Summer Surf Girls to be put to the test as judging week kicks off

Elizna Smit from Rainbow SLSC, along with twelve of Queensland’s top young female surf lifesavers will descend on Broadbeach tomorrow morning to kick start the final judging week of this year’s Summer Surf Girl program.

For the past 12 months, each entrant has taken on the responsibility of representing their respective surf club to engage with local communities, raise vital funds, and spread the surf safety message.

Their efforts will culminate this week with a series of final judging tasks before the 2017 winner is announced at the program’s annual Gala Ball on Saturday night.
Now in its 53rd consecutive year, the program has raised a staggering $15.7 million since its inception.

All participants are fully qualified surf lifesavers in their own right, and are responsible for designing their campaign to align with Surf Life Saving Queensland’s (SLSQ) vision of zero preventable deaths in Queensland public waters.

SLSQ chief operating officer George Hill applauded the immense efforts of this year’s entrants who have balanced the program around their regular patrols and other surf lifesaving commitments.

“An incredible amount of dedication is given by our Summer Surf Girls each year. These young lifesavers are the future leaders in our organisation and what they have achieved over the past 9-12 months is staggering,” he said.

“In addition to participating in the program by fundraising and promoting beach safety, they’ve managed to balance work and/or study along with their regular patrols keeping members of the public safe at the beach.”

“It is no mean feat and they should be very proud and they should all be extremely proud of their efforts and the impact they make in their communities” he said.

Judging will continue throughout the week and will include:

• Surf rescue beach patrol set up/water safety (board/tube rescue and CPR demonstration)
• Community education presentations to multicultural school students
• Individual interviews with judging panel
• Final judging presentation speeches and content
• Entrant persona and working as part of a team

To win, several factors are taken into consideration including – the innovation in their campaign, their volunteering aspects within their club, their skills as a lifesaver and what they do to publicly engage and enhance peoples awareness of surf safety and their club.

The 2017 Summer Surf Girl winner will be announced on Saturday 6 May at a Gala Ball at Brisbane City Hall. The winner will take home a brand new Holden Spark thanks to Zupps Mt Gravatt.

Other awards to be presented will include Summer Surf Girl Runner-Up, Summer Surf Girl Highest Fundraiser and Summer Surf Girl Innovation Award.