Rusty Nails: 54 fully proficient crew ready for the 22/23 surf season.

Introducing our Rusty Nails; those keeping our club and our kids safe after completing their proficiencies in our inaugural Rusty Nails extravaganza!

.

54 patrol members are now fully proficient for the season; that’s over half of our roster! But what does it mean to be fully proficient? This means our Rusty nail crew are equipped with the skills and knowledge of surf awareness, aquatic rescue, operations and resuscitation in order to participate in lifesaving operations and act in the role of water safety personnel. What this actually means for them though is some intense preparation and application of certain skills of the mind and athleticism in order to prepare them for potential dangerous situations down by the beach. All 54 patrol members went through their paces completing a Run Swim Run, board and tube rescues, CPR and First Aid. We even managed to get some IRB crew and online proficiencies completed on the day.

.

These are the people that volunteer their time to our club, working with our club’s community, kids and families on developing their love and understanding of all things surf life saving, watching them in the waters, keeping an eye on the beach, ready to step in and help, ready to rescue and always ready to a hand where needed. Some of these amazing people you will see around in the public eye, some may be working behind the scenes (or far out in the waters), but you can count on them to always be there! Some of our crew even got to put their skills into action this past Sunday in response to a serious incident at Pt Malcolm, springing into action exactly as they’d been trained too. Proof that not only do they watch our waters, but are also willing to respond to our local community when needed.

.

Our tireless president, Raelene Donnell, also completed her Shallow Water Cover Certificate – well done Raelene!

We were also able to present Steven Weir and Steve Sims with their National Medal for services to Lifesaving, congratulations once again, a fabulous achievement.

.

A massive list of thank you shout outs:

Obtaining proficiencies wouldn’t have been possible without our awesome training team of Michael Kenny, Andrew Spencer, Neil Bisset, Wanga Robbins and Cam Lane, all working so hard to prepare everything and making sure it all ran very smoothly.

To David ‘Dogsy’ McGrath and John ‘Freaky’ Stevens for organising food and drinks, a well appreciated BBQ for everyone.

To Metricon for the Rusty Nails t-shirts, produced by our own amazing Steph Breden.

To Envirosite who sponsored the event.

.

Lastly thank you to everyone who made the effort to come down and take part. It makes our jobs easier and allows us to concentrate on other training opportunities instead of chasing proficiencies all season. Planning has already started to make next season’s Rusty Nails even bigger and better!

.

Stay safe everyone, the Surf season is here already and our Nippers will once again storm the beach Saturday October 22nd!