Gunwalloe Surf Life Saving Club for the final time this season at Church Cove last week for their annual awards evening.

The club has been running since 2010, supporting children age 7-18 to learn water and safety skills.

Beach sessions consist of beach and water rescue skills, games and fitness and surfing.

The emphasis is on having fun and staying safe on the beach.

As it is a requirement that parents have to be present on the beach, many parents have opted to get more involved and have built their own skills in coaching and lifeguarding to support the club.

Other members provide refreshments on the beach including plenty of delicious homemade cakes and hot chocolate for children and parents throughout the session. It always gets the weekend off to a great start to have been in the water before lunchtime on Saturday.

Unfortunately, the last two sessions had to be beach based, as a clutch of Portuguese man o' war stopped play.

The rain set in properly as the club, which has more than 70 members, moved up to Culdrose Football Club for hog roast, followed by the annual awards ceremony.

Impressively there are young coaches who have moved up from receiving awards as tiny “Nipper 1’s” to now being in a position to give out awards to their own students.

Awards were followed by a raffle, with special thanks to all the generous businesses and individuals in the area who kindly donated loads of fantastic prizes.

With winter training due to start in January 2018 at Helston pool, the children have a well-earned break until Christmas.