Canterbury region to celebrate the season at awards ceremony

The Canterbury/Tasman region is getting set to celebrate the Surf Life Saving season and its members' achievements at this year's awards ceremony.

The 2015 Canterbury Awards of Excellence will be held at The Colombo in Christchurch on Saturday June 6 from 6pm.

SLSNZ Club Development Officer for Canterbury, says the awards are an exciting time on the calendar for local members. "It's been another great season for our local lifeguards and the awards are a great opportunity to celebrate all that they have achieved," he says.

The three big awards for the night will be Lifeguard of the Year, Volunteer of the Year and Rescue of the Year.

Nominees for Lifeguard of the Year include Kate Suter (Sumner), Patrice de Beer (Taylors Mistake), Doug Heaton (Waimairi) and Linda Poulsen (Spencer Park).

Nominees for Volunteer of the Year include Tisha Bradley (Taylors Mistake), Derek Shanks (Sumner) and Tim Lovejoy (Rarangi).

There have been some fantastic rescues and the Rescue of the Year could be very close between Taylors Mistake, Spencer Park and Christchurch Regional Lifeguards.

There will also be a host of other lifesaving and sport awards presented on the night.

Surf Life Saving Clubs in the Canterbury/Tasman area include Waikuku Beach, Spencer Park, Waimairi, North Beach, New Brighton, South Brighton, Sumner, Taylor's Mistake, Kotuku, Buller, Nelson and Rarangi. Together, they undertook 99 rescues in the 2014/15 season.

For more information, please contact:

Lisa Honeybone, Media & Communications Specialist, SLSNZ
Phone 09 303 9335 or 0276 488 823
Email lisa.honeybone@surflifesaving.org.nz