You might have wondered who has been riding around on jet skis at carnivals and beach events up and down the coast.
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That would be the water safety support operations group as part of the Surf Live Saving Lower North Coast branch.
The crew is made up of active members of different clubs around the Lower North Coast including Old Bar, Crowdy Head, Pacific Palms and Forster Tuncurry.
All members of the crew participate in support operations, additional patrolling and emergency call outs.
During the summer holidays the crew can be found patrolling for up to four hours a day. This includes the weekend and public holidays.
The crew is commonly called upon to patrol during carnivals, such as the Head2Head ocean swim at Black Head in January.
And it is the post holiday season where the crew really springs into action.
With less people on the water, the crew is relied on heavily from February to June.
The risk of rock fisherman falling into the water during this period warrants regular patrolling, according to Surf Live Saving Lower North Coast branch president Brian Wilcox.
Brian is pleased that an amended call out system allows support crew volunteers to attend to an emergency more swiftly.
When a triple zero call was made to police, a State duty officer would first be alerted to assess if any assistance is required from the crew.
This would also involve police attending the scene before surf lifesavers are notified. Now, an emergency task will be sent to both surf livesavers and police where they will work together to address the situation.
Brian is pleased that time delays are now being diminished.
He has commended all volunteers for the service they provide to the community.
“Senior people within the club and volunteers just want to try and make the beach and water safe.
“When there is an emergency call out they like to help out,” Brian said.
Brian claims the volunteers give up 100 extra hours each through just regular patrols of the beach.
“They give up a lot of extra time by having lots of extra roles,” he said.