My Beach

West Australian athlete Jake Smith from Trigg Island Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC) will make his debut as a member of the ten strong Australian Life Saving Team at the World Games in Wroclaw, Poland on the 22-23 July.

Jake’s involvement with surf life saving began at an early age and the now 19 year old  has been dominating the pool rescue competition in WA coming away with 6 individual gold, 6 team gold, and one silver medal at the recent SunSmart WA Pool Rescue Championships.

 I can’t actually remember at what age I started with surf life saving, but it would’ve been early Nippers at Mullaloo SLSC where mum was an Age Group Manager, then later on moving to Trigg Island

Having always been a swimmer, Jake’s passion lead him naturally to enjoy the surf sport water events, particularly the Surf (Swim) Race and Taplin Relay events, representing Trigg Island SLSC at numerous state championships.

At about 14 years of age, and at the suggestion of his father who heard about pool rescue as something surf lifesaving offered during the winter months, he gave it a go, liked it, and worked out pretty quickly he was good at it given his background in swimming.

If I had to choose a favourite event, it would be the 100m Manikin Carry and the 100m Rescue Medley.

It’s fun away from the beach and a great way to spread the load of surf sport. I would definitely encourage others to get involved in pool rescue – it’s nice to be indoors in winter and still be able to compete.

Jake combines his studies – he’s currently completing a Bachelor of Science majoring in Sport & Exercise at UWA – with an intensive training schedule which includes up to 9 swimming sessions a week, plus two pool rescue specific training sessions and further time in the gym.

Jake is looking forward to heading to Poland with the Australian Team and seeing how he compares internationally.

I’m really looking forward to rating myself against athletes from all over the world and all sorts of backgrounds.

I recently went on a camp with the other Australian representatives to the Gold Coast and it was great – we all got on really well and were really cohesive. It’s a young team so we should be able to represent Australia together for a few years which I’m really looking forward too.

On his return from the World Games Jake will head straight to Adelaide for the Surf Life Saving Australia Australian Pool Rescue Championships before jetting off to Durban, South Africa for the Commonwealth Festival of Lifesaving Championships.