The board and surf ski events are two exam­ples of ‘craft’ surf life­sav­ing events. These involve pad­dling a fibre­glass board or ski from the beach, through the break and around a defined course (set by buoys) and back to the water’s edge to cross the fin­ish line. Up to six­teen com­peti­tors or teams may com­pete in a sin­gle heat, with sev­eral heats, semi-finals and finals con­ducted dur­ing a car­ni­val, depend­ing on the num­ber of entrants.

There are many vari­a­tions of board and ski events, includ­ing male or female, mixed, sin­gle or dou­ble and a mul­ti­tude of relays. These are briefly 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 whereby a com­peti­tor must pad­dle a board around a course of 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. Upon return­ing to the beach, each team mem­ber in the first and sec­ond legs of the relay will tag the next per­son in their team. The team mem­ber com­pet­ing third crosses the fin­ish line. Divi­sions include Men and Women in Open, U19, U17, U15 and Mas­ters categories.

Board Res­cue

Each team con­sists of two mem­bers – one swim­mer and one board pad­dler. The swim­mer or ‘patient’ enters the water and swims to a buoy where they raise their hand to sig­nal to their board pad­dler team mate to enter the water and 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 will pad­dle approx­i­mately 50m fur­ther. Divi­sions for the sin­gle and dou­ble ski include Mens and Wom­ens in Open, U19 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. Upon return­ing to the beach the com­peti­tors who com­plete the first and sec­ond legs will tag the next per­son on their team, with the third cross­ing the fin­ish line. Divi­sions for the ski relay include Open, U19 and Mas­ters. There is no dou­ble ski relay.