Due to COVID-19, training and member development had a major decrease in the number of courses that we were able to deliver as a club. The breakdown of members completing courses for the 2020/21 season and comparing to the previous season is shown below.

**Note: These statistics are based off training and requalification at Woolamai Beach SLSC

*LSV State Courses **No course ran due to COVID-19

Training Courses

This season, the Training and Assessment team were faced with major challenges, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With restrictions on social distancing and restrictions on the number of people indoors, it made it nearly impossible to deliver lifesaving courses. In early November Lifesaving Victoria (LSV) gave the go ahead for clubs to resume training and assessing, in a controlled COVID safe environment.

Requalification weekend was also run differently and staggered across multiple weekends. Over 9 days, the club requalified over 250 members making this season the most run requalification days in club history. Lifesaving Victoria also ran requalification days in the bay for members, and combined requal with the Lifeguard Mission for active lifeguards.

Due to the accommodation policies and advice from LSV, Woolamai Beach SLSC unfortunately had to postpone the popular club Bronze Camp until December 2021. We were however very fortunate to run the Adult Bronze course led by Alan Hailes (Aquamole) and his team which saw 6 qualified Adults join our wonderful club, the Upwey High School (UHS) Bronze Camp, led by the UHS teachers and long time members of the club, Bianca Myers and Stafford Smith, and an SRC course which was run during the Nippers week led by Hannah Wallis, John McLachlan and their team of volunteers.

After our successful Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB) Camp during the Labour Day Long weekend last season, we decided to continue this trend and phase out from the Easter long weekend camp. This season, we saw 9 IRB Crew and 7 IRB Drivers undertake the Course. Candidates were provided the skills and knowledge to effectively drive and crew an IRB in surf rescue operations, and although a whale carcass washed up at a nearby beach delaying the assessments, the candidates and trainers had a lot of fun, training and assessing at different locations around the Bass including Inverloch and Venus Bay.

Training Team

This season we introduced a new member into the Training & Assessment Team. Evan Richter (who recently obtained the TOC award) has jumped on board to assist with the facilitation of all Upwey High School courses. We look forward to working with Evan in the future.

Last season, 9 members obtained their Training Officer Certificate (TOC) and a further 3 just started their Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. I am pleased to announce that this season, a further 15 members obtained the TOC award (of which 33% of all TOC members in the state were from Woolamai), as well as Dean Biddau and Joshua Smith completing their Certificate IV. We are very excited to be working with our new members to deliver high quality training in the 2021/22 season.

Other Courses

Woolamai Beach SLSC was yet again represented in the Bass Lifesaving Development Camp with 12 out of 16 members representing the club. The Lifesaving Development Camp also knows as ‘Dev Camp’, is a week-long live in camp, where participants completed new awards such as Advanced Resuscitation Techniques, First Aid, IRB Crew or Driver, and hone in their skills with realistic lifesaving and first aid scenarios.

Advanced Lifesaving Camp was run in an online format this year with 6 members representing Woolamai Beach SLSC. It was great to see these members complete the camp and be awarded their Gold Medallion. A special mention to Hannah Tzimokas for being invited as a leader.

We would like to thank all the volunteer trainers and assessors who take the time and help with our courses. The 2021/22 courses are currently being reviewed, with bigger and better courses/camps and member development opportunities on the horizon.

Brendan Smart
Director of Member Development