The iconic Australian Surf Life Saving Championships has returned to the Gold Coast for another week of fierce competition.
The event, known as ‘The Aussies’, is being held at North Kirra from 21 to 29 March, with events also held throughout Miami, Tugun and Bilinga.
It brings together more than 7,000 athletes from over 300 surf life saving clubs throughout Australia.
Competition Committee Chair John Brennan has told Hot Tomato it’s such an important event for Surf Life Saving Australia.
“It’s been a tough year for lifesaving across our country, and these same people, they’re the ones patrolling our beaches every weekend,” Mr Brennan says.
“It’s a celebration of their achievements throughout the year and the best thing is we also get to crown our national champions,
“We have 7,300 competitors already registered, and thousands of supporters, like parents, grandparents, friends and relatives, that all come to the Aussies.”
The competition features over 550 beach, ocean, surf boat, board riding, lifesaving and adaptive surf sports events over the week.
“We’re actually going to see some ideal surf conditions this weekend, probably about 0.5-1 metre. The rain will will deepen the enthusiasm, but it’s not going to stop these kids from trying to claim those national titles with all those parents and grandparents there,” Mr Brennan says.
“We see some showers coming, but nothing’s going to stop the life saver’s having a good cracker at North Kirra this weekend,
“We encourage everyone to come down and if you can’t come down, watch it on the live-stream and we’ve also got it on live TV on Saturday and Sunday for the finals weekend,”
All eyes will be on prestigious Ironman final on Sunday 29 March as legend Ali Day looks to claim his fifth Australian Ironman crown in what will be his last ever Ironman race.
