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To
keep all Illawarra Club Members informed on current news and
developments, The
Illawarra Credit Union is helping by sponsoring this news
page.
Sydney
Water Round 2 Bulli - 13/11/04
Club
pointscore after round 2
Individual
pointscore after round 2
Illawarra
Rookie Camp Killalea - 20 & 21/11/04
SLSI
hosted a Rookie Adventure Extravaganza at Killalea Recreation
Camp. Two Rookies from all SLSI were invited to attend. All
participants enjoyed the venue and the activities over the
weekend.
more
rookie camp...
SLSNSW
AGM - 27/11/04
The
Surf Life Saving NSW AGM was held on the 27/11 at Mascot in
Sydney. At that meeting the Organisational Review Group that
was chartered by State Council 12 months ago to review the
Organisational Structure of Surf Life Saving in NSW released
the report of their findings and recommendations for the future.
At the link below is a report of the findings and recommendations.
Presidents of Illawarra Surf Life Saving Clubs have been asked
to review the report and provide feedback by the 14th of January
2005.
Organisational
Review Group Report
Telstra
2004 Beach to Bush Surf Education Tour
On
Sunday the 28th November 2004 Gary Chapman and Dale Whiteman
of Thirroul SLSC departed Thirroul as representatives of Surf
Life Saving New South Wales to present the Telstra Beach to
Bush Surf Education Programme in the Riverina Region.
The
schools to receive the programme on this trip were Deniliquin
South Primary School - 250 students, Deniliquin North Primary
School - 215, Conargo Public School - 24 (Pictured above),
St Michaels Primary School Deniliquin - 220, Mayrung Public
School - 19, Edward Public School Deniliquin - 255, Wakool
Public School - 28, Barham Public School - 180 and finally
St Josephs Primary School Barham - 12. In all we visited 9
schools over 5 days and presented the programme to 1,210 students
from kindergarten to year 6 and approximately 90 teachers
and support staff. We traveled just over 2,000 kilometres,
25 hours driving time and used over 230 litres of petrol with
the highest price paid being $1.23 litre at Barham.
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The
days started with arriving at the school and setting up our
posters and displays, ensuring that the schools video/televisions
were set up and we had a suitable venue. The group sizes at
the larger schools averaged around 50 students while St Josephs
at Barham with a total school population of 12 was our smallest
group. On a sad note, we were the last people to visit St
Josephs as it was closing down the next day due to lack of
numbers of students.
The
presentations started with a music video titled “SURF
SAFE SUMMER” with a cast of celebrities including NSW
Premier Bob Carr dancing and singing the main messages of
swimming between the flags, obeying the rules and the if you
followed these simple guidelines that the life that you save
could be yours.
We
then discussed the messages in this video and reinforced the
swim between the flags rule, this was our major focus and
by the end of each session we had the students chanting "Rule
Number 1 is SWIM BETWEEN THE FLAGS." Then we showed another
video explaining rips, flags, safety signs, rescue equipment
used , marine stingers and how to treat them, identifying
lifesavers and lifeguards, swimming in ocean pools and sun
protection. Role plays dealing with rips, marine stingers
and surf safety tips followed by discussions and questions
were interesting for the students.
Most
of the safety messages that we provided covered not just the
surf but also these children’s own local environments
such as dams, rivers and channels. Rules such as never swimming
alone, swimming with a responsible adult, never running and
diving into water of unknown depth and clarity, never swimming
directly after a meal and never swimming at night apply all
the time.
Some
of my observations from this trip :
1.
Consistently, over 80% of children, by show of hands, swim
at the beach during holidays
2.
Nearly 100% swim in rivers, dams, pools and channels
3.
Statistically more than half the people who drown come from
more than 50 kilometres from the coast.
4.
It’s a long way from Thirroul to Barham.
5.
We were very well received in these towns and schools and
I think our efforts were genuinely appreciated by the local
communities, people would stop us and talk in the streets,
we were given gifts, people would wave to us as they drove
past and we were invited to peoples homes for afternoon tea’s
and barbecues.
6.
We were interviewed and had articles appear in the local and
district newspapers.
7.
The support of the schools and media in the aim of saving
lives and that if the programme saves at least one life it
has been worthwhile.
8.
Dale and I feel privileged to have been involved in this programme
and look forward to being involved in future years.
9.
We had daily temperatures of 42 to 43 degrees C and loved
it.
10.
Telstra, SLSA, SLSNSW are to be congratulated for being involved
in such a programme.
11. When the safety signs were shown on the video the students
were asked to shout what each sign meant and not surprisingly
while some signs had a feeble response when the shark sign
came on everyone in the room shouted their heads off.
Gary
Chapman - SLSI Director Development
Previous
Editions of Life Saving News
02/03
No.1,
No.2, No.3, No.4,
No.5, No.6,
No.7, No.8,
No.9, AOE
03/04
No12, Christmas
News, No.14,
No.15,
No.16, AOE,
04/05
No 17, Rookie
Camp News, No 18
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Submissions
If
you have information, photos or a story of interest email
it to me : gerald@illawarrasurf.com
Other
news and information can be found at our website www.illawarrasurf.com
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