By RON LANE
WITH big seas pounding the Queensland coast, lifesavers and lifeguards have for the last
week been very busy. At Sunshine Beach which is an open beach and therefore exposed to the
elements, their bathing areas were closed for the entire weekend.
Regarding this club captain Scott Summers said, “Our beach was closed for the two days
and the general public were fantastic. Those who came to the beach just looked and stayed on
the waters edge. Usually there are those who still think they can venture out a bit but this time,
no such problems. We would like to thank our visitors for their co-operation.”
At Noosa which has the protection of the two points, National Park and First Point,
conditions were much safer. However, at change of tide the occasion arose where the beach
was closed for a short time.
For our brothers in arms the lifeguards, last week was indeed full on. Senior Noosa Lifeguard Isaac Smith said, “The big surf really created some havoc. Friday, in particular, was heavy with two spinals and two dislocated shoulders and another swimmer having to be winched out of a National Park beach by helicopter with severe injuries to his lower legs.
Also after hours another problem arose and local Noosa clubbies came and assisted. Our thanks for their support. Earlier in the week, we had an additional three spinals, so it has been full on. A lot of our work was in National Park, so it depends on the situation whether we go in on the Jet Rescue Ski or the All-Terrain Vehicle.”
Members of the Noosa Seahorse Nippers, the club founded by Noosa’s Steve and Nikki
Mawby to cater for children with special needs, are now using their experience and expertise to
help with the establishment of a sister club at Alexandra Headlands.
Last Friday evening the Mawbys met with their organisers and everything is very positive.
With starting age of U/14, there are already some 30 members registered for the club and
with retired iron man legend Grant Kenny and Kirsty Ellis coming on board as club Patrons, the
club is definitely off to a good start.
With the training induction night for the pilot program having being addressed, this
Saturday at 9am the first session for this newly formed club should get underway. The beach
program which will run through until 10am will have experienced Noosa leaders on the sand to
lend a hand.
Their first program will be under the supervision of Donald McKill a highly experienced Noosa leader plus a support team of Lucia Neely, working on registration and the Lansdown family; a group that has been with the Noosa Seahorses since the beginning.
Take these clubbies, plus a lot of other volunteers working as members of the support group, and all aspects of the morning’s beach program will be well covered and properly supervised.
To ensure that all goes well, the Noosa team will provide Alex with all the gear needed to run
the beach games. This will providing them with a good look at what they will be required to successfully run their beach activities in the days ahead.
It is really good to see the Noosa Club stepping in to help Alex. Several years ago things were
in reverse. The Noosa Club was then in the process of reforming their march past team and the Alex Team, then one of the top in Australia, offered their help with coaching.
On arrival at Alex, for their first training session Noosa was delighted to find two legends of
the Australian march past competition, Ron “Bopper” Tallon OAM and Noel Kelk on hand to
coach and advice. After many seasons, still working together.
