Nippers Update February 2022

To our wonderful nipper families,
​
Happy New Year! I hope you all have had a wonderful break and are looking forward to kicking on with some fabulous nipper sessions.

We finished 2021 with a bang with the Xmas Scramble. Lots of fun on the day with Santa paying a special visit, lollies, popcorn & fairy floss for the nippers, christening of our new club bus, afternoon band chills and plenty of cold drinks with our nipper families. A fantastic afternoon was had by all.

U13 boys nippers - Syd Israel & Aiden Renford
Congratulations to Syd Israel & Aidan Renford, two of our U13 boys for selflessly conducting a rescue at Maroubra Beach. An important reminder why nippers and surf clubs are important to our community. We are so proud of you both.

 As stated by proud dad Murph Renford:
“At approximately 6.20pm this evening (24th Jan) two 12 year old South Maroubra Nippers, Syd Israel & Aidan Renford were having a late afternoon surf when Syd noticed a swimmer in distress in the mega rip that formed in last week's big surf. Syd yelled out to Aidan and they both immediately paddled to the swimmer, who was waving his arms frantically. They got there just as he was going under. In tricky and dangerous conditions and with the boys showing little regard for their own safety they used their boards to keep the 100kg man afloat. In his panicked state he knocked the boys off their boards whilst also being hit by a number of waves. It should be noted that Syd weighs 48kg and Aidan just 37kg. Aidan managed to get the attention of the lifeguards and Syd calmly reassured the man that a lifeguard was on his way and that all would be ok. A lifeguard arrived on a rescue board shortly thereafter and paddled the very relieved man back to shore”

Competition touring team training camp
During the holidays we held a touring team training day camp. The weather was not on our side however that did not stop our athletes. Water competitors were moved to Malabar with the U9’s being the first to utilise the club bus, the U10-U14’s took a run along the headland, followed by a 2 hour water session and a run back to South Maroubra. Sand competitors stayed at South Maroubra perfecting their sprints & flag techniques. All competitors joined together again for lunch and a motivational talk by guest speaker Matt White, professional cyclist and coach of Commonwealth Games gold medalist walker Jane Seville.

Big shout out to all of the coaches, water safety and parent helpers for running such a great day.

As we reach the pointy end of the competition side of nippers, our athletes have been training hard with 3 weeks left until the NSW State Junior Surf Life Saving Championships. This year we have a team of 151 competing at State.  I wish them all the very best of luck.

Annual Nipper Touring Team Trivia fundraiser
On Friday 28th January 2022, the Annual Nipper Touring Team trivia fundraiser was held at Horizons. Thank you to all of our generous sponsors for all of the fantastic prizes that were up for grabs. We raised $7000 that will go towards the touring team’s gear, presentation dinner & training day camp.

Our fabulous sponsors included:

Helpers required
A friendly reminder to all parents who bring their children down to nippers every Sunday and who participate in this invaluable program, please remember that this program is solely run by VOLUNTEERS. Everyone from the Board of Management, Age Managers, Water Safety, Beach Crew, Coaches are all volunteers and run this great program for the benefit of your children. Our aim is to teach our children life skills, social skills, and most importantly to have FUN.

I know that we can all appreciate this in this ever changing environment and when we are dealing with changing surf conditions, sometimes the program will not run as efficiently as we would all like it to. Please be patient with your Age Managers, Beach Crew and water safety. They are running this program to the best of their ability and most importantly are keeping our children safe.

As they say, many hands make light work. I encourage you to get involved and be a part of delivering this great program. To be a part of the Beach Crew, please complete the following steps:

1. Become an SLSA financial member. https://members.sls.com.au General member/Nipper parent membershi p at South Maroubra is $40
2. Complete the short Child Safety Awareness module online under eLearning in the SLS members online portal 
3. Complete the Age Managers module online under eLearning in the SLS members online portal
4. Hand in your Age Managers Assessment Portfolio to your Age Manager or club office
5. Email a copy of your Covid 19 vaccination certificate to [email protected]
6. Email a copy of your WWCC number to [email protected] & advise all steps have been completed

We thank you for joining the South Maroubra Nippers program and look forward to working with you if you would like to join our volunteers. I welcome any feedback anytime. You can email me directly on [email protected].

Don’t forget to stay updated and ‘like’ the South Maroubra SLSC Nippers facebook page.

See you all on the beach. #WeareSthBra

Peter Kondilios
Director of Youth