Lifesaving
Max Eldridge, Lifesaving Services Director (Club Captain)
This season has been fantastic! We have gone from strength to strength for our great club; we have effected some amazing rescues and experienced our share of tragedies as well. However, the biggest thing for us as a lifesaving team is that we have taken on these challenges together and overcome them.
We have done well to ensure that so many lives have been saved at our great beach this past Summer Season. Many people went home to their families because of the service we have provided.
Thanks must go to our fantastic Patrol Captains and Patrol Vice Captains for leading our patrol teams. Without this fine group of leaders, our operations team could not function to its current capacity.
We effected 19 recorded rescues this year and made over 2,600 preventative actions. Our members completed over 7,300 hours of voluntary patrols this season! That is just shy of 2,000 more than last season! That is incredible!
Our Social events at the club have been fantastic! They are becoming better and better. Its always great to hang around with your mates after a great special event or patrol day. Anyone who wants to be involved in this great team should let me know! There is always room for more hands!
Pink Zinc, Blue Zinc, Senior Patrols and Gerries Patrols were strong and united this year! Its always great to see these events so successfully run and organised! A true credit to our patrolling members.
Off the beach we have gone ahead in leaps and bounds this season. This was only possible because of the incredible Life Saving Services team.
Our Offshore Rescue Service (Jet Skis) run by Will McIlwain and Alan Hailes has seen another strong season that was rostered and patrolled every weekend of December and January.
We are now replacing our two Jet Skis during our off season and organising training sessions.
Our new ATV and 4WD have served us very well this season! Jesse Heymann, our fantastic everyman around the club, has very capably maintained them! Our IRB Officers, Campbell Smart and Max Roche have done amazing things with our IRBs this season. We have maintained 6 IRBs and 7 Motors running throughout the whole season! This means we do not have to borrow any vessels for our special events.
Through this season I have had an immense amount of support given to me! Thank you to all those who offer support, work with me, mentor me and work alongside me.
Next season will be my last season as Club Captain (if I am re – elected at the AGM) Our focus in the operations team will be on ensuring that we maintain a high level of equipment and operational capability to last our club for seasons to come!
See you soon!