HAIL OUR LITTLEST LIFESAVERS:
celebrating 50 years of Nippers
Every weekend from September to March, thousands of little people don fluoro rashies and hit Australia’s beaches. They’re our nippers, and this year they celebrate their 50th anniversary in Queensland. Former nipper Lizzie Wilson meets some pint-sized heroes helping to keep our beaches safe.
Sunday morning at the local surf club in the picturesque beachside hamlet of Burleigh Heads on Queensland’s glorious Gold Coast and there are long queues at the popular cafes. Mums and dads are grabbing quick coffees while 400 or so pinkclad youngsters aged from five to 13 madly slap on the sunscreen, their focus only towards the east, to their trusted weekend friend, the surf.
As it happens, Mother Nature isn’t feeling their love. A strong southeaster blows in bringing with it huge swells and dangerous rips, and club organisers are forced to cancel a handful of blue-ribbon events.
But the nippers are unperturbed. Oblivious to the scorching sand beneath their bare feet, hundreds of brave, young wave warriors are gathering beneath age-designated banners, and at the southern end of the beach, the under-eights are limbering up for the wade race.
Amidst the sand kicking and incessant banter comes that heartwarming moment when one volunteer reaches out to a little girl sitting all alone that embodies the real spirit of the nippers.
Her name is Alba Scott. Sweetnatured, with impeccable manners, she’s decked out in a full wetsuit, and cuts a lone figure amongst the group.
“I’m really scared of the water, and the waves today are too big, so please I don’t want to go in – is that okay?” she tells The Weekly. Volunteer and dad of two Andrew Croll steps in, reassuring her it’s more than okay, suggesting she just takes small steps.
It was 50 years ago, during the summer of 1968-1969 at Surf
Lifesaving Clubs across Queensland, that dozens of local youngsters like Alba signed up to become the state’s first nippers. Following in the footsteps of their pioneering comrades in NSW, where the organisation was founded in 1966, it wasn’t long before they’d made their mark – the mighty nippers were here to stay.
Brad Birch, 40, a local construction supply company manager and father to two daughters, Zara, three, and Taylah, eight, is the newly appointed Nippers President at the Burleigh Heads Mowbray Park Surf Lifesaving Club. A bit of a larrikin, Brad is your textbook good Aussie bloke, and is as popular as he is dedicated. If he’s not running up and down the beach with a megaphone rounding up his troops, he’s likely to be found over at the club tent, flipping burgers for the hungry hundreds who converge once competition ends for the day.
“I got involved as a dad when we enrolled our eldest daughter into nippers three years ago,” Brad says. “I’ve been president for a year and already I’m hooked. It’s a great day out for families, a fantastic way for everyone to make new friends.
“I’ve got 400 kids signed up for this season from very different backgrounds. I work hard to remember all their names, their age category, their mums and dads, their siblings. We recognise strengths and weaknesses early on, and constantly reinforce the importance of respect and kindness before anything else. But we also encourage competition – it’s healthy for them to feel the jubilation of winning, as much as dealing with disappointment when they cop a loss.”