Junior surf programs in Great Ocean Road towns are thriving this summer with an increase in participants.
Lorne Surf Lifesaving Club has 370 children in its nippers program for the 2009-10 season, an increase of 25 per cent since the 2008-09 season.
Nippers co-ordinator Ian Stewart said the club had children from under sevens to under 14s registered for nippers.
“We have qualified parent helpers at every level,” Mr Stewart said.
“We have a competition every year between Lorne and Fairhaven and they have just over 400 nippers,” he said.
“Last Wednesday we had 700 kids on the beach competing.”
Mr Stewart said Lorne would host a western region carnival on January 24.
“We’ll be expecting between 800 and 900 competitors for the carnival with clubs from Lorne all the way along the coast to Port Fairy and Portland,” he said.
Apollo Bay Surf Lifesaving Club has 155 nippers, an increase of 25 nippers from last year’s program.
Nippers deputy co-ordinator Jacinta Tobin said this year’s co-ordinator Sarah Gardner started at the club as a nipper.
“She came up through the nippers and then was an age co-ordinator and is now the co-ordinator of the program, which is fantastic,” Ms Tobin said.
She said the club had promising athletes who would attend regional and state carnivals.
“There’s a lot of promising talent including some very strong swimmers,” she said.
“We have two more sessions left, which culminates in a carnival club championships on Friday morning.”
Wye River Surf Lifesaving Club has 124 nippers and nippers co-ordinator Sharyn Brigham said the club had plenty of helpers for the program.
“Numbers have been fairly consistent around the 120 mark for the past four years,” Ms Brigham said.
“We’re very fortunate because we have a lot of qualified age managers and plenty of people willing to help out, so we’ve been more than equipped to handle it,” she said.
“The main thing with the nippers program is for the kids to learn how to be safe on the beach.”
In other news, the State Government has given all Victorian surf lifesaving clubs $5000 for the season.

LIFESAVERS: Apollo Bay Surf Lifesaving Club lifeguards Sam Frost, left, and Michael Fogarty started at the club in its nippers program.