Waihī Beach Lifeguard Services is Coromandel Club of the Year

Waihī Beach Lifeguard Services rejoice in their win at the Eastern region awards.

Waihī Beach Lifeguard Services was awarded Coromandel Club of the Year at the Surf Lifesaving New Zealand (SLSNZ) Eastern Region Awards of Excellence early this month.

A spokesperson says this is a “huge honour” which is closely contested each year by all of the surf lifesaving clubs in the area.

“To win this award requires significant and measurable improvements year on year, which becomes increasingly difficult to achieve. It is therefore the result of a huge amount of hard work and dedication by our membership and includes recognition of achievements during the last season.’’

Waihī Beach Lifeguard Services won the SLSNZ Eastern Region rookie challenge with their teams awarded gold and silver.

Individual rookies took out top male — Liam May, top female was Tessa Scott and third place female was Tianna MacDonald of Katikati. Tianna and Liam were finalists in the SLSNZ Eastern Region rookie of the Year, with Liam awarded the top prize.

Hosting the National IRB Championships, BP Surf Rescue and the international Trans-Tasman Surf Boat test also contributed to the club’s achievements.

“Our team of volunteer lifeguards rescued 26 people over the summer, but also assisted a further 15 in critical need of assistance and a huge 773 preventative actions - helping to educate and assist swimmers to ensure their situations didn’t result in needing to be rescued.’’

The lifeguard development team had 15 new surf lifeguards for patrol and 78 others refreshed their skills for the season which brought their membership to a total of 93 for the 2022/23 season.

“These figures reflect the countless hours our instructors put into training these lifeguards. with a further 11 new IRB drivers and 15 crewpersons qualified this season. It really is a huge effort to train and qualify this many lifeguards and IRB operators and this is all done by volunteers. On top of this, 13 members earned their surf first aid award, and 11 achieved their advanced first aid qualification.’’

Other winners on the night included Rian Butler for patrol captain of the year, Georgia Eldridge was joint winner of examiner of the year and Sharlene Manukau of Katikati was patrol support person of the year.