Nippers
Welcome to Shelly Beach Nippers.
Nippers is about teaching valuable lifesaving and surf safety skills in a family friendly environment.
Age Groups
U6s
In this Age Group little nippers begin their journey in Surf Life Saving with surf education and building confidence around the water edge.
U7s
In this Age Group they begin to learn more about the water and explore various aspects of the beach environment. The focus of all activities will be about having fun and building confidence.
U8s
In this Age Group they take their first steps in water safety. All their activities will have an emphasis on fun.
U9s
In this Age Group they will continue to develop their surf safety knowledge. They will be introduced into swimming and board paddling throughout the season. With the support of the Age Manager and Water Safety personnel they gradually build their confidence in entering the surf.
U10s
Continuing their progression in water safety and surf skills they will further knowledge in the beach environment
U11s
In this Age Group they will begin to look at the foundational skills of lifesaving while continuing to develop their water safety and surf skills.
U12s
In this Age group they elevate their water safety and lifesaving knowledge and begin identifying potential risks in the beach environment.
U13s
In the Age Group they begin their lifesaving journey as rookie lifesavers. As well as attending regular nipper days, each U13 is placed onto a patrol to begin to learn how to work in a team environment and keep their beach safe for the public.
U14s
In this Age Group they consolidate all their learnings in the previous years to gain their Surf Rescue Certificate. Attaining this award provides them with a nationally recognised aquatic rescue award making them a full member of their patrol team.
Nipper Education
Stage 1
At this stage the focus is aquatic play and fundamental aquatic skills
Stage 2
In the stage the focus is applied aquatic skills
Stage 3
In this stage the focus is training and developing to become junior lifesavers.
Proficiencies
Preliminary Assessment
Many activities that will be completed by children as part of Junior Activities will be conducted in the water. To ensure that all children have a suitable swimming ability to allow them to participate in these activities, SLSA has developed a Junior Preliminary Evaluation for each age group. Every junior member is required to participate in this evaluation prior to any water-based activities being undertaken. Clubs can set standards that go over and above the requirements set by SLSA, but not below this standard.
Note: It is not an assessment which if not completed competently precludes the child from becoming a member or continuing with junior surf education or training activities. Any child that does not meet the required evaluation level will require a higher level of supervision when involved in water-based activities
Competition Proficiencies
From the age of 7 (Under 8) juniors can begin to compete in intra-club, inter-club and branch competition, while from the age of 8 (Under 9) juniors can participate in state competition. To ensure that all junior members that wish to compete in any inter-club, branch, state and national events/championships have the required ability, strength and fitness to compete, they must be able to complete the junior competition evaluation for their age group.
Junior Competition
Competitions
Sports programs primary goal is to build confidence and develop their surf and lifesaving skills. All Surf Sports events have their origins from real rescue scenarios or focus on particular skills which are required by lifesavers.
Club Training
Our Club offers regular training sessions to prepare our members for competitions. To ensure safety we have a strict water safety policy which requires all nipper participants to hold their competition proficiency before attending a training session.
To find out more about our Junior Surf Sports program speak with your Age Manager about our current sessions.
Board Policies
To keep our members safe we a detailed board policy which outlines who, when and how our Club boards can be used.
We also offer a generous board scheme for members who are seeking to participate in our Junior Surf Sports program.
Membership
Circulars and Publications
All documents are stored in members portal. This includes all policies and club minutes. Follow the link and login into members portal to find all Shelly Beach documents. Members only
Member Recognition
Being able to recognises our members achievement is incredibly important. At Shelly we have a number of programs to recognise our members