The return to sunnier days over the holiday period brought lots of visitors and locals to the Heads. Huge thanks to all our patrolling members who have spread the workload over our regular Sunday patrols and the additional 5 public holidays over Christmas and New Year. This is a big commitment for a small club and we were supported by Australian Life Guard service on Christmas and Boxing Day and then by a trial initiative from SLSNSW where volunteers from other NSW clubs also patrolled with our 4 teams. Thank you to everyone for coordinating with club and patrol captains ensuring you had swaps organised to cover your own holidays and work.
The Bronze and SRC course graduates from November 2022 have gained a lot of knowledge from their teams and are building up their skills in beach management and dealing with visitors who present an amazing range of situations and questions to our volunteers.
Shoalhaven Council with Australian Life Guard Services are providing the summer holiday patrol services at Shoalhaven Heads Mon- Friday 9-5 at from Dec 17 thru to January 25, 2023. and it is great to see younger SLSC members combining their volunteer club weekend hours with paid life guarding during the week.
The weather also bought in stronger swells and high tides that have impacted the dune and foreshore again, resulting in Shoalhaven City Council taking immediate remediation action to close off the central and south beach entrances with temporary composite barriers. They also opened up and graded the northern entrance footpath to create safe access point for the patrol ATV and IRB to be launched and as pedestrian access for beach users. The restorative actions of the ocean and winds are continuing their natural remediations and over time the beach dunes will reform and hope a gradual transition to an EL Nino weather system will bring calmer days to Seven Mile Beach.
Nippers will be back on the beach on Sunday 29 January @ 9.30am so if you’re a new family keen to sign up for the second part of the season at Shoalhaven Heads hop onto sls.com.au/join. Any questions call Kim, Club Junior Coordinator (JAC) on 0422970570 evenings only or email info@headssurf.com.au. She will email current families this week so check your inboxes . She has planned a great Australia Day for our Nippers who have been invited to join Kiama and Kiama Downs Surf Clubs for the Kiama Aquathon. Joint interclub events are good fun for the whole family so let Kim know you’ll be going along and get signed up on the official event page link she has sent