A huge THANK YOU to the army of volunteers that helped the Coogee Island Challenge be an amazing event on Sunday. Special mention to the Ocean Events team that work tirelessly in the background making sure everything is ready to go on the big day.
The conditions were perfect, the crowds were large & the race times fast!
​Click on the buttons below to see race times & purchase your race photos.

Congratulations to Coogee superstar and Sydney Branch life member Doug Hawkins, who at the SLSNSW AGM on 11 November, was honoured with life membership of SLSNSW. 
 
We are all incredibly proud of Doug who has just come back from Israel where he ran Israel’s first ever bronze course, who conducted a couple of proficiencies this week alone, who is about to complete the Surf Rescue Certificate course he has led for some 80 minnows on Saturday, and who is about to run another Beach Smarts for Life Program next week. Thank you for your continued energy, enthusiasm and inspiration.
 
Well done Doug!
 
You can read more about Doug’s achievement by clicking here.

On Sunday 20th November, the Coogee Penguins WSC held its AGM and Presentation Day, followed by a lunch in the Jack Cannot Ocean Room of the surf club.
 
We were pleased to have President Pat Garcia and past president Todd Mison in attendance - thank you both.
 
In addition to the usual excitement of an AGM, two long time Penguins were elected as Life Members - Emperor Mick McMahon and Treasurer Tim Green.  Both have many years of membership and service to the club and were very proud to receive this honour.
 
Prize winners included:
20 Lap Point score: Deanne Doran
2 Lap Point score: Tim Green
4 Lap Point score: George Cassimatis
Medley Point score: Tim Green
Relay: Alligators
100% Swims: Craig Fitzsimmons & David McDowall
King Penguin: Julian McDowall
Queen Penguin: Kate Halls
 
Congratulations to all who took part in a great season. Full reports and results are on the Penguins website:
http://www.penguinswsc.com/

For the first time ever, Coogee Surf Club fielded two relay teams in this annual event at Wylie’s.
Our youngest swimmer was 10 and our eldest was 60. (No names mentioned as to who that was!!) Many swimmers swam twice and there was much discussion about logistics and counting laps because the keenness of our Nippers could have meant we kept swimming all day.
Thank you everyone for attending, it was a lot of fun and the Diggers club was a great host treating us to a tasty barbie afterwards. 
Unfortunately we did not retain the trophy - both teams were far too fast! 
Pioneers (named by the boys) came 2nd - 15s fast and Dolphins (named by the girls) came 4th, 25s fast! Diggers won being 7s fast.
Participants predict the time they would complete the race in, you win if your relay time is closest to the time you predicted.
We look forward to being closer to time next year! 

On last Saturday, Coogee kicked off the 2022/2023 R&R season with a carnival on our home beach. Numbers where strong, particularly for in the youth, but just having a carnival earlier in the season not just to get the new/updated teams a run through this also gave us the chance not just to get new officials accredited for Coogee but also others from clubs across our and Sydney Northern Beaches branch. We started this process last season and Coogee has been able to get accredited 11 new officials in this time, most but not all in the R&R area. I’d like to thank long time club member and Sydney Branch officials co-ordinator Peter Carney for helping make this possible.

The National R&R panel is also in the process of determining what iteration of the rules, who much of the COVID rules will be in play, will be used so a lot of variations where in play across all the clubs represented on the day.
 
In terms of the carnival Coogee had strong representation in the u11 to u17 age groups with majority of our open competitors unavailable due to work requirements. That being said our youth came out of the gates strong, particularly our u15 and u17 5 person teams who were running new combinations from last season. Our u13 to u15 2 person teams where also able to get 2 run throughs, which normally doesn’t happen, and at the same time we were off the beach by 10:30am where many of the area jumped into Patrol 9 so that they could get their skills maintenance completed thanks to Emma Askham and Tony Waller (and Paul Haes with the radio).
 
This event wouldn’t have been possible without all the helpers and officials but I’d like to shout out to the IRB crew of Josh Ricamara and Alex Scott, who were both down at the beach at 5:30am helping set up the water area including laying the club’s new string of cans.
 
Feedback we received from Sydney Branch’s Director of Junior Development was 
"Twas a great day, plenty of competitors and officials, new and experienced… ratios the envy of the nation! Special thanks to the organisers Andrew Bloxsom and his Coogee crew, and Gordon McKirdy. We’ll done! We’re looking forward to coming back to Coogee in February"
Dave.

All in all it was a great day and proof again that Coogee can run a nice R&R carnival and thanks to Randwick Council for allowing us the space.
A Bloxsom

Saturday 19th November saw the first big water and beach events carnival of the Season @Wanda. 
We had competitors across the Nippers up to Masters age group, higher numbers in the Nippers and a huge haul of medals on the sand.  Whilst the tide threatened to take over the beach track, we managed to get through most of the races without getting wet! 
​Great work to the team, look forward to the season ahead.

Coogee SLSC wants surf lifesaving to be fun and enjoyable; safe and inclusive. As part of the community, all of our members are committed to actively encouraging behaviours that promote a supportive and nurturing environment and contribute to our mission of saving lives.
Coogee SLSC is committed to upholding its values set out in our Constitution. We aim to ensure that every person involved in surf lifesaving and members of the public we interact with are treated with respect and dignity and protected from bullying, discrimination, harassment and abuse. As part of this, all members are required to comply with the Surf Lifesaving Australia Code of Conduct and meet the standards of behaviour that are expected of them.
Coogee SLSC has a zero-tolerance policy for bullying, discrimination, harassment and abuse and any incidents will be thoroughly and fairly investigated.
It is particularly important that when on patrol, we treat all members of the public with respect. Derogatory comments about a person’s apparent ethnic background, dress or appearance undermine our mission to be an inclusive organisation.
In furtherance of its commitment to maintaining a safe, inclusive club where equity, respect and diversity is actively promoted, the Management Committee has created a new subcommittee to assist club members, MSWIS. The subcommittee’s Terms of Reference provide more detail. Each of the subcommittee’s members can help you with various aspects of the club life. 
You can view the following documents here:

• MSWIS Terms of Reference
• MSWIS Roles and Contacts

If you have any concerns, please raise them with your patrol captain, a MSWIS member or contact [email protected]
Click the here to view a copy of the Surf Life Saving Australia Code of Conduct.

​Congratulations to our latest Spring Bronze cohort, another group of awesome people who want to help keep our beaches safe!

Big thank you to Branch and Wanda for putting on and hosting an Albert course this weekend. We had six IRB drivers on the course learning new skills. It was a great weekend and we are excited to apply those new skills.
Thanks for upskilling!

What is ALBERT? ALBERT is Australian Lifesaving Boat Emergency Rescue Training, a program which has been developed and successfully delivered to further develop our IRB Drivers and Crew. This program originated in Cudgen Headland SLSC on the Far North Coast Branch. The ALBERT program enhances the skills and experiences of lifesavers through collaborative and consistent training, utilising a mx of drill-based activities, dedicated coaching and scenario-based training. ALBERT is also an important vehicle to support networking and knowledge sharing between members.