival participants rotated through four activities and the expressions on their faces showed their absolute joy.
On the beach they took part in a relay, flag race and an obstacle course which simulates a swim in the ocean – they navigate through hoops, which is like the potholes in the shallows, climb over a structure that resembles stepping over waves, then climb through a tunnel, like going under waves.
In the ocean they experienced rescue tubes, catching waves and learning about signals.
Special education and swimming teacher Chris spoke about the pride and joy she felt at seeing her former students excel at the carnival.
“You know how nervous they were first time in the pool, then you see them in the ocean, it’s absolutely amazing,” she said.
“Inclusion is so important.”
Parents told Noosa Today how much Seahorse Nippers and the carnival meant to them and their children.
The parents of six daughters, one a member of Noosa Seahorse Nippers said their child Charlie was “loving it”. “She’s been talking about it all week,” they said.
Mother of 11-year-old Daisy, Libby described the carnival as “awesome”.
“I love it. It’s such a beautiful thing,” Libby said.
“We all live on the beach because we love it. I can’t bring Daisy to the beach on my own. I need help, and this is just a really lovely way to get it done and it’s teaching her if she’s ever on the beach and she gets in trouble she can look out for a lifeguard. She knows who they are and what they look like.
“As parents it’s an opportunity to see our kids involved in sport, because there’s not a lot of opportunities, and to have someone else take the reins – the surf lifesavers – we get to talk and we get to meet other parents.
“There’s a lot of shared information in that networking. We don’t have playdates too much. So this is like a giant playdate.”
After five years attending a Special School Daisy has started attending Noosaville State School, part time, and the benefits have been obvious to Libby.
“It’s been amazing. My whole thing with Daisy is we just want a community,” she said. “I want her looked after when I’m gone and the only way to do that without an extended family is through a community and people knowing her.
“She was really anxious about other children. Now she’s at school interacting with the other children she’s having so much more fun. It’s awesome.”
Both Chris and Libby spoke about the need for equipment such as beach matting and accessible playground equipment that would assist people with disabilities to be more included in the community.
“This beach matting here means this is the first time our wheelchairs have come all the way to the tent. We had to hire this one,” Libby said.
“We’re hoping by raising awareness by events like today, it shows that there is a need for it.”
