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Surf Life Saving Help

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Sully

Tim Horan (67)
Staff member
For those of you who don't know I volunteer at Southport SLSC. I do water safety for the nippers most weekend and regular patrols. I know, overweight ex props shouldn't wear dickies but wtf helping people in the surf makes me feel good. Anyway that's more your problem than mine.

We're losing members at a decent rate. And I'm pretty certain it's just not our club. 2 years ago we had enough members for 16 patrol groups and 1 intro patrol group for new Bronzies. That's about 160 to 200 active members. Last year we had 13 patrol groups and this year we are down to 11. that's a drop of about 50 members!
What does that means to the public? Probably nothing. But it makes a big difference to us. There are about 160 patrols in a regular season. splitting that between 11 groups instead of 16 means a patrol every 2 to 3 week instead of every 3 to 4.
Keeping in mind that I'm a regular member and not in the hierarchy of the club. How do we turn this around? How do we encourage people to spend 6 hours on the beach once a month? How do we talk them into the one night a week and a Saturday morning for the 8 weeks it takes to qualify?
Any ideas?
 

#1 Tah

Chilla Wilson (44)
Tell 'em that if they're any good and have blonde hair and a tan, they will end up on Bondi Rescue.

Seriously, its awesome work, and once I finish my HSC and North Bondi is rebuilt I am going to sign up.
 

Karl

Bill McLean (32)
On the Goldie you need to get a program running to engage with the Schools. Have intake focus at Nippers and at kids starting Senior. I'm an old Northcliffe member. Started in nippers and even kept at it for a year or so after I moved to Brisbane for Uni. My school had a "services" program and I did Life Saving in year 12. Every Friday afternoon and a week long camp at the end of the year. Ironically it was at Southport. I painted parts of that building :).

What are the schools doing on this front these days?

Also, what about engaging with clubs that run in winter, like Rugby, an doing cross promotions with them? Recruit members at their games. These are young kids who like physical activity. Should be good prospects.
 

Bruwheresmycar

Nicholas Shehadie (39)
Yea, a key to getting more patrolling members is trying to attract a lot of 14-15 year olds to the club. They still have lots of time for sport, and they get to the age where they can qualify for the SRC and BM course. So I'd say ensure you have a large age group there, and get as many of them doing the course as possible each year. And hopefully many stay on after juniors.

As for convincing people to do the course, I'd say do a cooked breakfast for the bronze course participants after each morning session. People who haven't done the course yet will see a bunch of people doing a bit of fitness/rescues on the beach, and then finishing it off with a nice breakfast, and they might think "that doesn't actually look to bad". Compared to usual where people on the beach look at those doing the bronze course and think "thank f*** I'm not out there all morning doing rescues and theory".
 

Karl

Bill McLean (32)
Maybe speak to the GC Bulletin as a collective of local clubs and get them to donate space to run a few full page ads directed at parents showing how getting their kids into life saving could save their lives from video games, obesity, delinquency etc. JV it with Weetbix (to pay for the Ad design costs) and spin off from the Aussie Kids are Weetbix kids type feel good thing.
 

Sully

Tim Horan (67)
Staff member
Our under 14s do there SRC but unfortunately the pressure of school, social life and an underwhelming scene for cadets leads to a very small retention rate. Basically the only kids we keep are the serious competitors.

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Bruwheresmycar

Nicholas Shehadie (39)
I think all surfclubs have the same issue. One thing I've seen that keeps non-serious competitors involved is getting those less serious people into events like R&R, so they have an event to do that just requires training on a social level. So maybe identifying some of those who don't want to become superstars and bringing them into senior teams for rescue events, march past or even IRB's (if that's possible) to give them a taste of seniors that isn't entirely about winning ironman's.
 

Karl

Bill McLean (32)
I was never a "serious competitor" as such. I was a pretty quick swimmer and I could paddle a rescue board ok, but I was never a star in the big competitions. That was never what it was about for me. It was about achieving the certifications, doing the patrols, hanging with the senior clubbies, the whole scene. I was never in a rugby club as a kid, I played for TSS and my club was Northcliffe. It was on a Sunday, it clashed with nothing and I felt great doing it.

Just being at the beach and learning stuff that could save a life, and actually pulling people out of the surf, was what I liked.
 

stoff

Bill McLean (32)
My old club (Fairhaven) used to run a live in Bronze Medallion camp for my old school at the end of Year 11. The retention rate was not great, but it exposed greater numbers to the club and got them memberships they otherwise wouldnt have had. I know that its a different situation on the Gold Coast where the club is located in a city, but maybe partnering with schools further inland could work. I know that Fairhaven had a fairly massive bunkhouse that facilitated this - are you guys in the same situation?

The thing that kept me at the club, admittedly only for one season, was surfboats. I had a rowing background and training on those things was a million times more exciting than putting in the kms on the Yarra. Maybe you could target recruitment from school rowing programs.
 

Karl

Bill McLean (32)
I like the rowing angle, but the only school on the GC with a rowing program would be TSS wouldn't it?

A lot of Brisbane families have their kids in the Alexandra Headland club on the Sunny Coast. Maybe try to target ex-pat Gold Coasters living in Brisbane who now have young kids and create a program for them of say every second Sunday?

There won't be a silver bullet. You'll need to try a range of things and stick at the ones that get a bit of traction.
 

Sully

Tim Horan (67)
Staff member
I like the rowing angle. We also get a lot of Brisbane families but it's hard to get parents to committed to the Wednesday night after work. And we don't seem flexible enough to accommodate them.

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matty_k

Peter Johnson (47)
Staff member
Minnie Waters SLSC convinced a bunch of guys from Grafton Rugby Club to do surf boats as cross training.
 
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