By Hollie Harris
On Monday, 1 May at 5pm the flags will come down ending yet another season of volunteer patrols for our three local beaches, Peregian, Sunshine Beach and Noosa Heads.
All indications are that it will be another season with no lives lost between the flags while our people were on patrol.
Despite Easter and the school holidays ending, crowds are still big and generally speaking conditions have been good.
The only incidents were at Noosa where two first aid cases, a dislocated shoulder while body surfing and a dislocated knee as a result of a fall in the surf were reported.
Noosa once again conducted their Saturday morning Seahorse Nippers and despite light rain it was well attended.
A highlight of the morning was little Rohan McDonald celebrating his birthday. This young man has been a Seahorse Nipper right from the start and his courage and happy personality has made him many friends. From all involved we wish him a happy birthday and many more. You, young man is what it is all about.
To ensure that the Seahorse Nippers people keep abreast of things, a special Helpers Workshop will be hosted by Noosa this Friday 28 April, in the upstairs training room of the Surf Club, starting at 4.30pm and going till 5.30pm. All Helpers, past, current and future are invited to attend. The purpose of this training session is that it will assist helpers to provide better help to the special needs Nippers.
The guest speaker for the evening will be Autism and Behaviour Specialist, Erika Gleeson, Founder and Director of Autism Swim and initiator of Coogee Dippers Special Needs Nippers Program with Coogee S.L.S.C in Sydney.
Information sessions will cover; What is Autism? Intellectual Disability, Down Syndrome, ADHD, Epilepsy and how do they affect children. Drowning and Autism, Autism Behaviour, Communication tips and Sensory Challenges. Everyone welcome. If intending to attend please RSVP to, nippers@noosasurfclub. com.au – this will assist with catering.
It is now four years since the Noosa club became involved with Rustic Pathways. This is an organisation with an American base, whose aim is to provide overseas educational travel, usually aimed at students during their gap year.
One of the major requirements is that they become involved in the various communities that they visit. With this in mind. the Noosa Surf Club has now become part of the schedule for Rustic travellers.
Arriving two weeks ago at the Surf Club, they enrolled for a week’s training course conducted by the Noosa Community Education Program. This is the course required to cover the Surf Rescue Certificate.
“This gives our group an involvement in something that is uniquely Australian,” Shannon Calloway, group supervisor, said.
“Before arriving in Noosa, we did six weeks of community service in Fiji and also spent three weeks in New Zealand. Our other groups who visited Noosa spoke highly of everything so we now make it part of our travel program.”
The visit of the Rustic Pathway team, plus Tina Logan of the National Ability Center San Diego USA, speaks volumes for the good will and hospitality that has now become part of character of the Noosa Surf Club.
Beach patrolling and good will towards international visitors. What could be better?
Sunshine Beach President Craig Law said, “we are very happy with our season’s performance, in both patrolling and competition. The response time of our ATV teams and IRB crews into the isolated Alexandria Bay in times of emergency has been outstanding; it is something for our patrol people to be proud of. It is unpatrolled, lonely and dangerous yet people won’t listen, they still swim there. So far we have been lucky – but who knows what lies ahead?”
