JUNIOR SURF

WELCOME TO TITAHI BAY NIPPERS

Surf Life Saving is an amazing activity for growing a child's confidence, knowledge and skills in the beach environment. Not only will your child have fun and meet new friends, they will become part of an iconic organisation that has served New Zealand communities for over 100 years. The Titahi Bay Surf Life Saving Club has been serving the Porirua community for 75 years.

The juniors of today are the future of Surf Life Saving and with the tireless help of the dozens of club members, Titahi Bay SLSC has established a highly reputable program that runs for a 5-6 month period over the summer months.

Not only is nippers a fun way for your child to enjoy the beach in a safe environment, it also offers a program that is designed to ensure children have fun at the beach while participating in lessons that will progress them to becoming a fully rounded participant in both lifesaving and sport. It's also a great activity where children and their families can be together and enjoy a sport for all ages.

If your child between 7-13 years old and is interested in becoming a nipper, get in touch with our Junior Surf (Nipper) Coordinator. 

Registration

Numbers for the Titahi Bay SLSC Nippers program are capped. This is based on the fact that all coaches and lifeguard helpers are volunteers and as such we can't guarantee they will all be there every week. We only have a limited amount of gear and resources - we have to work within these constraints. 

Re-registration for our existing members has now closed - all existing members were contacted via email and Facebook offering the opportunity to join up again for the 2024/2025 season. 

Nipper ages are 7 - 13 years. Your child is eligible to register if their birthday falls within these age groups (as of 30th September). We may ask for a birth certificate or passport as proof of age.

Important note: Policy requires at least parent to sign up as an associate member. This is part of our licensing agreement.

Contact our Junior Surf Coordinators - tbaynippers@gmail.com. 

Nipper Rules

  • Parent/Guardian Supervision at all Nipper Sessions. NO DROP-OFFS
  • Safety Register. Nippers MUST sign in and sign out.
  • Rashtops Compulsory. NO TOP... NO GEAR 
  • A nipper cap must be worn during training sessions.
  • No wet gear in upstairs clubrooms

200m BADGE

This is required to compete in water events at surf carnivals for ages 9-13. Every child over the age of 8 will be able to trial. This is strongly recommended. In the interests of safety, every nipper aged 9 and up must sit or re-sit their badge. To attain the badge an individual must swim 200m, this should be completed in under 7 minutes in the pool. They must be able to do a float for 1 minute and retrieve a brick from the bottom of the pool.

Only nippers who have attained their 200m badge will able to use the larger hard boards at training and Carnivals.

We have an instructor who will award 200m badges after trials to be run at Te Rauparaha Arena during the first and second weeks of the October school holidays. Times and dates will be available at registration. 

NO BADGE... NO BOARD.

What to expect

We start with sign in from 2pm on Sunday afternoons. We do a "dryland" session in the club at the start of our training days. Our head lifeguards go over the beach conditions and do basic safety drills and go through some lifeguard knowledge. The children are then taken down to beach for a beach and water session. This can involve anything from running races to boogie boarding to practice rescue drills. The nippers have lots of fun while learning about beach and water safety awareness.Lessons typically run from 2.30 to 4-4.30 depending on the weather and the age of the child. Sessions are run by qualified lifeguards and parents are expected to be hands on helpers during the session.

OCEAN's athletes

Every year a team of athletes is chosen to represent Titahi Bay SLSC at the Junior National Championships, also known as "Oceans". Athletes are chosen based on their performance and attitude at carnivals and during training. Ocean Athletes are expected to attend all carnivals and also additional training sessions during the week. At these sessions Ocean Athletes learn about the techniques involved in Surf Sports.

 Events to participate in are:

  • Run-Swim-Run
  • Surf swim
  • Board race
  • Beach flags
  • Sprints
  • Board rescue 
  • Tube rescue