Work is in full swing preparing for next year’s NSW Surf Life Saving Titles to be held at Kingscliff Beach despite the on-going problems with erosion.
Host club Cudgen Headland Surf Lifesaving Club have already started planning for the event, according to organising committee member Kim Holdom
“We are building on what we did last year,” Mr Holdom said.
“We’ve got a blueprint from 2011 and we are pulling it all together from that.
“We will be putting out a call for volunteers, probably in October and November.”
Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Phil Vanny confirmed that the group was 100 per cent behind the titles being on the Tweed Coast in 2012. However, he said they had decided not to take up the option of holding the event here the following year.
However, Mr Vanny said the decision was purely an economic one and had nothing to do with Kingscliff’s current erosion damage.“There was an option for a third title,” he said. However, he said, at the time they made the original option, they didn’t realise so many of the major events on the Surf Life Saving Calendar would be held in distant locations. “It came down to the cost – not just of coming to Kingscliff but of going overseas.”
He said there was a good chance the titles would be held in Western Australia in 2013 and 2014, while the World Titles were set for 2014 in France and the Rescue Titles were in South Australia in 2012 and there is currently a plan to have the 2013 IRB titles in Darwin.
With so much travel on the horizon, Mr Vanny said, with a large number of clubs coming from the Sydney Metropolitan area, the members had voted to hold the 2013 state titles closer to home.
“But it is all systems go for 2012,” Mr Vanny said. “The planning is well underway and I’m looking forward to coming up there,” he said from Sydney.
Mr Vanny and Mr Holdom said the beach would be monitored and, like last year, a decision about the actual location for the title – whether it be north Kingscliff or down near the rock wall where the sand is returning, would be made closer to the date.
State member for Tweed Geoff Provest has also thrown his weight behind the event in 2012.
Mr Provest said he had been disappointed that there had been misinformation in some quarters about the 2013 decision and the current erosion situation had been blamed.
