In 1907 the Surf Life Saving movement started to help people in need. Now we have 129 surf clubs stretching from Pambula in the south to Fingal Rovers at Duranbah on the far north coast.  We have over 58 000 volunteers who give their time to patrol our coastline.  Since 1949 we have over 309 000 recorded rescues and we are involved in the development of sport, health, youth and member development.

In 1940 the 1 July headline of Surf in Australia heralded that “Our Future Lies With The Juniors” and that the safety of all beachgoers could be left “safely in the hands of qualified youngsters”.

Junior Surf Life Saving has long been heralded as structured learning of loyalty, discipline and efficiency with young trained volunteers. In 1966 history was made in Wollongong with over a 1000 competitors travelling from throughout the State to compete in the first juvenile (7 – 13 year old) championship at Bulli.

Records from 1926 hold that ‘Life Boys’ (‘Nippers’) existed and from the 1930’s to 1960’s nippers were known as ‘Sandcrabs’, ‘Aqualads’ etc.  It was not until the 1965 when there was an explosion of what are now known as ‘Nippers’.  The ‘explosion’ of the nipper movement was, and still is, to adequately bolster senior ranks. 
The term ‘nipper’ hailed from the meaning of children of parents involved in the life saving movement.

At Coffs Harbour in 1969 a historic joint conference between the Queensland and New South Wales Surf Life Saving bodies held that there needed to be a common policy for juvenile associations to make place for a national organization. 

Many sporting champions were once nippers.  These have included Australian Football Captains, Wallaby skipper Nick Farr-Jones and Brad Fittler.  Other famous nippers include Ironmen Darren and Dean Mercer, Craig Riddington and footballers  John Jones, David Ronson, Ivan Cleary, Eric Grothe, Olympian Johanna Griggs as well as former junior surf life saver of the year Jessie Miley-Dyer who is now on the women’s professional surfing circuit.