By Ron Lane
There were three events on the weekend that indeed makes us feel very confident about the progress and future of lifesaving within our community. Two were at Sunshine Beach club and the third was on Noosa’s Main Beach.
At Sunshine a bronze squad of 20 members finished their final assessment; they are now qualified to take their place on the club’s patrol roster. Club captain Ross James welcomed the new members into the club.
“With Christmas season starting this influx of new members couldn’t have come at a better time. All indications are that we are in for a very busy season.”
The other good news at Sunshine was that a team of eight qualified for their IRB certificates with some passing their drivers and others their crewies. Sunshine is very open with many kilometers of lonely unpatrolled stretches of beach, well outside the patrolled areas. Add to this the very dangerous and unpatrolled Alexandria Bay just north of Sunshine and the importance of the IRB teams cannot be emphasised enough.
With the big seas that constantly roll into the bay, the quality of those who volunteer for the IRB crews (as well as the jet rescue ski crews) must be of the highest standard-proud dedicated and above dependable.
Our third event which pointing to our future, occurred on Noosa’s Main Beach on Sunday morning when some 450 little Under 8s and Under 10 Nippers assembled for a Sunshine Coast carnival. With a small wave that was perfect for the little ones to gain both experience and self-confidence, the day could not have been better. This was supported by a large number of adults that turned up to officiate. This was also a learning curve as some were also starting their careers as beach officials. A very big well done to Noosa’s JACs chairperson Sam Smith and her team; to run a carnival with so many little people in attendance is no easy task.
Regarding our future with so many Nippers (and remember this was only two age groups) on our books it is now up to us to ensure that a good experienced structure is in place to ensure that we maintain a large percentage of these little people; hopefully they will eventually move up into the senior club.
Once again it is time for the big event of surf boat rowing – the Navy George Bass Marathon – the longest and toughest surf boat race in the world; and this year Noosa Heads will be entering a crew. The race is over a distance of 190 klms with an expected time of seven days.The race starts on Sunday 31 December at Batemans Bay and finishes at Eden on Saturday 6 January 2018.
The crew – which is made up of eight rowers – will be under the control of experienced sweep Shane Rodovich. Rodovich has won this race on two occasions while sweeping other clubs. Next week we meet the people involved. This weekend the Noosa boat crews will contest Round 3 Navy series at Kurrawa. Good luck to all.
