Surf swim­ming events are out­lined here. Still­wa­ter swim events are cov­ered under the cat­e­gory of Pool Com­pe­ti­tion.

Surf Race

Com­peti­tors sprint from the start­ing line on the beach into the surf where they swim around a set of coloured buoys and return to shore. The fin­ish line is located between two flags about 15m up the beach from the waters edge.

Divi­sions for the surf race include Open, U19, U17, U15 and Mas­ters. Race dis­tance is 170m for U15 through to Open and 120m for Masters.

Belt Race

This is a team event con­sist­ing of one belt-person (swim­mer) sup­ported by four lines-persons. Using a tra­di­tional surf reel, line and belt, the objec­tive is to be the first belt-person to reach the swim­ming buoys set at least 120m from the shore. The belt swim­mer fin­ishes their race by reach­ing their buoy first and mak­ing the cor­rect ‘touch’ and signal.

The lines-persons ‘pay the line out’ as their belt-person swims out, being care­ful not to give too much rope which will slow the swim­mer down with excess weight, nor to let too lit­tle line out which will hold their swim­mer back.

Divi­sions for the belt race include Open and U19.

Tube Res­cue

Tube res­cue is a teams event con­ducted in teams of either two or four.

For the four mem­ber teams event, teams con­sist of one patient, one tube swim­mer and two res­cuers. The race involves the patient either swim­ming or being dropped out to a buoy, who must then be returned to shore using tube res­cue techniques.

At the start­ing gun, the tube swim­mer dons a res­cue tube, swims out to the patient and attaches the tube before swim­ming them­selves and their ‘patient’ back to shore. Upon the tube being attached to the patient, the two res­cuers must also swim out to the buoys and assist the patient back to shore. When reach­ing the shore, the patient is dragged up to the fin­ish line and the first team to suc­cess­fully res­cue the patient wins.

For the two per­son tube res­cue event, teams con­sist of one patient and one tube swim­mer. Patients swim to a buoy and sig­nal their team mate to res­cue them. The tube swim­mer then swims out to their patient, attaches the tube and swims their patient to shore.