Junior Surf.
Developing future lifeguards
The children meet a great group of friends and often come down during the weekend for a surf on the junior boards. It is just as social for the parents, who we love to help out and take part (and often end up sitting their Bronze Life Guard award also!). Sumner Village also provides a great atmosphere for shopping, lunch or a drink for the whole family after Sunday mornings.
The Canterbury Junior Surf programme runs a number of carnivals and events throughout the season. These involve Junior Surf Carnivals, the Twilight Series, a Junior Canterbury Championships, and the Southern Regional Ocean Athletes. We encourage anyone who is interested in competing to get involved and have fun!
The Junior Surf programme runs into our Rookie programme where we encourage those who are keen to follow through, and start their training to become a fully qualified life guard. Rookies are placed on patrols and looked after by the Patrol Caption who sees that they learning the ropes of patrolling, and enjoying themselves. From here we often see members come all the way through the Junior Programme to helping run the club!
Meet the Coaches
Ben Quane
Junior Surf Coordinator
Sjaan Bowie
U14s Coach
Nick Tremewan
U13s Coach
Gavin Strachan
U11s Coach
Yoan Tresfield
U10s Coach
Mia Truscott
U9s Coach
Katherine van der Spek
U8s Coach
Rookie Lifeguard Programme
For our U13 to U14 members
The Rookie Programme is designed to give kids in the U13 and U14 age groups of Sumner's Junior Surf programme an insight into lifeguarding and to prepare them to complete their Lifeguard Award in the coming seasons. All U13s and U14s are automatically enrolled in this programme and are encouraged to participate. The Rookie Programme enhances the connection between the junior and senior club and facilitates smooth transitions into the senior club.
All of the rookies are assigned to a volunteer patrol team where there are specific patrol members who are rookie mentors. The rookie mentors help the rookies to complete their workbooks on patrols. On top of the workbook activities, rookies gain practical patrolling experience by shadowing lifeguards as they complete different roles over the course of a patrol.
The rookies are encouraged to complete their workbooks and a minimum of 12 hours of patrolling over the course of a season in order to gain their rookie award. At the end of the season there is a Canterbury Rookie Competition which is a rogaine style team event in which the rookies utilise the skills that they have developed over the course of the season to gain points in challenges. The Rookie Coordinator will run some specific training sessions leading up to this competition.
