Danger and Bash events set for March

ORGANISERS of the Bells Bash run and Danger Swim series have landed on a March 26/27th date for the events after cancelling the original January dates due to COVID concerns.

The Jan Juc Surf Life Saving Club made the difficult decision to postpone after a series of major events in the region were cancelled and went virtual over the new year, starting with Lorne’s Pier to Pub.

At the time Jan Juc SLSC president Marcus Dripps said the club was wary of jeopardising the club’s “primary purpose of keeping the beach safe” by having a public event.

He’s now confident the important fundraiser can proceed.

“We’ve had a lot of practice of bringing together people in a COVIDSafe way over the years, obviously being outdoors is an enormous advantage … the core advice of being COVIDSafe is to be outside wherever possible,” said Mr Dripps.

“So much of what we’ve been required to do as a community over the last few years … last few months is stay away from one another. This allows us to come together safely and run along some of the best coastline in the world.”

The event will be a useful run up to the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships at the Gold Coast, held over a week in early April.

“A lot of competitors from surf clubs around the region will be eyeing off titles in Queensland, it’s a bit of a tune up before that,” Mr Dripps said.

“But for locals it will be an opportunity to get in the ocean, run along the cliffs in a supportive community.”

It will also be one of the last opportunities over the warmer months for the younger members of the surf lifesaving community to come together and cement relationships.

“A lot of the burden of COVID times falls on our youth, old blokes like me can always look to next year, but a lot of the younger members will be heading into school, university, work etc soon … it’s a really nice opportunity for them to come together and celebrate in a way that isn’t necessarily anchored off indoor venues.”

It’s also an opportunity to give the next generation of surf lifesavers some testing and training.

“Over the last couple of years our experience has been that so many young people and children have missed out on swimming lessons, there’s a young cohort that haven’t had the swimming experience – shorter events like the 500m event gives young people the opportunity to challenge themselves in an ocean event with appropriate safety and support so they can have the experience in an environment that we so love.”