Fabulous Start to 2024 Season

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Sunday May 11th Porthmawr Surf Life Saving Club kicked off the “summer” season. The sun was out at the beginning of the day but later a cool light mist was blown in with a fresh wind. Club, Captain Martin Charlton took the juniors down for a spot of Fins/Tube Rescue training!

Back at the Lifeguard hut Hafwen and Darwin excelled with their very successful Second Hand Wet-suit Sale making both sellers and buyers all happy!

The juniors learned much and trained hard additionally realising why rubber swim caps are provided by the club to lessen ice cream head! Many thanks to Martin for a great workout!

The club committee has been working hard in the last few months to prepare for the season especially with our complex transition to becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and the months of perseverance by Lisa. This also meant a whole set of new Bank Accounts and extra work for the Treasurer Sophie. Various extra meetings for members and more for the committee were held in order to tick all the boxes for season start. Delays with banks and therefore delays with member fees and insurance meant a late start to getting things going. Stuart has been the glue between all the committee members with endless documentation and RNLI Professional Lifeguard service. The membership Secretary, Jeff, had to re-organise database entries and link to new bank accounts. Then we were able to send out the bills and try to whip up enthusiasm for Nipper Camp with just days to spare – work efforts here put in by Stu, Coxy, Carl, Hafwen (Safeguarding Officer) and Jeff.

So the first training day also had the evening cut-off time for Nipper Camp entries. We just made it! But not before giving the Nippers a good blasting on the beach led again by Stuart (“looked like you were really putting the blues through their paces and setting them up for a great season ahead!”)

Whilst Martin and a whole list of parent helpers “were absolutely brilliant” with the younger reds and greens. By the end of the day we had 15 Nippers ready for Nipper Camp and Juniors chomping at the bit for Junior Camp!

The new WiFi is settling in and should be fully functional soon – all organised by Tom the Tech of Ice Cream fame.

More new members signed up, Jeff and Coxy had a good grumble and everyone was happy. Lets hope every weekend can be like this one.

Swim Assessments for Nippers 2023

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Swim Assessments to be held Fishguard Leisure Centre Sunday 23rd April meet at 13:50

Ahead of this years Nippers starting on the 7th May, we are hoping to assess swim standards to make sure we stream everyone at the right level at the beach. This will also be a good opportunity for new starters who hope to join this year to have their swimming ability assessed…….

please spread the word.

If you aren’t able to come and have been at Winter swimming we will have a reasonable idea of standards although attending would be our preference. Especially if unsure of a 50m competency or haven’t completed Wave 6.

There will no cost to this session!

Many Thanks to Funding Initiatives

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“Porthmawr SLSC (DONATION LINK) would like to thank Localgiving and Postcode Community Trust for their financial support through their partnership grant scheme called Magic Little Grants. Our club received £500 in 2022 to support our Nippers Winter Swimming training which took place at Fishguard swimming pool.  The weekly swimming sessions allowed our nippers to improve their swimming technique, gain water confidence, improve their fitness and strengthen friendships and their mental wellbeing during the winter months. We look forward to seeing our Nippers return to beach training this Easter.

Postcode Community Trust is a grant-giving charity funded by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Localgiving is the UK’s leading membership and support network for local charities and community groups. More information on the Magic Little Grants scheme can be found at www.localgiving.org/magic-little-grants“

Iaith Ar Daith – filming at Whitesands 21/01/2022

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The popular Welsh tv programme “Iaith Ar Daith” finished off their St Davids based episode at Whitesands. The famous celebrity vicar from Yorkshire, The Rev Canon Kate Botley, who is cementing her Welsh ties by learning the language, was being tutored by the master interviewer with a hint of no good Boyo, Jason Mohammed.

Jason Mohammed and Kate Botley at Porthmawr SLSC

Porthmawr Surf Life Saving Club opened up to provide the film team access to facilities on this cold January afternoon. Kate is a keen cold water swimmer and the warmth of the sea at Whitesands was a welcome change to the lakes of Yorkshire. Jason exuded enthusiasm for his ensuing participation in their wild swim dip. The film crew and production team shivered and watched as upwards of 10 minutes was spent by the duo in the water. The air was much colder but they both ended their immersion with a casual walk back to their robes and warmth of dry clothes.

Two lovely people in a beautiful place, welcome at Porthmawr at anytime!

Diolch yn Fawr I chi!

Juniors and Nipper Training 2021

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Training for the above groups has already started this year. It is every Sunday at 12:00 for Juniors and at 14:00 for Nippers BUT please check the Porthmawr Facebook page first

https://www.facebook.com/groups/218228858331818

All new members will need to fill in the membership form and COVID Declaration form as per the Membership page and familiarise them selves with the club and Surf Life Saving Wales Policies.

We look forward to meeting new members and hope you all have a great time on the beach.

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Committee members elected at online AGM

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This years AGM was held via Microsoft Teams software 10th Feb 2021 and the following officials were elected to the committee.

  1. Richard Cox – Chairman
  2. Stu Penfold – Secretary
  3. Sophie David – Treasurer
  4. Mattie McCleod-Baikie – Club Captain
  5. Mal Brown – Membership Secretary
  6. Jeff Rogers – Webmaster
  7. Jon David – Head Coach
  8. Sean Ellison
  9. Martin Charlton
  10. Daf Price
  11. Jeremy Wadia
  12. Matthew Brown

 

The COVID Season 2020

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Starting with the pre-COVID New Years Day Swim hosted by the hard working St Davids Penknife Club the season became a short summer with disinfectants, social distancing and general care. A few stalwarts still managed to provide Lifeguard cover integrating with RNLI shifts and personal training at Whitesands.  No organised group trainings were held due to the complexity of adhering to guidelines and the various permission forms.

So here are the stats from Porthmawr SLSC for the 2020 season where we achieved an enormous amount of volunteer hours picking up the shortfall from the RNLI services.

We patrolled 254 hours – the equivalent to about 30 full days

We had 10 Assists, 9 rescues, 4 major first aids and 1 minor ( we were asking people to deal with their own minors in most circumstances), and 3 missing children.

 

Lets hope that next year we can all get together down at the beach!