By Ron Lane
It is now without a doubt one of the most respected groups within the Surf Life Saving Association of Australia; a group that is dedicated to helping children with special needs. In the Noosa Heads club it is known as the Seahorse Nippers and it is because of the success and achievements of this club and one or two others that many similar are now being formed throughout Australia.
Now seven years since it came into being, the Noosa Seahorses Nippers will on the weekend of the Saturday 23 March commence another season at Noosa’s Main Beach. This will be followed by sessions on the 30 March, 6 and 13 April; and starting at 8am on the set dates all members, both existing and new are invited to assemble on Main Beach.
Once again under the supervision of Steve Mawby and wife Niki plus a team of dedicated workers and helpers they will create for our children opportunity that previously never existed. The helpers, (volunteer qualified lifesavers from Noosa and neighboring clubs) are invited to assemble at 7.30am on the 23 March.
Once again we gracefully acknowledge the continued support of the Noosa Shire Council. Their involvement by approving car parking facilities for nipper parents adjacent to the Public Toilets in Lions Park, is a massive help. Once again the enrolments for the sessions are on the increase so a good role up of helpers is of the utmost importance.
“ With this being the start of yet another season,” said Steve Mawby, “I think it is only appropriate that on behalf of our management team we extend our thanks for the ongoing support of all our volunteer workers and in particular the local council. Without them this would not be happening.”
For all our Queensland nipper clubs, last weekend was definitely a weekend to celebrate. With all their competition teams assembling at Burleigh Heads for the State Titles it was indeed a double celebration; that weekend was the 50 year celebration of the first titles in 1969 and Burleigh Heads was the host club. Conditions were ideal with a good challenging surf, perfect for state titles.
With final results to hand the Noosa club did well. “We could not be happier; it was our best results for about seven years,” JAC director Steve Tindall said. “Our overall results were six gold medals, five silver and four bronze. There were many great performances but the stand-out effort was definitely our U11 boys. They won event after event giving them four gold medals as well as one individual Gold and the girls won the gold medal for the beach relay. A lot of this is due to the great work of Age Manager Sam Anderssen; he is to be congratulated.”
Results for Sunshine Beach were also good with three gold seven silver and three bronze. “We were a little bit unlucky with seven silver; this tells us just how close several of our finishers were,” said Coach Josh Minogue. Well done to both our clubs.
