SA Junior Surf Lifesaving State Titles

OK folks, just thought I would raise the profile of my other passion.
And that is Surf Lifesaving - a very worthwhile movement.

This weekend you will be relieved to know I will not be putting finger to keyboard as it is the State Titles for all of our juniors (about 1000 of them across 16 clubs).

The event held this year at Somerton SLSC (the 50th year of that club) will be held over Saturday and Sunday this weekend.

I will be knee deep in sand (as I was tonight trying to get the trailer unbogged on the soft sand) looking after my Under 11 age group in their highest sporting endeavours.

Any passing observer would be amazed at the guts, skill and areboic fitness of some of these kids who tackle a 250m swim, 300m board and 200 metre run in the Ironperson event.

If anyone is down that way on the weekend you could do worse than drop by and have a look at where our future surf lifesavers will come from.

You never know, you could be looking at the next Shannon Eckstein.

And if that don't give me enough of a fix, next weekend is Senior State Titles and the week after that I'm off to the Gold Coast to watch my lad have a crack at the Aussie Titles.

Unfortunately (for me) the footy has to wait a few weeks yet!!

Wow your son is obviously talented at this Chambo. Good luck to him , I hope he does well. Surely his club has double blue caps ?

HATS OFF TO YA CHAMBO.

250M SWIM ( I'D BE GOING UNDER FOR THE 3RD TIME BY THE 100M MARK MYSELF ), LOAD OF PADDELING AND TOPPED OFF BY A RUN!, TAKE ME ALL DAY.

WELL DONE KIDS AND GOOD LUCK.


X 8

Have a good weekend Chambo and all the best to your lad at the
Aussie titles.

Off to the Gold Coast Chambo?? Gee that's gonna be tough, you can always call in and have a beer with Burgerking, i hear he's got a carton of XXXX in the fridge Good luck to your lad, i hope he does well. 

Sturt2 wrote:Wow your son is obviously talented at this Chambo. Good luck to him , I hope he does well. Surely his club has double blue caps ?

Thanks for the wishes guys.

No S2, not that club one a little further north - red, black and white.

Aussie Titles are probably very differently set up to most sports.
They are no small thing with something around 7000 competitors from 300+ clubs around Australia and even a couple from overseas.

Possibly the next biggest competitor event behind Olympics and Commonwealth Games here in this country.

The difference is that if you are an active member of a Surf Lifesaving Club and have met your proficiency requirements then you are entitled to compete.

Obviously the most elite athletes have a crack at it each year and certainly the stongest Qld and NSW clubs have huge entourages backing up their efforts.

But even the "Joe Average' member can have a go to rub shoulders with those in the "big show".

My lad probably isn't in that elite bracket (few in SA are) but he is no slouch either. SA lags quite a margin behind the eastern states - less infrastructure and public interest which generates sponsorship dollars.

His particular focus this year is "5 Person Rescue and Resuscitation" which is a very technical and precise event with 5 people simulating a rescue and resuscitation procedure albeit with very defined body movements. Our club is particularly strong in it in this state.

Anyway, I could waffle for hours on this and bore the crap out of you all.

Thanks for the interest.

Very interesting Chambo and as I said all the very best to your lad.

Only 3 more sleeps and I'm off to the Aussie Titles.

Should be a huge 2 weeks in (hopefully) sunny Queensland.

PS: My club came 3rd in Juniors and 4th in Seniors at the recent State Titles.

Footy will have to wait another 3 weeks I guess.

Don't forget you can bunk at Burgerkings place for free, beer supplied as well..

I know chambo is not here at the moment as he is on the gold coast, but news footage last night regarding the surf life saving championships that he is attending showed some very ordinary weather, strong winds and very rough seas.
Hope he gets back here in one piece.
.

Been back nearly a week now.

Yes Testy it was pretty average from many aspects.

A death in competition can't make it any worse really.
They were predicting 4 metre swell on the Saturday of competition.
That didn't eventuate, but they cancelled all water events after the death of Saxon Bird (an U19 yr old Ironperson Champion).

That really put a total dampener on the event (as you would expect).

My lad's team didn't get to compete in the event that they primarily went over for. However, they picked up 5th in the U17 March Past event.

Funnily it wasn't that windy on the beach, but the cyclone had obviously kicked up strong winds offshore that created the strong swell.

The Monday after competition finished, was a pearler of a day with 3 - 4 foot waves in good sets. Bummer!

Thanks for the concern.

PS: An aside which in some ways was the highlight of our Champs.

One of our guys (an Under19) competed in the 2km Beach Run and beat Maxy (from Bondi Rescue). That was his highlight and probably better than a medal. Actually no, nothing really beats an Aussie Titles medal, Maxy notwithstanding.

Good to hear you are back on board chambo.

Finished with surf lifesaving now and can devote total attention to getting the bluebaggers up!

Well folks its on again.

SA Junior Surf Lifesaving Titles, this time hosted by our club (Semaphore) for the first time.

1000 kids on the beach going boonta in the surf and on the sand.

Say a prayer for me that the body copes this weekend with the punishment.
Sometimes think that organising the activities of 150 kids supersedes anything that they do. Shouldn't talk like that I guess


Hopefully the weather is kinder than it is forecast to be.

Hope the weather does hold out for the championships chambo, but I think it will be a little on the cool side of things.

Could be another thread but thought may as well keep this one going.

Had our season kick off yesterday with our Juniors commencing training.
And I (Junior Chairperson) managed to provide great weather with 23Deg and no wind yesterday - connections in high places!

Added to that our club has been fortunate to entice Hayley Bateup to Semaphore to do some coaching across all levels in the club.

For those who aren't Surf Lifesaving orientated, Hayley cam thirs 2 weeks ago in the Coolangatta Gold. That is a 3+ hour competition of 30-something km (boarding, skis, swimming and running). Hayley is an elite athlete who has just about every gold medal in open SL competition.

A very approachable lady who leaves her mark on our club for a long time to come.

And I have a signed photo of my 4WD and me with her best wishes. "WINNER"