Surf Talk Episode 2 - Surf Sports
Surf Talk host, Ross Smith, is joined by SLSSA Head of Sport, David Visockis, to discuss the different surf sport opportunities available with Surf Life Saving SA.
This episode is sponsored by Legend Sportswear.
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Ross Smith:
00:00-00:34
Hello, I'm Ross Smith and welcome to Surf Talk, Surf Lifesaving South Australia's podcast. This is episode two. Over the next several weeks, we'll be discussing everything surf lifesaving, from our training to our community programs, some outstanding achievements by the surf lifesavers and some of the outstanding rescues. Before we get into the podcast, our sponsors today are Legend Sportswear, and you'll hear a bit more of them later on in the program. Today's guest is David Visokis, head of sports for Surf Lifesaving South Australia. Hi, Dave. Welcome to Surf Talk.
David Visokis:
00:34-00:36
Thanks for having me today, Ross.
Ross Smith:
00:36-00:41
Can you tell listeners a bit about yourself and your background and also what you do at Surf Lifesaving?
David Visokis:
00:41-00:51
So, myself, I've been involved in Surf Lifesaving now for close to 30 years. Joined as a bronzie through Surf Sports, ironically.
Ross Smith:
00:51-00:52
Wow.
David Visokis:
00:52-00:55
That was my entry point. We might talk a little bit more about that later.
Ross Smith:
00:55-00:56
Sure.
David Visokis:
00:56-01:07
So, I came on board here at Surf Lifesaving SA close to two years ago now in this role and a bit of a change in direction for me, a bit of a change in career.
Ross Smith:
01:07-01:08
What was your background?
David Visokis:
01:08-01:35
Podiatrist by trade. Worked regionally, rurally as a new grad, then moved into private practice, started my own practice, sold that, and then worked in academia for close to 10 years at UniSA, teaching in the podiatry program. I was doing that when this opportunity came up and I've actually known our CEO here, Damian, for close to 30 years. He was actually my bronze instructor.
Ross Smith:
01:35-01:36
It's a small world, isn't it?
David Visokis:
01:36-01:37
Yeah, it is.
Ross Smith:
01:37-01:40
It always is. The surf people seem to come back to each other. Especially in Surf Lifesaving.
David Visokis:
01:40-01:41
Yeah, they do.
Ross Smith:
01:41-01:42
Yeah.
David Visokis:
01:43-01:45
I mean, Adelaide, Surf Lifesaving, how far down can you go?
Ross Smith:
01:45-01:46
You run into someone you know.
David Visokis:
01:46-02:07
Yeah. So, a phone call from Damian, he encouraged me to apply for this role because I'd been working as an age manager and was a junior chair at my own club. So, kind of got back into surf sports through that and my kids, like many of us retired athletes do. We tend to have a few years off and then all of a sudden the kids are nippers and you're like, well, I ought to get back to the club.
Ross Smith:
02:07-02:14
Yeah. And it's either been to coaching or it's running nippers or it's doing something within that environment. We go back into it.
David Visokis:
02:14-02:49
Yeah. Exactly right. And I think a lot of, I wouldn't say ex-clubbies, but I know clubbies with kids would appreciate the fact that when your kids first get into nippers, a lot of us like to try to stay at arm's length knowing that as soon as you're in, you're in. And before you know it, the club's asking you to do everything from coaching, age managing, cooking the barbecue, scrubbing the toilet, everything. So yeah, that's my story here or how I got here and I'm loving every minute of it.
Ross Smith:
02:49-02:59
Oh, look, I'm sure you do, mate. So what does surf sports offer? There's clubbies out there listening, I'm sure there's members of the public and there's corporate people going to listen to this. What do we do?
David Visokis:
02:59-04:00
I'm obviously a massive fan of surf sports, have been for a vast majority of my life. I just think not only surf sports, but the surf culture, the clubby culture across the board is just an amazing community to be a part of. It really is a community, not only at your club, within the state, nationally, even internationally. It really, surf sports stands alone in what we offer, not only the participants, the athletes, but also the community at large, because it really is, it's born out of surf lifesaving. My understanding, the first carnival or the first surf sports participants were lifesavers. They were the original lifesavers and they just wanted to train to get better. It was the old belt and reel. They had to swim out to save people at Bondi beach or wherever it might've been. And they just wanted to get fitter so they could be better at their job.
Ross Smith:
04:00-04:07
Yeah. I think I had a question later on, but I'll talk to it now. The sports seem to hone the skills of what surf lifesavers do. Is that correct, pretty much?
David Visokis:
04:07-04:26
Yeah. Like from its earliest days or probably when it was just swimming, belt swimming, all the way to the introduction of surf boats, board paddling, ski paddling, now with IRB and IRB racing, which is absolutely fantastic to watch. It's one of my favorite things to watch, especially in big surf.
Ross Smith:
04:26-04:32
I watched some on Facebook the other day, some of the pictures and some of the footage and it was some of that big surf stuff is just outrageous.
David Visokis:
04:32-04:58
Absolutely amazing. So certainly everything we do from a sport perspective, even in pool rescue, is born from a core skill of surf lifesaving and it may have evolved since then, but certainly the history of surf sports is born out of the surf lifesaving movement and making our surf lifesavers better and keeping our community safe.
Ross Smith:
04:59-05:08
They're true athletes. I get it. I mean, they put lots of hours, lots of time. I live down South and I see them on the beach there, you know, often training. And I think, boy, you're dedicated. Every day.
David Visokis:
05:08-05:08
Every day.
Ross Smith:
05:08-05:13
Every day. So just list the sports. So if people don't know, what sports do we have to offer?
David Visokis:
05:13-06:40
Many people would have seen the more, I wouldn't say traditional, but probably the more glamorous side of surf sports, which is your ocean beach surf boats. They're the ones that get most of the media coverage. So your iron, so iron man, iron woman, all the ocean events like swim, board, ski, then of course the beach events. So your beach sprint and your beach flags, which is really exciting. Surf boats. Everyone's seen a surf boat crashing through the waves. But then we've also had our, and this might be our more traditional events like our lifesaving events. So champion patrol, champion lifesaver, first aid, R and R. They're certainly really, truly born out of true lifesaving skills. And that's a competitive event as is March past, for example. I know March past again, is probably one of the original surf sports events, which has been, which has been done at most carnivals since its inception. I'm sure I'm not being a real historian of the sport, but you know, March past has certainly been around forever and continues to be an important part of all our championships in particular. But then you move to our, probably our winter sports. So pool rescue, which is all done in a, in a pool.
Ross Smith:
06:40-06:41
Inside of, indoors.
David Visokis:
06:41-06:43
Yeah. Indoor, indoors or outdoors.
Ross Smith:
06:43-06:44
Outdoors, yeah.
David Visokis:
06:44-07:02
Yeah. I mean, if you're, if you're lucky enough to live on the Gold Coast, then you've been doing it outdoors. But most of us do, especially in South Australia, it's all done at the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre, which are a great supporter of us and our surf sports and surf lifesaving in general.
Ross Smith:
07:02-07:03
Water's warmer in there.
David Visokis:
07:03-07:14
Water's warmer than it is outside. But yeah, certainly. So we have our pool rescue events, which SA do very, very well in, and we've got a great pool rescue team. And then IRB racing too.
Ross Smith:
07:14-07:15
So that's in inflatable rubber boats.
David Visokis:
07:15-07:42
Inflatable rubber boats. Yep. And that's always done in winter. Again, wetsuited up. Doesn't matter where in Australia you are. I think they all wear wetsuited helmets. But that's, that's electric racing. So if you ever get the chance to see some IRB racing, particularly in big swell, you can check it out on our Facebook page from the first round of the surf league, which happened last weekend. But that's absolutely electric and certainly a crowd pleaser.
Ross Smith:
07:42-07:44
So it's pretty much all year round?
David Visokis:
07:44-07:46
All year round. We don't get a break.
Ross Smith:
07:46-07:47
Wow.
David Visokis:
07:47-08:23
We don't have an off season. I often get asked that by my friends. It's like, oh, you know, so you must be quiet now that it's winter. I just say I'm less active in winter or less busy in winter. There's certainly still plenty to do. All our sports expect, demand and should get equal exposure and equal energy. And we do our best to do that. So yeah, certainly by the time Aussie championships finishes normally in April, we're straight back into pool rescue within a month. We're straight in IRB racing within a month. The calendar does not stop.
Ross Smith:
08:23-08:37
It's pretty chock-a-block, isn't it? So you have to be a member of Surf Life Saving Club to be involved in the sports or can you come externally? I mean, I just want to jump in one of those IRBs now. I've just seen some of those videos, but I'm not, of course not qualified, but just give us a bit of an idea.
David Visokis:
08:38-09:21
Short answer is yes, of course you need to be a member. Same as most sports is that you need to be a member of a club to participate. Even just to train. We do encourage those that do come and try to at least become a financial member because then that just covers them for insurance reasons or even, even if they're on a, you know, ski for fun, if something does happen, then they are covered by insurance if it is a, you know, a club training session. To compete you, you can, and this is, this is not widely known is that to compete, you only need to have done your, your kind of prerequisite for the award that you'd need to compete in that event. So in most cases, it's a bronze medallion.
Ross Smith:
09:21-09:22
Yes.
David Visokis:
09:22-09:32
You don't need to have completed your bronze medallion in order to compete at a carnival. You just need to have done your proficiency swim, which is, which is a 400 meter swim in a pool.
Ross Smith:
09:32-09:32
Okay. Sure.
David Visokis:
09:32-09:49
That then enables you to compete, compete at a carnival because it shows that you're competent and you're safe in the water, but in order to compete at a championships, you need to have finished that award, which again, at the moment, at least, it's a bronze medallion minimum in order to compete.
Ross Smith:
09:49-09:56
If you want to find out about the bronze medallion, just give us a call here at surf or, or they can go our website and go to the members area and find out what's involved for your members.
David Visokis:
09:56-10:11
Yeah. I reckon that's probably the best place to start is, is our own, um, Surf Lifesaving SA website, and then we can put you in contact with maybe your closest club as well and get in contact with their people and they can step you through the process.
Ross Smith:
10:11-10:16
Easy. So before we go on, Dave, going to have a short break. I'm going to hear some more from our sponsor, Legend Sports.
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10:18-11:06
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Ross Smith:
11:07-11:08
Okay, Dave, welcome back.
David Visokis:
11:08-11:08
Thank you.
Ross Smith:
11:08-11:27
Legend Sports is certainly our proud sponsor today. Sorry, Legend Sportswear, I should say. Apologies. Um, okay. Look, I know that a lot of them are very elite athletes, because you talked about someone in the state that's a champion. Can you give us an idea of any exceptional wins or something that you've witnessed and gone, oh, like probably hundreds, but something you've gone, oh my God, that was just impressive.
David Visokis:
11:28-11:55
I'll circle back to probably my most, the most impressive thing I've seen in surf sports, which was actually a junior carnival last season. I mean, we've had some fantastic achievements from our SA based athletes at Australian championships, whether it be in the ocean or the beach. We've got exceptional athletes. So we had, you know, gold medals, won at Aussies this year, you know, plenty of medals on the beach.
Ross Smith:
11:55-12:01
So the participants can, in South Australia, have the opportunity to go to all sorts of carnivals, all sorts of events in every state, pretty much.
David Visokis:
12:01-12:40
Every state. Yeah. So not only, not only Australian championships, which is still considered or has always been considered a, an open competition. So you don't, a vast majority of the events, you don't have to qualify as you would, let's say for athletics or swimming, where you might have to get a qualifying time, surf life-saving. And I think the, uh, certainly in the national board are very strong on ensuring that anyone can compete at Australian championships. So whether you're part-time or whether you're a master's competitor, if you want to come, it's really a festival of surf life-saving.
Ross Smith:
12:41-12:49
Sorry, I interrupted you there. Um, you're going to wind yourself back to some exceptional moment. Yeah, I was about to hear that, I drove you away.
David Visokis:
12:49-13:47
Well, um, so last season we ran a junior carnival at Port Elliot and we do like to get down to our, our regional clubs for junior carnivals once a year. We, it's, you know, known as the country carnival. So, uh, quite often that shared between Port Elliot and Normanville kind of a year on year off. So last year we went down to Port Elliot and it was actually not a bad swell, uh, down there. On the day we have our, we have our little foamy kids. So our under eights and nines kind of, you know, tucked away in the, in, in the corner where it's nice and safe. And then we put out under 12s and 13s further around the bay where the, I don't know where the swell really wells in. So I was just standing up on the grass there watching what I think was a board race or a board rescue, and there was this big shore break coming in. It looked like it could have been, you know, three or four foot, especially when you've got a little kid on a nipper board, it looks, it looks bigger than it is.
Ross Smith:
13:47-13:48
Yeah, sure.
David Visokis:
13:48-14:59
And you know, most of the kids are, you know, sitting back waiting for this wave to break and just saw this one competitor, which, which I actually know his family really well. And he just busted through this wave. Absolutely. Just, just ducked under it, kept paddling, busted through it, got through it. And that still sticks in my mind as one of my favorite things to see. It would have been under 12 at the time, absolutely busting through this wave, showing courage and skills and confidence that 99% of the population wouldn't even consider going in the water, even without a board, let alone this kid just absolutely busted through it. And I remember thinking to myself, that's to me what surf sports is about. Like this kid just showed amazing courage and amazing skill. And one day we'll make a fantastic surf lifesaver cause he puts himself in harm's way to eventually rescue someone in a circumstance like that. And I went down to him afterwards and gave him a fist bump and said, mate, that was amazing.
Ross Smith:
14:59-15:01
Awesome. And probably don't know, but he's honing his skills.
David Visokis:
15:02-15:03
Oh, a hundred percent.
Ross Smith:
15:03-15:05
It's a sports activity. And the next thing is going to be a great surf lifesaver.
David Visokis:
15:05-15:17
Yeah, it is really what, it's really what sport is about, but particularly our surf sports is just, it just showed what, what amazing skills, even our little 11 and 12 year olds have.
Ross Smith:
15:17-15:21
So what's the age group for sports? What have we got? We've got, you said little ones, we've got.
David Visokis:
15:21-15:24
Yeah. So our sports starts at under eights.
Ross Smith:
15:24-15:25
Oh, under eight.
David Visokis:
15:25-15:28
You can be seven and compete at our junior carnivals.
Ross Smith:
15:28-15:28
Yeah.
David Visokis:
15:29-15:57
Obviously we do have like a modified area where the races are smaller and there's always a lot of water cover in the water to protect them and make sure that they're safe. From under eights all the way up to, I mean, we don't have an age limit. You can compete until you're 110 if you, if you like in a, in a master's competition. So, and we still have a master's state championships, masters at Aussie, Aussie championships. So it really is a sport for all.
Ross Smith:
15:57-16:21
Yeah, it's fantastic. And I think, you know, we all talk about it. We have children being active today, sitting on their tablets and need to get out and about. If a parent's listening and say, I want my child to get out there and do some of this stuff. Like you said, you've got surf lifesavers protecting them, particularly when they're young, they start with smaller sports and getting to the bigger ones. So yeah, you're talking age defines it. So it's fabulous. It's just a great thing for activity. Getting to know, get kids moving.
David Visokis:
16:21-16:43
It's fantastic. And I mean, I'm still involved in junior coaching at my club and the amount of times I've, I've had to drag the kids out of the, out of the water because they're just having so much fun, like actually waves and their parents are waving, can we go home? And I'm, I'm trying to drag them out. And, and I just say to the parents afterwards, I'm like, this is a, as frustrating as it is, it's a, it's a good problem to have.
Ross Smith:
16:43-16:44
Yeah, absolutely.
David Visokis:
16:44-16:46
We just can't get them out of the water and that's fantastic.
Ross Smith:
16:46-16:53
I've been down to a couple and you just can't get a car park in space because there's so many parents and so many people there.
David Visokis:
16:53-17:14
Oh, we have fabulous. At a junior carnival, we would have 3000 plus people on the beach, over, over a thousand kids competing. And then obviously you've got at least one parent, if not two siblings, grandparents love to come down and it's just an impressive spectacle, let alone just seeing what these kids, you know, what these kids can do.
Ross Smith:
17:14-17:17
Wow. So what in December, what's coming up in December?
David Visokis:
17:18-17:48
So December we're, so speaking of, you know, what we do from a surf sports perspective, not only in this state to raise the bar, but nationally and internationally. We're hosting our second, what used to be called our Summer of Surf is now the World Ocean Series event at Glenelg beach in, at the end of December 20th and 21st. So we'll have the nation's best surf sports athletes come down to compete in this, to compete against our local athletes.
Ross Smith:
17:48-17:49
So that's in December?
David Visokis:
17:49-18:08
That's in December. Yeah, December 20/21 at Glenelg. So this is, this is an opportunity for our local athletes to be exposed to that higher echelon of racing and, you know, to race against the best, but also just our spectators to see the nation's and probably the world's best surf sports athletes here in Adelaide.
Ross Smith:
18:09-18:17
Look, it sounds exciting. I'll try and get there myself. Cause I know it's a great day on the beach and me sitting on the beach, relaxing, chilling and watching some incredible athletes.
David Visokis:
18:17-18:19
Amazing. Amazing. And we'll have a...
Ross Smith:
18:19-18:21
And it's free to name it, isn't it? I mean, it's just...
David Visokis:
18:21-18:25
It's free. Yeah. Yeah. You just have to roll up and pull up a deck chair.
Ross Smith:
18:25-18:27
Yeah. Pop on a hat, sit on sunscreen.
David Visokis:
18:27-18:31
You know, sunscreen. Shades and away you go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's fantastic.
Ross Smith:
18:32-19:26
Dave, look, thanks so much for being with us at Surf Talk. Look, you've got some amazing athletes out there. A couple of episodes coming up, I'll try and get, we've talked about this, try and get a hold of a couple of athletes and have a chat to those guys and girls about how they feel about the sports competition. I get it just by watching. They're absolutely passionate about it. So thanks for listening to Surf Talk and thank you to Legend Sportswear for our sponsorship of this episode. And once again, if you want to go to Legend Sportswear, it's legendsportswear.com and you'll see all their product range there. So if you like what you heard today at Surf Talk and you want to know more about surf lifesaving, go to surflifesavingsa.com.au and I'd say you go forward slash sports or surf sports and you'll find all about surf sports and surf lifesaving. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and follow us for all episodes free. We're releasing every couple of weeks, you'll hear an episode. So once again, I'm Ross Smith and this is Surf Talk and we say get inspired and get involved. Thank you for listening.
David Visokis:
19:26-19:26
Thanks Ross.