The Board of Surf Lifesaving Australia flew in from all over the country to visit the current National Surf Lifesaving Club of the Year  - Venus Bay SLSC - for an event held at the clubhouse during May 2018 to congratulate the club on its achievements.
 
The event was attended by Life Members, Members and Supporters (including Councillor Alyson Skinner) and cemented the Club's standing as an influencer in the Lifesaving movement and as a leading Ambassador for the local community.
 
When addressing the event SLSA President (Graham Ford AM) made special mention of the challenges that face members in keeping the beach-using public safe and the impressive growth Venus Bay SLSC is sustained over the past 6 years.
 
Club President Craig Watson said 'We have had record education awards, membership numbers, competition medals and patrol hours again this past season and the club continues to go from strength to strength. We have a fantastic Nipper program that teaches kids water safety and develops future lifesavers. We are working with multiple agencies to raise funds to extend our facilities. This is imperative as our number of beach users increase and our current club is simply not fit for purpose, in housing essential lifesaving equipment.'
On Saturday SLSA held a formal Board meeting at the Club's facility and moved the afternoon session on to the beach proper, where they observed the Venus Bay SLSC IRB Competition Team run through a tough training session.
 
'I think what is most significant is that the Board of the Surf Lifesaving Movement in Australia not only took the time to visit and inspect a Club like ours, at grass-roots level.' Watson says,  'But they also made decisions on strategy that will drive the entire national movement, whilst staring out over the beautiful Venus Bay coastline.'
 
Councillor Alyson Skinner, VBSLSC President Craig Watson, SLSA President Graham Ford AM (NSW)
 

Venus Bay dominates at Masters Championships!

The Victorian Surf Lifesaving Masters Championships were held at Lorne on February 3rd, 2018 and the team from Venus bay exceeded all expectations.  The team of 13 competitors and a further six support crew medalled in 34 events, making it the most successful competition event in the club's 56 year history.

Tom Goode (72) won five medals, and Kimberley Gee and Kristie Clappison  won 18 medals between them.  In the men's 34-39 category Venus Bay won the trifecta in the beach flags and beach sprint with Elliot Amalos, Simon Gee, and Russell Stewart all medalling.

Venus Bay Surf Lifesaving Club President Craig Watson said; "It's just another step on our journey to becoming a better club.  We have record membership and on the back of our National Club of the Year the next logical step was to be more competitive in Surf Sports.  We already have an incredibly successful Nippers Competition Team and we are really bookending that with the Masters Group."

Venus Bay Surf Lifesaving Club finished sixth overall at the championships, finishing ahead of more fancied teams including Portsea, Anglesea, St Kilda and host club Lorne.

 

Venus Bay SLSC’s Paul Mullarvey recently fulfilled his childhood dream of participating in the Coolangatta Gold, one of the most challenging endurance races in surf sports.  When Paul was 11 he remembers watching Guy Leech on television participate in the Coolangatta Gold.  Since that day he knew that there would come a time when he would be there completing the 23km ski, 2.1km run, 3.5km swim, 6.1km board, and 7.1km run. 

At the beginning of the year Paul mentioned to his wife Jo the idea of competing.  She was so supportive she had almost booked the flights before he had committed!  A lot of training and hard work went into preparing for the endurance race and not all of it was enjoyable.  There were many icy Melbourne winter mornings that were spent board paddling, swimming and running.  Paul didn’t know anyone else competing and said ‘”The mental preparation was tough, not having the training partners to motivate me. 6am mornings were often spent on the beach in the pitch black contemplating which shipping marker to paddle to."

Paul joined a local swim squad and under the guidance of the coach, saw big improvements in his technique.  All that preparation and hard work paid off when Paul stood on the start line “I was relieved on the start line knowing I had done all the training and it was a good feeling to get there.”

The hardest part of the race for Paul was being able to see how far he still had to go.  “I would paddle for ten minutes and the buildings would still seem the same distance away.  The 7km run was in a straight line so you could actually see how far 7km is – it was really daunting.”  Paul also found the board leg challenging due to being fatigued and increasing wind which created choppy conditions.

Paul finished the race in a time of 5 hours and 32 minutes, placing 16th in his age group.  When asked what the prospect was of doing it again he laughed, hesitated, and then went on to discuss that the logistics of trying to organise training, equipment and prepare on his own were really difficult. “For example, every swimmer has to have someone paddling next to them on a board,” Paul explained,  “Fortunately I knew someone up there who could do that for me.  I also had a few connections so that I could borrow a board for them to paddle.” Paul also relied on his support crew consisting of his sister and brother-in-law, mum, dad, wife Jo and his two children.  “It was a lot of work trying to organise all the equipment, because you had to have a vehicle and transport to drive to the different locations to collect your board and ski,” he said.  Paul then went on to say “If I was part of a club doing it, then yes I would be interested in participating again.”  And he may just find an enthusiastic bunch of lifesavers at Venus Bay who will put together a team to compete in 2018!

Congratulations Paul!

 

Venus Bay Surf Life Saving Club was awarded the prestigious National Club of the Year Award at surf lifesaving’s night of nights, the Surf Lifesaving Australia Awards of Excellence Gala.  The club’s president and 10 Venus Bay SLSC members attended the event at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on Saturday November 4, where the finest surf lifesavers in Australia were recognised for their service to the community and amazing acts of heroism.

Venus Bay SLSC, which has 540 members, including 90 patrolling members, beat out more than 300 surf lifesaving clubs across Australia to claim the night’s top honour, the 2017 DHL National Club of the Year Award.  To qualify for the national award, the club defeated 59 Victorian clubs to win Victorian Surf Lifesaving Club of the Year in August.  The six national finalists – clubs from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania – had spent the day before the ceremony presenting to the Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) Honours Committee in a final determination of the winner, and Venus Bay SLSC president Craig Watson, who accepted the award on behalf of the club, says an impressive set of lifesaving statistics and achievements over the past season was what clinched the victory for Venus Bay.


These included a record number of patrolling members receiving a lifesaving awards (92.3 per cent); record patrol hours (an average of over 38.4 hours per patrolling member); record competition results (a 375 per cent increase in state medals); record funds raised and record funds invested in the club; and a 600 per cent decrease in number of rescues, despite beach attendance increasing.


Craig says in presenting the award, the SLSA judging panel made special mention of the work the Venus Bay SLSC has driven in its local community, and the club’s efforts in raising awareness for river safety and swimming between the flags.
“Our members have really stepped up,” Craig said. “We’ve had high numbers of patrol hours, we’re better trained and we’ve been working hard on community education, like how to identify a rip.  “We go and talk to groups on the beach. We work with schools and community groups. And we do things like partnering with the Vietnamese community, who do pipi harvesting.  “We try to educate about water safety, such as appropriate attire. We focus on prevention, so people don’t get into situations where they need rescuing.”  Craig says the club’s rising strength in life saving competitions has also engaged members who might otherwise have transferred to more competitive clubs.


Craig has been involved with the club since the late 1970s and says the honour is “definitely the biggest thing that has ever happened to our club”.  “It’s a real David versus Goliath story,” he says.  “It’s extremely rare for a Victorian club to be awarded this accolade. It nearly always goes to clubs from Queensland or New South Wales. There are only two Victorian clubs that have ever won the national award and that would’ve been about 15 years ago.  It’s something the whole region can celebrate, having the best lifesaving club in the country right here. It’s an amazing group of people.”

Craig thanked the South Gippsland Shire Council for its support, particularly Cr Alyson Skinner.  “The shire’s been our major supporter in the past few years. Alyson Skinner has been especially helpful in identifying ways we can reach out to the community.”  He also praised the South Gippsland-Bass Coast region for being one of the best planned and most harmoniously working surf lifesaving regions in Victoria.

Cr Alyson Skinner, of Coastal Promontory Ward to which Venus Bay belongs, congratulated the club on its “amazing” achievement.  “I’m really thrilled for the club and the community,” she said.  “Venus Bay is small, isolated, very quiet town but in summer it’s heaving with people. To engage those visitors is very difficult. What the club has accomplished is astonishing.”  Cr Skinner said the club’s work was especially admirable as they raise most of their funds themselves.
“We have three volunteer organisations that help keep our community safe: the CFA, the CERT and the Surf Life Saving Club. The lifesaving club is such a critical service yet it’s the only one of those organisations that doesn’t get any significant funding.” Cr Skinner said the council only provides money to Life Saving Victoria to fund two paid lifeguards, meaning the Venus Bay club “has to go around rattling tins all year to raise money,” and that “everything they do: patrols, training, rescues, updating equipment, putting on community events, it’s all volunteers.”


Craig says the next challenge for the club is to raise the $1 million required for essential clubhouse redevelopment to cater for the growing beach attendances and ensure safety for beach users.  The club’s next major event will be its ‘Marathon Iron Man Relay’ on the Tarwin River on December 28. The six-hour event, to raise awareness of river safety, will include board paddling, swimming and ski paddling and Craig says the club’s hoping to make it into the Guinness Book of Records for the longest continuous iron man relay.

 

Pictured Above: The Venus Bay Surf Life Saving Club was thrilled to receive the National Club of the Year Award at the Surf Life Saving Australia Awards of Excellence Gala in Sydney on Saturday. Pictured at the awards ceremony are (from left) club members Megan Watson, Brett Watson, Marty McCorriston, Elise McCorriston, Rhiannon McCorriston, Paul Hoffman, Kelly Watson, Simon Gee, Kimberley Gee, Craig Watson (club president), and Dr Dean Dudley (Surf Life Saving Australia Education Chair).

 

 

Five Venus Bay SLSC members attended the 2017 Advanced Lifesaving Camp held September 25-29.  54 Lifesavers from across Victoria, interstate, and also New Zealand attended the week long development program with the aim of obtaining their Gold Medallion and becoming professional lifeguards. 

For many, the Gold Medallion is the pinnacle of surf lifesaving and a presitigious award that is highly regarded.  The camp saw lifesavers tested across a range of different challenges and situations that were designed to enhance their skills and knowledge.

A massive congratualations to Harrison Cumming who attained his Gold Medallion at the conclusion of the camp.  Also congratulations to Austin Timmins, Ryley Millikin, Travis Rowden and Jasmine McJames-Court who attended the camp and are in the final stages of completing the requirements to attain the award. 

 

 

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