The breakdown of members completing courses for the 2021/22 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

Courses Booked

New Awards

Leading up to the 2021/22 season, we thought COVID was behind us and we would return to some normality. This was not the case. This season, the Training and Assessment team were faced with yet again the challenges of COVID restrictions, limiting our course numbers and at worst, postponing/canceling courses.

Due to not running a Bronze Camp last season (2020/21), we had major backlogs of members wanting to do their Bronze Medallion and Surf Rescue Certificate. In response to the limited capacity, we were able to create 2 additional Bronze Medallion courses and 1 additional SRC course, making it the largest number of candidates the club has put through.

During the September school holidays (while still in lockdown), we were able to provide a ‘Local Only’ Bronze Course. The course ran over 3 weekends and saw 11 local members obtain their Bronze Medallion. We then ran a November Bronze Course over 2 weekends and saw an additional 15 members obtain their Bronze Medallion.

Each year our Nipper Program attracts 100s of children ranging from 6 years old to 12 years old. After completing the Nipper Program, the natural pathway would be to do your Surf Rescue Certificate. This year we saw 51 kids aged between 13-14 yrs old, complete this award in 2 separate, back-to-back courses which were 3 full days long.

During December, we were very fortunate to run the Upwey High School (UHS) Bronze Camp, led by the UHS teachers and long time members of the club, Bianca Myers and Stafford Smith, as well as our popular December Bronze Camp, run by Issy Clark and her team.

The Labour Day Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB) Camp has yet again been a very popular and successful camp, seeing 8 IRB Crew and 8 IRB Drivers undertake the Course. Candidates were provided the skills and knowledge to effectively drive and crew an IRB in surf rescue operations. This course is conducted at various beaches including Inverloch, Wooli Waters and Woolamai Beach. Due to its popularity, we decided to join forces with Inverloch SLSC to provide a second IRBC camp held during the Easter long weekend. This saw an additional 10 members obtain their IRBC.

We are very excited to welcome a new partnership with the Bass Coast High School in Wonthaggi and San Remo. 29 students completed their Surf Rescue Certificate in early May with the school to give year 9 students the opportunity to complete their SRC qualification through the advanced program.The students learn all the theory in the classroom, then spend a week at the club honing in all their skills.

We are very excited to work with the schools to plan for an amazing camp next year.

Skills Maintenance

For the second year in a row, skills maintenance weekend was run over multiple days and times. With 27 different sessions, members were able to choose a session that suited them, and requalify all their awards. This season we requalified 600 members in various awards (see table above). It is very pleasing to see an increase in members requalifying with us prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Next season we hope to bring the skills maintenance weekend back to a single weekend, and also align our season opener in the same weekend.

Training Team

Each year, more and more members are wanting to be involved in training/assessing within the club. Last season saw Woolamai dominate the LSV Trainers Officer Certificate (TOC) courses with 15 members obtaining the skills required to facilitate lifesaving awards. This season we saw an additional 20 members complete the TOC award.

The training management team are thankful for all the trainers who gave up their time to help with the delivery of lifesaving awards, skills maintenance and other WBSLSC programs throughout the season.

Moving into the future of training, we hope to see all trainers have at least their TOC award when conducting any lifesaving award. Members will be provided internal training in the offseason in preparation for the start of the 2022/23 season.

Membership & Leadership Development Team

We are very excited to welcome Josh Williams to the Membership & Leadership Development Team as the Manager of Member Development. Recently completing LSV’s U15 Development Program as a Leader, Josh will be working alongside the Chief Instructor in the 2022/23 season and will ultimately be responsible for creating and running member development sessions across the season.

External Development Programs

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Bass Lifesaving Development Camp was not run, however Woolamai continues to dominate participation in external programs such as Dev Camp. The Lifesaving Development Camp also know as ‘Dev Camp’, is a week-long live in camp, where participants complete 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. We are looking forward for this program to go ahead in the 2022/23 season.

Advanced Lifesaving Camp was run in an online format again this year with 2 camps being offered to members. This gave more members an opportunity to complete this prestigious program. We had a total of 14 members representing Woolamai Beach SLSC in the ALC program last season.

Special Thanks!

The continued support from all our volunteer trainers and assessors who take the time and help with our courses is overwhelming. The more members that get involved in training, the more opportunities we can provide back to the club.

The 2022/23 courses are currently being reviewed, with bigger and better courses/camps and member development opportunities on the horizon.

Brendan Smart - Director of Member Development

Terry Aslanidis - Chief Instructor

Josh Smith - Vice Chief Instructor