Nippers News – Jan 2019

Hodgie’s Bits – January 2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I hope all had a great Christmas and New Year celebration. I know many have been away far and wide including to Japan and many parts of Australia’s coast. My family enjoyed the south coast and visiting more than half a dozen different beaches around Kiama and further south.

You think our parking is a challenge, spare a thought for Hyams Beach in Jervis Bay. It is marketed as having the whitest sand in the world and tourists (local, interstate and especially overseas) are flocking to see it. There’s only 400 car spots in the whole town so with literally thousands coming each day, they’ve been having to close the entry road!

SPARE A THOUGHT……
Some sad news for one of our U10 nippers, Aleisha Armitage who fell while on holidays at Coffs and has a fractured skull. She was flown to Randwick kids’ hospital and will be OK, but no Nippers for the rest of this season for her!  From all your Nipper mates, we wish Aleisha good luck for a speedy and full recovery.

CONGRATS TO OUR JLOTY NOMINATION
There is a development programme run by the branch then state for outstanding junior surf lifesavers. We get to nominate an U14 boy and girl as our junior lifesaver of the year (JLOTY). They have to be available for some commitments and unfortunately, we had no boys but from many girls our successful Nipper of the year is Hanneke Wegenaar. Hanni caught the eye of many during the SRC process and on the beach. She now represents our club at branch level through some awesome development days (workshop day 11/1) with a chance to be selected for the state award. Do us proud, Hanni – I know you will!

PARENT SESSION
Come along on Saturday arvo 9^th February (3pm to 5pm) to get to know a little bit more. The relaxed session will include a tour of the club and all the facilities and equipment and will be presented by various club experts. Topics could also include marshalling and starting events (beach and water), pathways and progression through the movement and specifically at North Curly, the nipper learning process (from one of our education experts) and responding to any questions.

NIPPERS v NAPPERS
The new year of 2019 is a great time to get those napping parents into some activity and challenge them in the nipper events. Kicking off our Nippers vs Nappers (those older folk who need a nap on a Sunday arvo aka Mum and Dad!) will be U8-U12s on Sunday 20^thJanuary.

The Mighty 67s (under 6 and under 7s) will get their chance to race against Mum and Dad on Sunday 3^rd March.

PLEASE PLEASE INTERFERE!
It may be getting repetitive, but we need to always reinforce that Nippers is a family participation activity. In most sports there are coaches appointed and they should not be interrupted or helped. Not on this beach! Our Age Managers and regular helpers really need ALL parents to get involved. If you’re not a capable swimmer or runner, it truly doesn’t matter as there are lots of roles to play including just helping to encourage and guide kids in the right direction.

TWILIGHT NIPPERS – Saturday 2^nd February
By popular demand, we’re bringing back a week of doing Nippers on a Saturday arvo and giving families a rest on Sunday morning. Our Twilight Nippers will be on Saturday 2^nd February and will be run just the same as normal nippers but starting at 4pm (for all age groups). There will be a sausage sizzle and refreshments afterwards for a god coin donation. We also need some volunteers on the day so please reply to your Age Mangers request for help!
There will be NO Nippers on Sunday for this week only.

VISIT FROM NORTH ENTRANCE NIPPERS
Most of us have only experienced Nippers at our beach or perhaps elsewhere on the northern beaches. You may be surprised to know that there’s a Nipper programme at Wet ‘n’ Wild and some of our older Nippers will be volunteering there to help run it for a day soon.
Many regional beaches have much lower membership numbers than us and one of these is North Entrance SLSC who have about 10% of our number of Nippers. They will be a dozen or so visiting NCC to participate with us in our Twilight Nippers session on 2^nd February and then stay in our club overnight. Let’s make sure we give them a warm welcome.

CLUB’S CENTENARY
Our club will be celebrating our 100^th year in 2022 which seems a way off, but it will be with us soon and a subcommittee is already on to it. What a great time to be a member of North Curly!

CARNIVAL OPPORTUNITY
North Curl Curl Nippers are represented very strongly at carnivals during the year and it’s great to do your best in a competitive environment. Apart from the thrill some get from competing hard, participating while representing our club is great in it’s own right. We encourage every Nipper to experience this iconic Australian activity by having a go at a carnival. The Branch Championship coming up on 3^rd February might be a good opportunity for your family. The club pays the entry fee for registered Nippers. Available for U8’s and up – you must have your carnival swim proficiency (i.e: have swum the cans and been recorded).
There’s a lot of (maybe too much!) great information here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_DSwSh_OVpObm5JMTRrcWlMRG8/view

For the uninitiated, a warning – it can be a long hot day with 90% of your time spent waiting, and this is frustrating if you don’t have the “right carnival attitude”. The waiting time for the kids however, is spent together and so much fun can be had – and the good fellowship leads to strong friendship.

If you’re interested in coming to a carnival, talk to your Age Manager, or me, Hodgie.

Hodgie’s Heros…..

HODGIE’S HEROES
Andrew Stuart does a truly amazing volume of work mostly in the background. You can see him running board training but you can’t see him behind his computer organising and being the admin king. You may see him training hard, but most don’t see him around the club during the week and at all hours making sure things are “right”. He leaves his mark but not many recognise the tracks.  He’s gone and outdone himself now with the design and implementation of our Nippers storage room. Go and check it out! All our stuff is now organised and in the one more convenient place. Thanks Andrew.

Obviously, there was help and I’d like everyone to know how much support Nippers gets from our club president Dave Wymer. You may say “that’s his job” but I know there are Nipper groups who don’t feel like they’re part of the whole club (like we are) and perhaps are “battling the senior club”. Dave is always looking out for we Nippers and I believe having our own great store room was an initiative driven by him. Thanks heaps Dave!

Many Nippers spent parts of their holidays at beaches around the place and if you are one of those Nippers who used some of your skills to stay safe, maybe by checking out the conditions on strange beaches before you swam, you are a Hero! And to those Nippers who challenged themselves to swim or paddle out the back, or run a good distance on a beach – you too are a Hodgie’s Hero.