NO WAVES? NO WORRIES, SAYS EMMA

March 10, 2012: Emma Jackson is proof you don't need to spend the summer at the beach to be a champion surf lifesaver.

Her Ellis Beach club is located just north of Cairns where swimming in the surf in summer is too dangerous because of stingers, and waves at any time of year are a novelty.

But that has done nothing to dampen the 14-year-old's enthusiasm for the sport and today she was rewarded for her wide-ranging involvement when she was named the 2012 Queensland Junior Surf Life Saver of the Year.

Summers for Emma consist of pool swimming and training in a ski park lake, pretending there
are waves and rips to contend with, and it is during the winter that she gets
to enjoy the feeling of sand between her toes.

"It is not easy in summer but I love the training and being involved with surf lifesaving," she said.

Emma said she ‘was really not expecting' to be named Junior Lifesaver of the Year and was shocked when the announcement was made.

"I think I won because I don't just focus on the competitive side of the sport," she said.

"I'm also involved in other areas like patrolling, resuscitation, helping kids go under their first waves, coaching and community service."

Emma has been in nippers since she was about seven years old but surf lifesaving runs in her blood and she is just the latest champion from a remarkable family.

Her grandmother Evelyn was the 15^th of 16 children in the Mills family from Coffs Harbour in northern NSW, which has produced generations of great surfers and swimmers. Evelyn's oldest sister Iris was a member of a pioneering
female R&R team in the 1930s, her brother John swam for Australia in the pool and the surf, and her nephews were part of the champion Kirra R&R crews in the 1960s.

The love of the sport has definitely flowed through to Emma who says she is keen to stay involved in as many aspects of surf lifesaving as she can and has ambitions to be a lifeguard or a coach.

For now she looks forward to nothing more than her surf and pool training - "It's great to be up at 5am with my friends" - but she does wish she could spend more of her time in the ocean.

"If there were waves in Cairns I'd surf all the time," she said.

Other finalists in the Junior Lifesaver of the Year competition were Rachel Eddy (Burleigh Heads Mowbray Park), Jared Dunkerley (Sarina), Harrison Barnes (North Kirra), Connor Buhk (Alexandra Headland), Luke
Goodluck (Hervey Bay), Liam Wooton (Elliott Heads).