AGE GROUPS & AWARDS

Age Groups and Awards

Currumbin Beach Vikings Surf Life Saving Club Nippers delivers Surf Life Saving Australia’s Junior Development Program. It includes lessons that are tailored to each of the nipper age groups, ensuring the content is relevant, in line with lifesaving and surf sports’ most up to date training standards – and most of all FUN! 

Under 6 & Under 7 : Surf Play 1 & 2

Surf Play is a program for the youngest members. It is a program designed to focus on play, participation and fun. All water activities are conducted in shallow water.

Activities and games will focus on a number of simple beach safety and awareness lessons including basic safety practices during activities, what makes up a beach environment, sun smart guidelines, the importance of having an adult with them at the beach, what a lifesaver is and what they do and the Nippers will be introduced to wading, beach sprinting and beach flags.

Under 8 : Surf Aware 1

Surf Aware 1 is the first of the junior development awards. The focus is on understanding, identifying and demonstrating sun smart 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.


Ecosurf discusses the beach environment and communities surf lifesavers operate in. Surf Sport skills focus on; bodyboarding, wading, dolphin-diving, beach sprint starts, and beach flags starts.

Under 9 : Surf Aware 2

Building on Surf Aware 1. Personal Safety Networks are introduced so Nippers are comfortable asking for help, Ecosurf talks about the impact surf lifesavers can have on the beach and safety of self steps up a gear by introducing safety tips and the ability to identify hazardous surf conditions.

As an U9, 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.

Under 10 : Surf Safe 1

The first of the Surf Safe awards. Nippers will identify adults at the surf clubs they can ask to help them, in Ecosurf they focus on water conservation and in sun safety the spotlight is on the consequences of skin damage. Nippers learn about rips, recognising unsafe behaviours and relating these areas to preventative actions.

Resuscitation is introduced for the first time. Rescue techniques are also introduced as participants learn to use body boards to assist distressed swimmers and experience rescue tubes. Additional surf sports skills focus on entering and negotiating the surf on a board and beach relay baton changes.

Under 11 : Surf Safe 2

Nippers 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.


As a 10-year-old, participants can learn how to perform CPR and there is an opportunity to work towards a Resuscitation Certificate. There is also a strong section on communication both interpersonal and through beach signage.


There is a significant percentage of surf sports skills which focus on; board dismounts, catching waves on a board, board relay, surf swimming techniques, crouching beach sprint starts and iron person and Cameron relay transitions.

Under 12 : Surf Smart 1

Participants begin to learn about their rights and responsibilities as a member of SLS, the Ecosurf lesson looks at how weather impacts on the beach environment.

Personal health & wellbeing and sun safety is focused on skin cancer and staying fit and healthy respectively. The role of patrols is first introduced to this award as is the managing rips and using them to assist in rescues. Participants can work towards a Basic Emergency Care Certificate (as well as a Resuscitation Certificate). This certificate comprises of lessons in the human body, complete basic first aid and resuscitation. Some more signals are introduced that complement the first set previously learnt.


Previous board skills come into play as participants learn how to conduct a board rescue. The focus of surf sports skills is to complete all the skills in each skill set and includes rolling under a wave on a board, diving under large waves, beach sprint arm and leg drive and beach flags race strategies.

Under 13 : Surf Smart 2

The last of the junior development awards, Surf Smart 2 looks to wrap up the skills and knowledge learnt in all the previous awards. Participants learn about what the SLS Member Safety and Wellbeing Policy is, and in Ecosurf they tackle the issues of Global Warming and Climate Change and how they will impact on surf lifesaving. Surf Safety is wrapped up into the 10 Surf Safety Tips.

Communication focuses on the importance of communicating with beach users, Patrols identifies other professional emergency services and participants will experience performing a tube rescue. Participants can work towards a Basic Emergency Care Certificate (as well as a Resuscitation Certificate). This certificate comprises of lessons in the human body, complete basic first aid and resuscitation.

The focus of surf sports 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, ironman/ironwoman and cameron relay.

Under 14 : Surf Rescue Certificate

In U14s Nippers will partake in the Surf Rescue Certificate (SRC). As Nippers you have already begun your training to becoming a surf lifesaver and your SRC is the next step on that journey. The SRC teaches children how to become junior lifesavers and prepares them to patrol the beach.