Coalcliff’s Centenary Year
This year, Coalcliff Surf Life Saving Club celebrates 100 years of ‘vigilance and service’.
We’re thrilled to invite the community to celebrate with us! As a small surf lifesaving club in the Northern Illawarra, we have some exciting things happening across the season, including centenary merchandise with the now-famous giant inflatable pink flamingo ‘rescue’, Bombie Bar gigs, a photo digitisation project that’s already turned up some gems, a photo competition, the Triple Crown events, the Dave Winner Beach to Bombie Swim, fortnightly Nippers, the Ocean Swim Club, and a special centenary club dinner in February.
The patrol season is just around the corner, kicking off in late September, and Nippers returns on Sunday 8th of October, as does Coalcliff Ocean Swim Club, after a successful first season in 2022/23.
In October, we’ll be hosting another photo digitisation day, where we invite the community to come and share their photos of Coalcliff for us to scan and record to become part of Coalcliff SLSC’s archives and for us to share stories with the community.
Look out for club dates on our Facebook page and on the Illawarra Flame Events page.
Coalcliff Ocean Swim Club sponsored by Equilibrium Healthcare
Last year, we were delighted to welcome over 50 new members to the surf club, over half were women, joining us as associate members to participate in the ocean swim club.
It was a wonderful first season of the club’s new initiative focused on improving community members’ ocean swimming skills in a friendly, supportive and fun environment. A big thanks to those who joined us – coming from Cronulla to Unanderra! It was a first for the Illawarra – a regular, non-competitive, ocean swimming club with a surf lifesaving club providing water safety at each session.
The start of the season provided us with lovely mild conditions to ease into things. During the sessions, everyone learnt to manage the Coalcliff shore break and got to know the quirks of this sometimes challenging rocky little beach.
Swims were various distances between 400m and 2km depending on conditions and each person’s abilities and energy on the day. Swimmers learnt to manage good distances in conditions they may not have experienced before.
Everyone increased their comfort level and ocean swimming fitness, always under the watchful eyes of the water safety team made up of Coalcliff SLSC’s wonderful volunteers, and sometimes leaping dolphins too!
This year, we have some special sessions planned as part of the ocean swims including how to manage in a rip, race tips ahead of the Beach to Bombie swim and more!
Thanks to Equilibrium Healthcare, our wonderful local sponsor of the swim club, supporting Coalcliff SLSC to provide a special swim club season membership fee of $75, as well as sponsoring swim caps for everyone and other equipment.
Join Us!
Coalcliff is a small, friendly and inclusive surf lifesaving club that, like other clubs across the Illawarra, provides an important service to the whole community. We’d like to extend an open invite to new members to join us in this special year, whether for the kids to take part in the fortnightly Nippers, joining the ocean swim club, or to volunteer some time in the many varied club roles, on and off the beach, we welcome you.
As well as the camaraderie and enjoying being outdoors, there are some excellent training opportunities for members, including completing the Surf Rescue Certificate (13-15 year olds), Bronze Medallion (16 years+), certified First Aid training and more.
If you’d like to join the club as a new member either as an individual or family, go to coalcliffslsc.com.au/membership and click renew/join, and keep up with our latest news on Facebook.
Looking forward to seeing you this season at Coalcliff!
Well done to local winners
As the Flame's September edition was going to press, we received great news from Surf Life Saving NSW’s Awards of Excellence – volunteers from Illawarra and South Coast took home one third of the evening’s categories on August 26. Well done to: Youth Lifesaver of the Year – Brody Robertson, Bellambi SLSC; Youth Volunteer of the Year – Halle Bone, Bellambi SLSC; Services Team of the Year – Bellambi SLSC Call Out Team; Trainer of the Year – Jaclyn Percy, Bellambi SLSC; Coach of the Year – Glenn Beveridge, Wollongong SLSC; Patrol Captain of the Year – Rachelle Balez, Scarborough Wombarra SLSC; and Volunteer of the Year – Brigid Collaery, Coalcliff SLSC (pictured above, at right).
Read more in Small but mighty Bellambi clean up at NSW Surf Life Saving awards