NIP IT IN THE BUD

Junior concern over change

SURF lifesaving Nippers across Gold Coast are struggling to come to grips with changes to the Nutri-Grain series as club officials fear enrolments will suffer as a result.

Surf Life Saving Australia’s decision to incorporate additional disciplines such as stand-up paddle boarding and CrossFit-style obstacles into the one-off Iron X race has sparked huge controversy in the sport.

As revealed in Saturday’s Bulletin, a band of six heavyweight clubs – including Northcliffe, Currumbin and Kurrawa – will run a breakaway “Summer of Surf” competition, including more traditional surf carnival events, in response to the rejigged format.

Under the changes, SLSA cut adrift the more traditional surf carnival events like the board, ski and surf races and beach events.

Gavin Hill has been a coach at Northcliffe for 15 seasons and currently mentors under-14s through to under-17s.

He says those juniors are now questioning the impact of SLSA’s looming changes.

“I’ve got youth at the moment who are wondering where they go from here,” he said. “They’re wondering what the future looks like (in the sport). We have a group of kids who grow up with the dream of doing what we’ve been doing for the past 100 years.

“Their big goal is to make the professional series.

“This is a dream that the kids have had for so long now but it’s really clouded over now.”

Hill said some of his up-and-coming stars were now beginning to approach him about revised training programs to prepare their bodies for the rigour of obstacle courses.

“I’ve got a kid in my age group who is doing the Iron X trial in a few weeks’ time and he’s asking me ‘if I make it, how do I start training?’,” he said.

Fellow Northcliffe official and women’s coach Naomi Flood believes the changes could impact future Nipper enrolments as the already expensive cost of the sport increased with the new disciplines.

“It could impact our Nippers’ registration,” she said.

“You’ve got eight-year-olds who want to sign up for Nippers but now you tell them, at the age of 15, you’re going to have to buy him a stand-up paddle board and pay for cross-fit training.”