Spotlighting Surf Life Saving Tasmania and championship event

Tasmania’s surf lifesavers tested their athleticism and rescue skills at last weekend’s 2025 Surf Life Saving Tasmania Open State Championships in Penguin.

Surf Life Saving Tasmania has nearly 3,200 registered volunteer members and more than 1,200 nippers across 15 Surf Life Saving Clubs around the State.

Last year, these volunteers performed more than 23,000 patrol hours, 83 rescues, over 2,000 preventative actions and treated 182 first aid cases, with a range of rescue-ready assets and personnel spanning the Tasmanian coastline.

Tasmanian Minister for Sports and Events, Nick Duigan noted “we recognise the invaluable role Surf Life Saving Tasmania’s volunteers play in keeping Tasmanians, and visitors to the state, safe in and around our waterways.

“The Tasmanian Government has provided $2 million over four years to Surf Life Saving Tasmania to support the provision of education and services across Tasmania.

“As part of our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future, our Government increased this support to $700,000 per year from 2025–26 in recognition of the incredibly important role they provide our community. This funding will support them to continue that work.

“Tasmanians love a day at the beach, at the lake or river, and Surf Life Saving Tasmania has been keeping Tasmanians safe in the water for more than 100 years.

“Surf lifesaving is unique in the sporting landscape. It’s impressive to see the competitors learn valuable skills we all rely on to assist us if we get into trouble in the water.

“The championships are a great opportunity to see our lifesavers test their skills and put their training into practice.

Clifton Beach once again rose to the top as Penguin SLSC hosted the 2025 Tasmanian Surf Life Saving State Championships over the weekend.

The dynasty continued for Clifton with a 99 point victory making it three Open State Champs  titles in a row for the club.

Carnival Referee and former surf sports competitor Craig McKinnon said that besides the sheer  number of competitors Clifton enters, he believes it is the programs and systems in place that has enabled the club to dominate for so long - with this weekend being no exception.

McKinnon shared “to me it is their (Clifton’s) team ethos, their culture, that really comes to the fore in their pursuit of points across the weekend. Putting teams, even multiple, on the line every event I think helps them to get the win because they are getting points across all events.”

While it was a successful weekend for Clifton, none of the events would have been possible without the hard work of the carnival’s volunteers and officials.

With unfavourable weather conditions forecast for the final day of the Championships, the competition committee had to reshuffle the event schedule in order for the carnival to successfully go ahead.

The call to reshuffle the program proved to be the right one with wind gusts at Penguin Beach reaching 60km/h on Sunday.

McKinnon believes that not only competitors benefit from carnivals like these, but so does the greater Tasmanian community adding “the events the athletes compete in test their skills in the surf and on the beach, which goes hand and hand with becoming better lifesavers.”

Images. Credit: Surf Life Saving Tasmania