It doesn’t happen every day that Cornwall gets a new bank. Most banks are struggling and very few new banks have been started up in England in the last decades. Some local banks are sold to become houses or are even turned into bars: like the Cornish Bank in Falmouth. But the Gunwalloe Surf Life Saving Clubs has managed to set up a new bank. Unfortunately, you can only withdraw from this bank during training hours on Saturday during the beach sessions…..
We are very grateful for the brilliant support of Bradfords Building Supplies in Helston that donated over £220 worth of materials for the construction of Cornwall’s newest bank. Fantastic to see a local shop provide such support. There are so many options for local companies to support a local club like ours in kind! Lewis and Tom put in a few hours of Tender Love and Care: with the help of Lewis’ great battery powered tools (….and couple of egg & bacon sandwiches) the club took delivery of its first ……boardbank!
The new boardbank provides neat safe storage space for 32 boards. No longer will be boards be stacked up against the wall. No longer will you get outside the hut with a board, only to find out a fin or leash is missing. No longer do you as a coach have to move 8 boards to find the boards you need for your group. Now you always have an excellent view on the state of the fins and on whether a board has a leash attached to it. And only coaches can take boards out.
The boardbank helps us look after the boards that we have bought with your subscriptions – that way we can provide a good Return on Investment on your membership fees. And the board bank comes at a good time: it will mean we are better prepared to receive another lot of new boards for which the clubs has raised funds from Sport England. We are now working with the National Trust, who owns our clubhouse, and the RNLI to realise the extra storage we need: hopefully they can finalise the paperwork soon so we can take delivery of the sea-container and free up space in the coaches briefing room.
The start of the beach sessions is of course still a few months away. But we are starting to get ready for it in many ways. We are getting the hut ready for a new season on the beach. We’d love to have one or two parents take up the role of hut officer to ensure it stays tidy and clean. If you feel happy to spend a little time during or after the beach sessions to keep our hut in order, get in touch with the club’s secretary Kate.
Then our pool sessions are starting this week. The sessions are a perfect way to get returning and new kids in shape for the beach sessions. After all, you have to be a confident swimmer in the pool to be ready to train in the sea!
There is one last task we have to perform to make sure our own board bank abides by banking regulations: we’ll have to apply a little wax to the rafters of our bank so it is slippery as per informal banking traditions!
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