President
We made it through another season and achieved our primary goal -no lives lost at a patrolled beach. Everyone who came to our beach went home safely.
Some of you put in many hours of patrolling to achieve this goal. Some of you trained others to be the best they could be. Some of you didn’t set foot on the beach but did administrative work, applied for grants and sponsorships. Some of you kept our equipment and our Clubhouse in shape. Some of you ran special events and programs to raise funds and support our local community. Some of you did things to support our culture and the wellbeing of our members. All of it counts! Thank you to everyone for your efforts this season.
After a couple of difficult Covid affected seasons this year one of our aims was to re-connect
We did this with some fantastic social events at the Clubhouse including our Paella Night which broke all records with 200 in attendance.
Every patrol ran a number of great social events and the Nippers came back to the Clubhouse with a vengeance with movie night, pizza night and champagne and sunset night.
Throughout the season we ran several special patrol weekends to raise awareness of important issues in our society.
Blue Zinc Patrol raised awareness of Men’s Mental Health. The highlight was undoubtedly Oscar Carlson’s inspirational presentation on overcoming challenges in life.
Green Zinc Patrol recognised the importance of our local environment and featured a sustainably sourced dinner and a beach clean up before the patrol.
Rainbow Zinc Patrol was an all inclusive patrol, aiming to create a safe and welcoming space for all members, and to show support of the LGBTQIA+ community. The Saturday night started with a great Mexican dinner followed by a presentation by Dr Casey Delmara and her ex-partner Kate. Casey is a resilience and positive coping skills expert and gave us an insight into some of the challenges and issues facing young LGBTQIA+ people and how we can be more inclusive. This was followed by a great trivia night. The following day the Rainbow Zinc patrol took to the beach resplendent in their rainbow fish patrol caps designed and made by Barb Webb.
Pink Zinc patrol was started at Woolamai Beach SLSC 12 years ago as a means of celebrating and recognising the contributions of our female members. Since then the concept has spread statewide and this year our Club joined with other Clubs in the Bass District to celebrate -and held its own fun slumber party.
Super Saturday saw over 130 compete in our first Club Champs in 3 years. Congratulations to our winning patrol the Punchy Penguins and to everyone that had a go.
Our Diversity and Inclusion and Sustainability teams played key roles in organising some of these events as well as many other great initiatives which have continued to strengthen our great Club culture.
This season we continued to develop our governance standards
At the start of the season, the Club Board adopted a new Governance Charter. This set out the main principles to be adopted by the Club and its Board in order to develop, implement and maintain a culture and standard of good corporate governance. We formalised a number of sub-committees including the Alan Pitts Youth Development Fund and the Life Membership Nomination Committee. We also implemented a new bar policy and procedures.
We enjoyed great support from our local community and key partners
We worked on various projects with with Life Saving Victoria, Surf Life Saving Foundation, other Bass District clubs, local authorities and organisations. We have many common interests and are starting to see some of the benefits of developing these important relationships. We are fortunate to receive great support from the local community and businesses and greatly appreciate this assistance.
Our preparation for the season was second to none
Thank you to all of the members of the Gear and Equipment team (Campbell Smart, John McLachlan, Ellie Ryan, Evan Richter, Zane Smith, Maddy Reynolds, Daniel Reynolds, Michael ‘Boo’ Butler for their done excellent work in preparing all of our equipment for the season and keeping it going throughout the season.
This season we well and truly made the step into being a beyond the beach emergency service
In late 2022 many parts of Victoria experienced severe and devastating flooding events. Thousands of homes and people were impacted.
Life Saving Victoria reached out to Clubs for volunteers and equipment to be deployed to these areas. We sent an IRB and several members up to northern Victoria and their efforts were invaluable.
We made significant improvements to secure the future of the Clubhouse
Our Clubhouse experiences some the country’s harshest coastal conditions. An audit conducted by Life Saving Victoria identified that if we look after our Clubhouse it may last us a further 20 years. Although we will need to begin planning for our next Clubhouse before then.
Over the season we have seen significant roof repairs and plumbing to prevent leaks, installation of a roof safety ladder and roof tap and hose to assist with roof cleaning, cleaning gutters, re-plastering and repairs to water damage, re-insulating, painting, cleaning carpet, installing an automatic window cleaner for the tower and many other maintenance projects.
A huge thank you to Darrell Clark, Stafford Smith, Campbell Smart, Michael ‘Boo’ Butler and the other team members who have been organising or carrying out this work.
We are now about to take on one of our most important projects in the Club’s history. With some help from a Commonwealth Government Building Better Regions Fund grant, financial support from the Phillip Island Nature Parks as well as our own Club funds, we are about to stabilise and revegetate the dunes which are threatening to engulf our Clubhouse and build a 60 metre long retaining wall. Works begin soon.
The Club is very grateful to Phillip Island Nature Parks for their support throughout the season and over a long period of time. PINP has been our project partner for several significant projects underway to improve the Clubhouse environs.
PINP has already carried out sand clearing, sand fencing and dune revegetation around the Clubhouse over the past few seasons and gradually we are seeing the benefits of this work.
We continued to train and develop members and leaders
Throughout December the Club ran three full week Bronze Camps. An enormous amount of work and planning goes into each of these -as well as many of our members giving up a week of their time to be trainers, provide water safety, cook meals and generally help out. These camps are very important to the Club and provide us with many of our patrolling members.
The Club has also run a Surf Rescue Certificate Program, IRB Crew and Driver Camps and numerous other training and leadership programs.
This is on the back of an excellent Skills Maintenance weekend which saw close to 100 members requalify for the season. Well done to Terry and team.
Our Nippers program continued its growth and improvement
Nippers was back this season with 300+ participants many of the features that had been missing for the previous two Covid affected seasons. While the program retained many of its Covid-safe features such as split sessions and not sharing equipment between groups, many of the social events and the Nippers BBQ made a welcome return. We broke all records for water safety numbers and a huge thanks to Tanya Pinnock and the Nippers team for a great summer program.
Our events were run safely and successfully
February 4 unfortunately saw the Channel Challenge postponed due to dangerous weather conditions for only the second time in its long history
It is a credit to our race organisers led by Ron Nicholson, Max Eldridge, Mick Sullivan and Graeme Burgan that they showed such foresight to make the brave and sensible decision to postpone the race due to the anticipated weather conditions.
But after a lot of re-organising the event ran successfully on 11 March.
The Cowes Classic and Little Penguin Dash were also a great success. The Club also provided water safety at the inaugural Swim the Island race at Cowes.
We achieved high patrolling standards and looked after our patrolling members
This season the Club performed a number of rescues and first aid cases during patrol hours, and in doing so kept our beaches safe. Our high number of preventative actions reflected the diligent manner in which our members patrolled our beaches.
I would like to acknowledge the commitment and efforts of members involved in the night time search and rescue which occurred at Cape Woolamai on 22 April.
Several Club members were involved in assisting Victoria police with the search for a missing man who was believed to be on the cliffs near the Pinnacles. Whilst the man was found with no signs of life by the police, the Islanders patrol leadership team and Club members involved with the follow up debriefing and incident follow up are to be commended for their efforts in ensuring the wellbeing of our members.
Our members were acknowledged for their excellence
Congratulations to those members who were nominated for or won significant awards
Sophia Hungerford, Ryan Box, Josh Williams and Charles Tuchtan and our Nippers Program were all nominated for Life Saving Victoria Awards of Excellence.
Michael ‘Boo’ Butler was recognised by Life Saving Victoria for his significant contribution to Member and Leadership Development and Diversity and Inclusion.
More than 25 of our members were recognised at Life Saving Victoria’s Valuing Volunteers Event for 100+ patrol hours.
Club legend and life member Trevor ‘Belts’ Clauscen was inducted into Victorian Surf Rowers League Hall of Fame as one of its inaugural inductees.
Thank you
I would like to express my gratitude to all members of the Club Board -Annie Coleman, Brendan Smart, Campbell Smart, Christian Born, Terry Aslanidis, Ryan Box, Louise Smith, Darrell Clark, Tanya Pinnock and Suze Fawaz.
I would like to thank Mark Bain, Stafford Smith, Max Eldridge and some of our past Presidents and Board members who have provided myself and the Board advice and guidance, as well as 3 of our Life Governors Thommo, Ron and Macca for their wise counsel.
I’d also like to thank the Smithsonians patrol and Gerries patrol for the fun on and off the beach.
Finally I would like to thank my wife Susan and daughters Erin and Ava for their support throughout the past year.
See you next season.
Jason Close
President