President - Jason Close

Why are we all here? 

To save human lives while building better humans. 

Woolamai Beach SLSC is dedicated to enabling enjoyment of beaches of Phillip Island and its surrounds by promoting water safety and providing life saving services.  In delivering those services we provide our volunteers with opportunities to develop their skills and potential as life savers and people. 

This season our Club Board endorsed a new vision and mission statement which explains our core purpose and against which we will measure ourselves. 

Keeping our beaches safe 

We are a voluntary emergency service that keeps beachgoers safe at Woolamai Beach and Smiths Beach.  We are also on call to other beaches along the coastline of Phillip Island and San Remo. 

This season our Club’s members delivered over 10,000 voluntary patrol hours and over 19 of them achieved over 100 voluntary patrol hours. 

We performed 7 rescues, thousands of preventative actions, provided first aid and responded to call outs to other beaches throughout the season. 

Our efforts throughout the season meant that everyone who visited our beaches got to go home safely. 

This season we did some exciting new things to promote beach safety 

 

  • We circulated our patrol dates and times calendar to local authorities, media and social pages to keep the community and beachgoers aware of which beaches and when we would be patrolling. 

  • We also did radio interviews, TV news and lots of local news and social media. 

  • Erin Close, one of our Club Captains took part in a beach safety messaging training session at the Phillip Island Visitor Information Centre.  The information centre is the first point of call for visitors to the Island’s beaches and are a great resource for helping share beach safety information. 

  • We continued to work alongside Bass Coast Council and Phillip Island Nature Parks who are to be commended for all of their efforts in promotion of beach safety messaging via their social media, electronic signs leadership of the Bass Coast and Mornington Peninsula Cross Council Water Safety Framework.   

This is a collaborative effort between councils, emergency services, LSV and our Club to address drowning incidents and improve beach safety. 

  • We hosted Science of the Surf, a community beach safety day, organised by Bass Coast Shire Council in conjunction with our Club, Life Saving Victoria, Phillip Island Nature Parks and a number of other local emergency service organisations including Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria and the Westpac Helicopter. 

Between 150-200 people attended this very engaging event and learnt a lot from professor Rob Brander (also known as Dr Rip) We were privileged to be joined by meany members of the Gurdwara Sir Guru Nanak Darba Sikh community from officer in Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs. 

  • The Club is working closely with Phillip Island Nature Parks, Bass Coast Shire and Life Saving Victoria and is hoping to be able to install public rescue equipment at a number of beaches along the surf coast of Phillip Island. 

These will potentially take the form of rescue tubes which will be encased in a protective cover which will also contain beach safety and emergency contact information. 

  • We installed defibrillators on the outside of the Clubhouse and Smiths Beach Rescue Base to provide community access to essential equipment which could help save lives when we are not around.  Thank you to the San Remo Community Bank for the grant which made this possible. 

  • We entered an Ampol competition to win a new Thundercat Gen III Inflatable Rescue Boat.  And we won!  Thanks Ampol. 

  • We received the news that we were successful in our application for a grant for another new IRB through the Geoffrey Evans Trust.  Thank you Mike Whittaker, Jordan Kuerschner and Campbell Smart for helping put this together. 

  • We recognised the important contribution made by surfers who often perform rescues at times and places when life savers are not around.  This season in conjunction with the Phillip Island Boardriders we established the annual Best Surfer Rescue Award which this year was won by 10 year old Rusty Maier for his amazing rescue at Smiths Beach. 

While we did an amazing job on the beach, I think we also did some of our best work off the beach. 

The fact that every visitor to our two patrolled beaches went home safely means that we have had a successful season. 

 

Life Saving Victoria Awards of Excellence -2025 State Awards & International Womens Day Awards 

Congratulations to Bonny Dickie for being a finalist as Victorian Educator of the Year and Jordan Kuerschner for being a finalist for the John Wishart Medal, Victorian Life Saver of the Year at the 2025 LSV Awards of Excellence 

Congratulations to Mel Davies, Sophia Hungerford, Ellie Ryan and Bre Goodger McGrath for being recognised as high achieving female leaders at the LSV International Womens Day Awards Breakfast. 

We are very proud of all of you for showing that you are amongst the best in the State. 

Presidents Award 

I would like to congratulate all of this season’s Presentation Night award winners. 

140 of our members enjoyed a great night at Silverwater Resort in San Remo, celebrating the achievements of the 2025/26 season. 

Any one who receives an award at this great event is very deserving of recognition, but I would especially like to congratulate this season’s Presidents award winners Sophia Hungerford and Darrell Clark for their outstanding contributions to our Club this season. 

Life Members and Life Governors 

Four of our members received our Club’s highest honours by being awarded life membership and life governorship. 

We welcomed Robert Murphy and Michael Sullivan as new life members and Michelle Murphy and Brian ‘Reggie’ Whittaker as Life Governors. 

Smiths Beach Rescue Base  

This season we repaired and upgraded the Smiths Beach Rescue Base after several years of exposure to a harsh coastal environment led to severe structural corrosion. 

We couldn’t have done this without the support of: 

  • Victorian Government Grants -Victorian Emergency Services Equipment Program & Tiny Towns 

  • Phillip Island Nature Parks 

  • Rotary Club of Phillip Island and San Remo 

  • Smiths Beachcombers Association 

  • The very generous community of Phillip Island and San Remo 

Phillip Island Nature Parks are now working on replacing the rescue base staircase and landing and carrying out improvements to the ramp.  We are very appreciative of their commitment to improving safe access to this important structure.

Training our life savers 

We developed our volunteers with opportunities to develop their skills as lifesavers and people. 

Our Chief Instructor Ellie Ryan and her deputies did an incredible job leading a fantastic training team. 

We ran Bronze courses, SRC courses, continued our programs with Upwey High, Newhaven College & Bass Coast College.  We ran IRB camps and many other courses. 

Some of our young leaders did courses funded by the Alan Pitts Youth Development Fund. 

A real highlight for the season was hearing the story of Will Borschmann who did his SRC this year and represented our Club at the Champion Junior Life Saver Day. 

 

Nippers 

Our Nippers program was a huge success yet again nearly 400 children participating in the summer program at Cleeland Bight and Smiths Beach. This is where many of the life savers of the future get their start.   

Much of the credit for this goes to our Nippers Director Heather Ridley and her incredible team of committee members, age managers, junior age managers, water safety team, first aiders, BBQers and an army of parent helpers. 

A special mention goes to Kieren Williams who has hung up his tongs after a couple of great seasons as our BBQ co-ordinator. If anyone would like to lead a team who can cook 700 sausages a day for a week, we would love to hear from you. 

 

The Channel Challenge turned 40! 

The Channel Challenge turned 40 this season! and again saw a record field of participants in a sell out event, which is now one of the country’s leading aquathons. 

This is an incredible community event, which has become a part of the fabric of the Island and San Remo. 

Channel Challenge 2026 was a perfect day and featured a pre-race celebration on the Wildcoast Cruises, Arafura Pearl which brought together many of the people who have been so important to its history. 

It is so well supported by the local community and we are grateful for the support of some of the delivery partner organisations such as Bass Coast Shire Council, Phillip Island Nature Parks and Rotary, not to mention all of the local businesses who get behind it. 

Ron Nicholson and his Events team are to be commended for their efforts as are all members of the Club who joined in to support the day. 

The Cowes Classic and Little Penguin Dash also saw a large field of competitors and great support from the local community. 

Thank you to our Club supporters 

Our Club could not provide the rescue service and activities it  does without the support of an amazing local community, local businesses and other organisations. 

Congratulations to Hayespower Electrics, the Rotary Club of Phillip Island and San Remo and the Geoffrey Evans Trust on being awarded this season’s Club Supporter Awards. 

Special patrols 

Throughout the season we ran several special patrol weekends to raise awareness of important issues in our society.  Blue Zinc Patrol, Pink Zinc, Rainbow Zinc.

 

Clubhouse 

This season Darrell Clark and the Assets team took did their usual amazing job upgrading and maintaining the Clubhouse. 

The renovation of the downstairs and bunkrooms has to be seen to be believed. 

We continued to share our amazing Clubhouse space with our Club members and the wider community.   

Our Clubhouse is a precious asset.  We need all of our members to help look after it. 

It takes a lot to maintain and improve it, so if you are in any way handy, our Assets team is always looking for help. 

 

Other season highlights  

Some further season highlights included: 

  • We hosted a Speak and Share Mental Health workshop which saw 20 or so of our members and friends receive mental health training and strengthen our connections.  This event was supported by the Victorian Government Sporting Club Grants Program.

  • We launched a fuel reimbursement initiative to help make it easier for our members to patrol during the fuel crisis.

  • Our Friday night Sunset Sips brought many members, friends and members of the local community into the Clubhouse to enjoy our Clubhouse function room, balcony and amazing views.

  • We received a visit from LCDR Danielle Couch who is the Commanding Officer of the Australian Defence Vessel, Cape Woolamai. Alan McLean one of our life governors also reciprocated by visiting the ship in port in Darwin.

  • This season we continued our relationship with Disability Surfing Bass Coast and helped support two amazing days of surfing at Smiths Beach and Inverloch. 

  • Some of our members joined the Waratah Beach SLSC IRB racing team and took part in IRB winter competition. 

  • In conjunction with Phillip Island Nature Parks and with the support of Coastcare we organised planting days to help protect the dunes around our Clubhouse and remove weeds. 

  • David, Stephanie, Samuel and Thomas Ellison again represented the Club by laying a beautiful wreath of red and yellow flowers at the San Remo Anzac Day Morning Service, to honour those who have served and sacrificed for us. 

  • We supported the National Surfing Reserve Teams Challenge surf competition held in April at Surf Beach.  Our Club provided water safety and first aid coverage for the event. 

Thanks everyone 

I would like to express my gratitude to all members of the Club Board -Fi Blackmore, Nick Reynolds, Jordan Kuerschner, Erin Close, Heather Ridley, Darrell Clark, Grant Edmunds and Nic Frances Gilley.   

Each of our Board members worked extremely hard over what has been a very long season. 

I’d like to thank our retiring Board members Grant Edmunds and Fi Blackmore for their enormous contribution.   

Grant returned this year for his second stint in the role as Club Treasurer after serving for 3 seasons in the role between 2000 and 2002. 

Fi has completed a 3 year stint on our Board as Director Admin and Finance, Secretary and Vice President.  This followed many years of running our merchandise, being on the Nippers committee, running planting days, helping in nearly every area of Club activity and close to a decade of patrolling (which she is still doing). Fi has played a key role in helping the Club work through and resolve many challenges to during this period of time. 

I would like to thank everyone else who has made a contribution to the Club this season whether it has been patrolling on the beach, training others, doing admin work, applying for grants, looking after equipment, running special events and programs, looking after the wellbeing of our members. 

Thanks again to my two patrols the Gerries and the Smithsonians for all the fun on and off the beach and I congratulate each member of these patrols for this season’s Special Recognition Award. 

Finally I would like to thank my wife Susan and daughters Erin and Ava for their support and all they do for the Club.   

See you in season 2026/27 

Bec Scully