By RON LANE
FOR our volunteer lifesavers, the flags are down for another season. However, for the true dedicated clubby, the winter months will see them continue to serve the community in which they live.
In this modern era of lifesaving, the role of our surf clubs within our place of abode becomes more involved. One of the reasons is because of the winter sports and the various categories of Iron Man competition that are open to the sporting fraternity, is on the increase. Add to this you have the increasing involvement of our business arm the Surf Clubs, providing workers and, in some cases, the facilities necessary to help make these ventures a success.
This is done with pleasure as the reason is twofold. First and most important, it gives our clubs the opportunity to say thanks to our locals for their support during the lean years. Above all, it gives lifesaving the opportunity to consolidate our standing within the local world of
tourism.
All these events be they sporting, musical, theatre, food and wine, not only bring the people but they also provide our business houses with that most important of all things, publicity.
In keeping with this, the Surf Club on Noosa’s Main Beach, last week stepped in to support the Food and Wine Festival by making some facilities available to the organisers plus providing manual help when needed.
Club manager Anton Mogg said, “We were only too happy to help in any way we could as we are more determined than ever to increase our involvement, when possible, in local events.
The feedback regarding the tepee tents on the beach front for the Food and Wine Festival, was very positive indeed. Well done to all.”
From the sporting side of things, Noosa water safety co-ordinator Joe Cirillo said, ‘’The recent Ultra Iron Man event was well covered. Not only did we have our local lifesavers giving time and commitment to provide patrols on water, but also paddlers from all over the world. A lot of
people were not aware we had support teams from places like France, Italy and Spain just to name a few.’’
This weekend will once again see our winter commitment continue with IRB patrols being provided for the Saturday Noosa Winter Swim. This will see a program of four swims over various distances; a 3.8kl, 2kl, 1kl and 500m, with a time break in between. These will be covered by patrols provided by Mudjimba, Sunshine Beach and Noosa surf clubs. “Once again our winter clubbies are showing a total 110 per cent commitment to our community,” Cirillo said.
On Sunday, activities will continue with bike and running events being contested over endurance distances.
At season’s end, it is only right that we say a big thank you to support groups that make contributions to our lifesavers during the summer. There are quite a few, but two who usually go unnoticed are our local paramedics, whose prompt response time to emergencies callouts, is
second to none, and also to Len Tyler and his team at Noosa Community Radio 101.3 FM. Len and his crew help to keep the community informed on what our local lifesavers are doing, patrol wise and also in competition. Both teams take a bow.
The final stats regarding all patrol activities for our three clubs, Noosa, Sunshine and Peregian have yet to be finalised. One set in particular will be eagerly awaited. Spinal injuries.
State wide spinals have unfortunately, in the last four years increased, going from 99 to 160. These figures tell us that we must pull out all stops in our endeavor to further educate the public regarding safe surfing.
