By Ron Lane
It has been a top weekend with all three beaches incident free; flat surf giving great conditions for our family visitors. In the words of a lifeguard spokesman, “This has been better than the week before when big seas caused plenty of problems for both us and the weekend clubbies.”
Training teams at both Noosa and Sunshine have been busy with Noosa in the process of putting through yet another local school in the Surf Awareness Program. It is now some ten years since these courses got under way and happy to relate the response from our local schools and colleges has indeed been very good.
At present there are two courses available; for high schools Surf Rescue and Bronze and for primary schools Surf Education. The fact that applications are continuing, tells us that the training teams responsible for this program must indeed be held in the highest regard. So it’s a big well done to Education Manager Greg Mc Laughlin and his team.
At Sunshine Beach patrols are at full strength and at present a bronze course is under way. Unfortunately for the training teams conducting school programs of the type run by Noosa, could present a problem as Sunshine is an open beach and sea conditions would be at times unsuitable.
This weekend Tugun Beach on the Gold Coast will play host to the final round of the surf boat fixture known as the Queensland Cup. Once again Noosa will be competing with one crew in the masters’ one in the u/19 boys and the two in the u/19 girls. After their sensational results in the recent Australian Surfrowers League Championships held at Elouera (where they won two gold and a bronze medal) in massive surf it is to be hoped they can continue on their winning ways.
On the weekend thirty eight of our surf lifesaving club youth teams gathered at Alexandria Headlands to contest their 2018 State Championships. Happy to relate that despite not finishing in the top three places our two clubs Sunshine Beach and Noosa finished in 6th and 8th position respectively.
Noosa coaching staff member David Tomba said, “Overall we are happy with the results. We feel that it is a big improvement on last year. The surf was flat and it was very hot; that made it tough on the kids but they did Noosa proud.” The medal count for Noosa was a total of 16 with 6 gold 5 silver and 5 bronze. For Sunshine results were somewhat similar with 13 medals 6 gold 3 silver and 4 bronze. With a great performance from both our youth teams we can rest assured that with continued good coaching the future of lifesaving in our community is indeed in good hands.
Beach goers are reminded of the Beach Party of the Year to close the Festival of Surf Sunday 18, time 2 -8pm on Noosas Main Beach. Come and meet your local Summer Surf Girl Olivia Bligh; top acts Lisa Hunt the Dennis Sisters and refreshments available. Good luck to Phil Jarratt and all his crew for the Festival of Surf.
