By Margaret Maccoll
About 100 nippers signed on at Peregian Beach on Sunday in a recruitment drive held by Noosa Heads Surf Life Saving Club to revive the program at Peregian Beach. The event included demonstrations of life saver activities including beach games and a staged Westpac helicopter rescue of club president Ross Fisher. Children and parents queued from 10am to noon to sign on for training to become a surf life saver.
With qualified adult supervisors needed in about a one to five ratio to the nippers parents were encouraged to sign on with their children to train.
Steve Tindal of Noosa SLSC said the training program included information of benefit in general life such as first aid, CPR and surf theory.
He said Noosa would support the club initially but the aim was for the club to have enough members to be sustainable.
NHSLSC president Ross Fisher said it had been a wonderful day with plenty of positive feedback from Peregian residents and he expected more would sign on to the program in coming weeks.
“I’ve never seen that many people on the beach at Peregian in the middle of winter,” he said.
Ross said a program would be be built around the numbers and ages of those who signed on and he was confident of it continuing to grow.
