What to expect & How to get involved

Nippers is a fun activity based program run to educate children between the ages of 6 and 13 about surf safety and awareness at the beach.

Whilst at Nippers your child will not only be having fun and making new friends, they will also be challenged with activities in a controlled environment.

The activities are many and varied and depending on age and ability children participate each week in beach sprints, relays, beach flags, swimming, board paddling, body boarding and lots of other games and activities.

Who can join Nippers? 

Any child from ages 6-13, may join Nippers once they have turned 6 years old prior to 30 September of the year that they are eligible to join. 

Your child does not have to be competitive or athletic or even confident in the surf. One of the best things about Nippers is seeing young children who are scared of the water lose their fear during the season.

What happens on Sundays?

Nippers takes place on Sunday mornings. The 2024/2025 Season officially commences on Sunday 18th August 2024 and will end early March 2025 with a break over Christmas and New Year.

Sunday Activities for U8 (Nipplets), U9/U10/U11/U12/U13/U14 starts at 8.00am and will finish between 09:30/10:00am.

The U8 (Nipplets) are given a non-competitive introduction to beach and water activities. They are encouraged to complete water wade relays and beach activities every week to learn how to negotiate the water’s edge. For the Nipplets, the emphasis is on fun and education, not competition. At this age, children are encouraged to perform to their potential. There is no winner just team and parent support.

The U9-U14’s are introduced to regular swimming and board events most Sundays in a competitive environment. All age groups are encouraged to perform within their capacity with no pressure placed on participants.

From the under 9’s, children are eligible to compete at local and national carnivals.

Uniforms

For safety reasons ALL children MUST wear a skull cap during ALL Sunday activities.

They are encouraged to wear hi-vis rashie when in the water, this can be purchased from the club.

We have an initiative to help improve safety and overall management of all our nippers while they are participating in both the beach and water activities at Sunday nippers. Children are also encouraged to wear club costumes and club swimsuits.

The U9’s through to U14’s will be required to wear the traditional Durban Surf skull caps and a pink hi-vis rashie (purchased from the club) at regular Sunday nippers, trainings and carnivals. The caps will also be used for competing at Club Championships and when representing Durban Surf at carnivals throughout the season.

Whilst sun hats and sunscreen are not provided, these items are strongly recommended at all times. Protecting your child from the sun’s harmful rays is a parental responsibility.

SLIP (on a shirt) SLOP (on sunscreen) and SLAP (on a hat)

Age group admin ladies and coaches

The week to week activities of each age group are led by the age group coaches, who are endorsed by the Nipper Chairman. The primary role of the age group coaches is to educate our nippers in a friendly, fun and safe environment, about the surf and surf lifesaving. The primary role of the age group admin ladies is to ensure the register is correctly filled out before each session and to ensure we have all the necessary information needed from parents.

Nipper Program

U8 (Nipplets) - Activities and games are the focus sessions. Nipplets take part in a number of simple beach safety and awareness lessons available such as: basic safety practices during activities, what makes up a beach environment, sunsmart guidelines, the importance of having an adult with them at the beach, what a lifesaver is and what they do, wading, beach sprinting and beach flags.

U9-U10 - Focus on understanding, identifying and demonstrating sunsmart guidelines and dangers that relate to themselves, as well as what it means to feel safe. Nippers learn to recognise whether they are, or someone else is, in an emergency situation and how to get help. Learn about the beach environment and communities surf lifesavers operate in. Surf skills focus on; bodyboarding, wading, dolphin-diving, beach sprint starts and beach flags starts.

U11-U12 - Start to learn more technical aspects of lifesaving and are able to be more physical in surf sports skills. There is a strong focus on recognising ‘at risk’ people and recognising and managing patients suffering from a range of basic first aid cases. There is also a strong section on communication both interpersonal and through beach signals. As an U12, participants can begin to use a nipper board, so basic board positioning and paddling is introduced. Other surf sports skills focus on; body surfing, sand running technique and diving for a beach flag. Other surf sports skills which are focused on; board dismounts, catching waves on a board, board relay, surf swimming techniques, crouching beach sprint starts.

U13-U14 - The last of the nipper age group looks to wrap up the skills and knowledge learnt in all the previous awards The focus of surf sports skills is on bringing all the skills learnt in previous awards together to participate in an event for each of the disciplines: board race, board rescue, surf race, run-swim-run, beach sprint, beach relay, beach flags and ironman/ironwoman.

Parental Involvement

Running a successful club of this size only comes from the ongoing commitment of volunteers and help offered by parents. We are a family club and we need the help of every family to share the workload so that we can continue to maintain a high standard and enjoyable environment for all families.

Support from parents, to play roles as a committee member, admin lady, technical official, water safety and just good all round extra hands makes life easier for all as well as enhancing your child’s enjoyment of Nippers.

Many parents have then gone on to obtain their lifeguard award. It helps teach our children, as well as being a great example to them.

Parents without lifesaving qualifications also have a role to play as –

• Committee members
• Admin ladies
• Setting up the beach

Club Equipment

Equipment is supplied by the club and is available for the use of all registered nippers when taking part in nipper activities. The coaches are the sole people responsible for allocating equipment at Sunday activities.

If you use it, then it’s your responsibility to wash it and put it back after Sunday nipper activities.

Fees

The Lifesaving season runs from July - July. These annual fees go towards competition expenses for the nippers. 

Competition Expenses:

Carnival Fees - R250

KZN Nipper Champ Fees - R250

SA Champs Fees - R550

Capitation Fees - R150

Exam Fees (nipper voucher) - R165

=R1365

 

The rates for the year are as follows:

R700 - Nipplets

R1300 - Nipper

R1200 - Second Nipper

R900 - Third Nipper

 

We also have a Family Membership which gives 2 adults and 2 kids under the age of 18, access to the club including the changerooms and showers - R3900pa. 

Wet Weather Policy

Nippers will be run in wet weather. However it will be cancelled in the event of thunder and lightning. In all other conditions Nippers will still be on.