After an action-packed summer, the surf life saving club based at Gyllyngvase Beach, Falmouth, have had another incredible run of performances.

One of the UK’s youngest clubs is now leading the way in the sport and the future is looking even brighter.

The first major success story was in mid-July when the club’s nipper (7-13) team headed to Portreath Beach to take part in the Cornish surf life saving champs. After 2 days of tough competition in very testing sea conditions, the Gylly team finished a fantastic first place overall, 162 points ahead of second placed St Ives SLSC with Holywell Bay SLSC in third.

Over the first weekend in August the youth (13-16), senior (17-29) and master (30+) teams headed to Holywell Bay for the Open Cornish champs.

The 2 days saw perfect sunshine and big surf, to which the Gylly team excelled in. For the first time in the club’s history, the youth team won the prestigious title, beating the far more established clubs of Portreath SLSC and Newquay SLSC into second and third place respectively.

45 gold, 28 silver and 13 bronze medals were won by the youth team – quite an amazing performance.

The masters team were only slightly outdone. With the smallest team at the competition, they still managed to place 4th overall out of 12 teams, picking up 6 gold medals in the process.

Only a week later the National surf life-saving championships were taking place at Exmouth beach in south Devon. Over 1000 athletes were in attendance over the weeklong event. This is one of the largest competitions of any sporting discipline in the country.

The Gylly nipper team emulated their Cornish result by retaining their national title, being crowned the best nipper team in the country. The youth team finished a very respectable second place, close behind Portreath SLSC and the masters team achieved a number of national titles and brought home 9 national medals.

Gyllyngvase SLSC Nipper coach, Matthew Trebilcock, says: “I’m proud to say that after 2 fantastic days of competition on Exmouth the Gylly Nipper Team retained their National surf life saving title. The whole team performed amazingly over the 2 days with big hearts and huge smiles.

“Well done to all the teams that competed and thanks for making it such a fantastic event. Thanks to all the referees and officials and SLSGB and Exmouth Surf Lifesaving Club for such a great event.”

The club is soon to be sending a team to the World Championships in Holland next month. Watch this space for further updates about how they get on.

The sport of lifesaving is unique in the fact that it actually helps people to save lives. It is primarily intended to encourage lifesavers to develop, maintain and improve the essential physical and mental skills needed to save lives from the beach.

All the events have some element relating to the skills required to save lives at sea; including the flags event, which is about quick reactions and tube rescue, simulating rescuing a casualty from the sea. The sport helps to develop our Lifesavers skills, knowledge and techniques.

If you would like to get involved in surf life saving, the club is taking on new masters members for the coming season. Visit www.gyllysurf.org.uk for details.