Board & Surf Ski Events

The board and surf ski events are two ‘craft’ surf lifesaving events. These involve paddling a fiberglass board or ski from the beach, through the break and around a defined course and back to shore to cross the finish line. Up to sixteen competitors or teams compete in a single heat, with several heats, semi-finals and finals conducted during a carnival.

There are many variations of board and ski events, including male or female, mixed, single or double and a multitude of relays, outlined below. You must be 16 years of age or older to com­pete in ski events but you can be any age to compete in board events.

Board Race

This is an individual event where competitors paddle a board around a course approximately 250m. Divisions include Men and Women in Open, U19, U17, U15 and Masters categories.

Board Relay

This is a team event of three pad­dlers each com­plet­ing the board course of approx­i­mately 250m. Each team mem­ber in the first and sec­ond legs of the relay tags the next per­son in their team when return­ing to the beach. The third team mem­ber crosses the fin­ish line. Divi­sions include Men and Women in Open, U19, U17, U15 and Mas­ters categories.

Board Res­cue

Each team has two mem­bers – one swim­mer and one board pad­dler. The swim­mer or ‘patient’ swims to a buoy where they raise their hand to sig­nal to their board pad­dler team mate to res­cue them. When the board pad­dler reaches their swim­mer the swim­mer climbs onto the board and both com­peti­tors pad­dle the board back to the beach. Divi­sions include Men and Women in Open, U19, U17, U15 and Mas­ters categories.

Ski Race

Indi­vid­ual com­peti­tors pad­dle a ski around a course of at least 300m from knee-deep water. Dou­ble ski com­peti­tors pad­dle approx­i­mately 50m fur­ther. Divi­sions for the sin­gle and dou­ble ski include Men's and Women's in Open, U19, U17 and Mas­ters. The dou­ble ski is also con­ducted as a mixed men and women event in the Open division.

Ski Relay

A team of three pad­dlers com­plete the ski course of at least 300m each. The first and sec­ond paddlers tag the next per­son in their team on return­ to the beach with the third person cross­ing the fin­ish line. Divi­sions for the ski relay include Open, U19 and Mas­ters. There is no dou­ble ski relay.