Live Learn Survive - Help Yourself - Help Others.

Hear it here first! Next week is going to a big week for us, and we are giving our podcast listeners a sneak peak of what is happening direct from us! We’ve waited a long time for this and are so grateful to everyone that has helped make it happen. In other news today, daylight saving also nearly caught us out, but it didn’t, and Maxi made it to school on time.

Lizzie Welborn is a 25 year old professional Surf Ironwoman from Sydney, Australia. Lizzie qualified for her first professional series when she was just 16, making her one of the youngest competitors to ever qualify, Lizzie has now competed in 9 professional series, placing in the top 3 multiple times and she has also represented Australia in the sport. Outside of surf sports Lizzie has also competed in many paddleboarding races around the world, including the gruelling 52km Molokai 2 Oahu world paddleboard championships in Hawaii. Two years ago Lizzie and fellow ironwoman/ best friend Harriet Brown co-founded KaMana Community, a program designed to educate and empower female athletes so they can reach their potential in sport and life. Together they explore topics that aren't spoken about enough including body confidence, relationships with food as an athlete and menstrual health, all things they faced or struggled with during their athletic careers. To date they have empowered over 2000 girls via the program.

This week back to talk about the importance of learning how to float and the importance of being prepared as we head into storm season in Australia. A very special song added to the playlist this week, Sunny by Boney M as we dedicate this show to Sunny Jayne Maxwell, huge congrats to Trent and Tahlia, welcome to the world little one, your Dad can finally own his all Dad jokes 💗

Professor Rob Brander, aka ‘Dr Rip’, is a coastal scientist, beach safety researcher and science communicator in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales in Sydney where he leads the UNSW Beach Safety Research Group. He has studied beaches for over 35 years starting in Canada where water temperatures convinced him to move to Australia in 1993 and do his PhD on rip currents at the University of Sydney.  He has published over 100 scientific articles and book chapters on coastal science and is the author of the best selling book 'Dr Rip's Essential Beach Book'. Rob began his popular community beach safety education program ‘The Science of the Surf’ in 2001 and gained the nickname ‘Dr Rip’ for his habit of releasing harmless purple dye in rip currents to educate people about this important hazard. He is a past recipient of an Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Australian Science Research and enjoys bodysurfing very much. He is a Life Member of the Tamarama Beach Surf Life Saving Club and in January 2023 was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his service towards beach safety education and research.

It’s birthday week for Maxi and would you believe his birthday is also National Situational Awareness Day, a phrase he has said over a million (maybe) times as we have travelled around schools. Leig has been out and about and met the incredible PCYC Emergency Services Cadets and saw the Aqua Accessibility program launched by our friends at Bay Island Water Sports in Brisbane who have made water activities inclusive for everyone which is just amazing. Enjoy this weeks catch up with Maxi and Leigh.

So excited to finally talk about the 2nd edition of the Maxi the Lifeguard paperback books and share that Book 1 will be back out in time for Christmas, we could not be more excited to share the newly illustrated book that will get a new lease of life. This weeks tip is all about making sure new never enter the water without a floatation device and we also talk about stepping out of your comfort zone, we promise it will be worth it. 

5 years ago one of our Live Learn Survive water safety talks in Scarborough, England led a young girl to join her local Lifesaving Club in Retford, Nottingham. This week she completed at the Inter-Club segment of the Lifesaving World Championships on the Gold Coast, obviously we had to go and find her and meet the rest of the club. These are the stories that make us so proud, Leigh has promised to visit the club when she heads back to Nottingham next year.  

 Even when the sun is shining, open water can be VERY cold is the Tip of the week and Maxi learnt this himself this week going out for a swim at Bondi, make sure you are always prepared and have the right clothing and equipment for the conditions. Some great news this week as both Leigh and Maxi were able to meet up in person with our friends from the Santa Theresa Lifeguards in Costa Rica as we met and welcomed them to Brisbane and Sydney.

It was back on the road this week with flights and ferry rides, we were so happy to be visiting more schools thanks to the generosity of corporate sponsors and our own Live Learn Survive charity from our Creating Little Superheroes February event.  We also travelled over to the Southern Moreton Bay Islands which rewarded us with the most epic sunset sail home, we hope this week has been great for you all too.  

Celebrating 7 years, today it’s officially Live Learn Survive’s birthday, the day it was officially registered and became an entity, and what a fantastic 7 years it has been, we have loved all of it and today celebrate every child we have every had the privilege to meet. To everyone who has every cheered us on, donated their time and support to us we are truly grateful, so here’s to the next 7 years, where we promise to keep making learning fun.