Wanganui Surf Lifesaving Service hosting first junior carnival since 1979

Whanganui's junior surf programme currently has 80 participants. Photo / NZME

Surf lifesaving clubs from around the North Island will be at Castlecliff Beach this weekend for the first junior carnival in the city in 45 years.

Wanganui Surf Lifesaving Service chairman Shaun Libeau said that since then local club members had been able to compete only in other centres.

“I actually took my boy, who’s 6, up to Ōpunake for his first carnival a couple of weeks ago.

“We are so excited to have this on and we’ve got kids coming from all over the show.

“Having one on our own back doorstep, with clubs coming from as far away as Wellington, is incredible.”

Clubs will compete in challenges including board runs, beach flags and beach sprints.

“We’ve even got a parent race for the beach sprints, which is absolutely hilarious,” Libeau said.

“Then, the kids go out into board rescue activities. They might go out 200m, do a loop, then come back, run through the dunes and do it all again.

“There is a huge range of activities based on your ability.”

The Wanganui Junior Surf programme - run through the lifesaving service - is divided into three age groups - nippers (6-10 years), juniors (11-12) and rookies (13-14).

Last year, the club won the London Trophy at the Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ) Awards of Excellence.

It is given to the club which successfully qualifies the most surf lifeguards and instructors per capita of membership.

Seven of the 10 who qualified in 2023 were from the junior programme.

Why Whanganui had not hosted an event like this for so long was “a very good question”, Libeau said.

“It does take a lot of manpower and we‘re really lucky that some of the Taranaki crew have offered to help us out.

“We haven’t had too much of a youth involvement in the club over the past 15 to 20 years either.

“Now we have close to 80 kids doing junior surf with us. Three years ago, it started with eight. Numbers are so high that we need to start giving back to the community and to the regions that have supported us for the past 40 years.”

Libeau said the club was currently “inundated” with applications from parents wanting to get their children involved in surf lifesaving.

“For a lot of kids, it’s their summer sport.

“I would definitely encourage people to come along and see what it’s all about.”

Wanganui Junior Surf’s carnival is at Castlecliff Beach on Sunday, January 21, from 9am. It is free to attend.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.