Gyllyngvase’s Nippers grit it out at Holywell Bay nationals

Three days of racing, a beach that would not make it easy, and a group of children from Falmouth who kept getting back up whenever it knocked them down. That was the Nippers weekend at the Surf Life Saving National Championships for Gyllyngvase Surf Life Saving Club.

📷Credit: Gyllyngvase Surf Life Saving Club

Facing surf they don’t often train in

Gyllyngvase is a south coast club, which means big Atlantic swell is not something its young members get to practise in every week. At Holywell Bay this time, conditions did not do them any favours. The club says its Nippers stepped up anyway and faced the surf head-on rather than shy away from it, racing through three days of the championships with everything they had.

📷Credit: Gyllyngvase Surf Life Saving Club

Tears, then getting back up

Not every run went the way the Nippers hoped, and the club has been honest about what that looked like on the sand. There were tears of frustration when things did not go to plan, which the club says only shows how much these children care and how hard they have trained. What mattered came after the tears. Every single one of them picked themselves back up and pushed through the next challenge.

📷Credit: Gyllyngvase Surf Life Saving Club

Win or learn, support each other

Gyllyngvase summed the weekend up in a few short lines: win or learn, keep going, support each other. That, the club says, is what true grit looks like, and it is why this year’s group has made the club so proud. It was the taking part, and the way the Nippers took it, that stood out most of all.

📷Credit: Gyllyngvase Surf Life Saving Club

Thanks to the hosts

The National Championships Nippers competition was hosted by Holywell Bay Surf Life Saving Club, and Gyllyngvase singled the hosts out for particular thanks, praising a club that knows how to put on an event. Between them, the two clubs sit either side of the same corner of surf life saving, one built around the calmer waters of Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth, the other on the open Atlantic surf at Holywell Bay, and for three days in August they shared a stretch of sand, a scoreboard, and a lot of very tired, very proud young lifesavers.

📷Credit: Gyllyngvase Surf Life Saving Club

📷Credit: Gyllyngvase Surf Life Saving Club

📷Credit: Gyllyngvase Surf Life Saving Club

📷Credit: Gyllyngvase Surf Life Saving Club