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Nipper Break up - Sunday April 11

A wonderful finish to a wonderful season for the Nippers. Thank you to everyone who came to our Nipper Awards Day. Congratulations to all our competitors and to our award winners for this year. As a club we can hopefully look forward to more and more people joining in & getting the most out of the many things that Surf Life Saving has to offer.

A full list of our Award Winners is in the Newsletter & Photos can be seen by clicking the link below

Thank you to everyone who helped at the Awards Day and, indeed, throughout the season, and to all those who submitted photos for the slide show. We hope it was a fitting representation of our year on the beach.

Click here for photos

Binni Wilson Award Winner - Hamish Brown

Friday March 12 saw our final Nipper "training" for the current season. Nippers of all ages, from Nemos up to our under 14's, made their final splashes on the beach through a series of fun team & individual events. As noted by chief co-ordinator, Lizzi Shires, there was an abundance of "fully-clothed parents" which, along with the cooler March air, prevented the Nippers vs Parents Challenge from going ahead. However, for those in the spirit, lead by Fiona Paterson (see the photos here) a good workout & splash around was enjoyed by all.

Upstairs afterwards, over 70 diners joined us for a final counter meal & social drink for the training season. Our thanks must go to the Boat crews & more "experienced" members of our club for serving us so well on the night. In return, we, as a group, have a responsibility to help them with the Surf Boat Raffle promotion they are co-ordinating now (click the photo to the right for full details). If we can each sell one ticket to someone we know, or a business or organisation we are involved with, the new boat can be a reality for the upcoming surf boat season. Please help where you can.(Perhaps a group of families may like to chip in & buy a ticket between them?)

Dates to mark on the calendar for future club functions are:

• Sunday April 11 - Nipper break up day & Awards Presentation
• Saturday May 1 - Club Annual Dinner - after last year, this is one not to be missed!
• Club Film & Social night - the first Friday Night of each month (starting May 7)
• June/July - Club Trivia Night - date to be confirmed

People enjoy Surf Life Saving for many different reasons. Whether it be the friendship, the challenge, the sportsmanship,the fun, the community spirit, the reward for effort, or the competition, no-one would have come away disappointed from the Junior Surf Life Saving Championship at Burnie this year. All of these traits and a whole lot more - including most extremes of the weather - were on display for all to see. Our Nippers capped off a "Stellar Season" (thanks Crock!) by sweeping the pool taking out the five major trophys on offer for season 2010.

There were many individual stars, but the strength of our efforts blossomed from the way we competed as a team! Having ALL our competitors willing to get in & have a go wherever & whenever they could was the secret to our success. The team results were simply stunning so every single competitor played their part, and made their families and their club proud of them in doing so. Congratulations on a fine performance.

Around 70 Ulverstone Nippers made the journey to Somerset for the second Statewide Carnival of the season. The weather gods smiled upon us making for a pleasant start to the afternoon/twilight carnival. It was wonderful to see such a huge swarm of maroon & yellow heading down the beach for the customary warm-up announcing the presence of our club.

After some hiccups, the carnival slowly got started & our Nippers began to shine. A solid third in the All age Relay was followed by some great team efforts in the age group races as we scored team wins in almost every age group in one discipline or another. When the water events eventually began, our nippers showed their versatility & depth of training by regularly finishing near the front of the field.

Unfortunately, the program was unable to be completed leaving us a little short on practise in the events of Board Rescue & Cameron Relays (from U10 upwards) for the upcoming state titles. We may need to consider focussing on these events in training over the next few weeks to ensure we are ready when the state titles come around. The official results for the carnival are available here.

We are constantly amazed by & grateful to everyone in our club for their help in so many areas. On this occasion, a special mention & thank you goes to our officials who helped at the carnival. Many of the events – particularly flags – were drawn out over the whole day & required fantastic concentration & endurance to get the events finished. Our large number of competitors means we also need a large number of officials so we are thankful to everyone who helped on the day.

The final Statewide Carnival for the year is the state titles at Burnie on February 27 & 28. We look forward to everyone turning out a again & making it a fine finish to the season.

Australia Day Carnival A fantastic day on the beach for Australia Day and our Regional Nipper Carnival. In a relaxed envirionment that suited the day & the conditions, nippers of all ages competed in swim races, board races, beach flags, beach sprints & relays throughout the afternoon.

The Nemo's had a healthy workout having fun whilst practising some handy water safety skills to prepare them for the years ahead in the Nipper ranks.There was a huge field in the under 8's & under 9's with representatives from many of the coastal surf life saving clubs. Competition was a little more serious in the older age groups, although the relaxed format of a Regional Carnival allowed some mixing of teams & generated a friendly & fun atmosphere throughout the day.

The highlights of the day were the three All Age Relay Challenges in the disciplines of Track (to begin the day) and then Swim & Board to finish off the carnival in fine style.

Thank you to all officials, helpers, age group managers, water safety, bbq & canteen chefs and everyone else for making the day a huge success.

Dolphin Camps: The Dolphin camps were a great success and the club would like to thank Simon Eustace and his swag of helpers, across a range of areas, who made the event, not just possible but a real winner. Numerous photos were taken and I hope to have them available as a new gallery on the website in the near future. Stay tuned.

Board Usage:

Just a reminder that everyone is to take note of the board usage policy, which is detailed on signs in the Nipper shed. Basically, our better condition craft, marked with "red dots" are to be used for official trainings only or with the express permission of the Surf Sports Captain, Steve Crocker. The Nipper boards in this category will all be stored in the Nipper shed. Our general-use boards, marked with "green dots", which generally have a few dings and scrapes and have seen better days are stored on the seaward wall in the main gear shed. These can be taken out at any time, provided the children have appropriate supervision, and on patrol days the Patrol Captain should also be advised. The system is to prevent unnecessary damage and to prolong the life span of our good boards and foamies.