Nippers is a junior program that introduces children aged 5 to 13 to surf lifesaving. It’s a fun outdoors activity that increases confidence, while teaching valuable life skills. It is a wonderful way for families to connect with others in the local community.
Nippers is all about learning, confidence and having fun in a safe beach environment. For Nippers, the beach is the classroom. They gain confidence with swimming, body boarding, beach sprints, dolphin-diving, spotting a rip, and having fun with new friends.
The Nippers Season runs from October to early March each year. We have a break over Christmas and January and finish the season with a presentation and a Nippers camp weekend at Fingal Bay. We may extend the season for a week or two if the weather conditions result in sessions being cancelled.
To join Nippers one parent is required to join the club as a Junior Associate Member along with each child.
Click here to go the Join Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) webpage which has a guided registration process. Please refer to online manual if you would like additional assistance with the process.
Here are a few helpful guides specific to Merewether:
Family Renewal if members from last seasons
There are lots of ways you can get involved at the club and your child will directly benefit from your involvement.
If becoming an Age Manager or Surf Lifesaver is not for you, there are plenty of other tasks that will need completing at your club!
Perhaps you could help with training, coaching, officiating, fundraising or cooking the Club BBQ? All parents who get involved must become a member of their club.
It certainly helps and it is highly recommended that children in Nippers also attend swim lessons.
Your child will need to complete a Preliminary Skills Assessment which includes a swim and a float which clubs will conduct either at the beach or in a pool environment.
This is carried out before participating in any junior activity to assess their swimming and self-survival ability in the water.
This will determine whether they can progress to the water based junior activities under normal water safety supervision or they will require closer supervision.
Nippers starts with setup from 0830 and requires your assistance to help set up by carrying boards and gear down onto the sand. Sign in commences just before 0900 and for U6/7s activities go until 1000.
For the older age groups the session can go longer depending on conditions, parental assistance as well as Age Manager and Water Safety availability.
The sooner the kids are signed in the sooner the fun can begin so be standing beside your child in a line behind your Age Group flag as soon as you can.
We use Facebook (Merewether Nippers) for general updates and TeamApp (Instructions) for important and age group focussed communication.
We run pop up shops before the season starts and also for the first few weekends before Nippers starts. Keep your eye on Facebook and TeamApp for dates and times.
The minimum uniform requirements are a club skull cap and rash shirt. We also have wonderful swimmers and other merchandise to let everyone know you are a part of MSLSC.
Merewether Surf Life Saving Club has over 600 members, providing volunteer patrol services in aquatic.