About Us

About the club

The WSLS has been safeguarding Whanganui’s beaches for more than 100 years and is arguably the oldest club in New Zealand. As far as the records show there has, since the 5th of January 1911, been a body of men and women at Castlecliff beach and at Kai-iwi Beach since 1977, assisting the community to enjoy our beaches safely.

Some of the early records from 1926 until the end of 1956 show rescues were on average 14 per year and drownings decreased dramatically. For the 2018-19 season the WSLS performed only 2 rescues and were no drownings on our beaches. However, over 6000 preventive actions were preformed to achieve this.

We are considered a unique club for New Zealand, in that for our region of Whanganui as we are one of the very few clubs to patrol more than one separate beach. The WSLS strive to keep drownings on our beaches at zero and educate the public about the dangers in and around our beaches by using pro-active lifeguarding techniques.

We are an Incorporated Society which is affiliated to Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ). We have a strong and growing membership which attributes to the club’s key strength due to the impact we make in making our beaches and community safer and attraction being Whanganui’s beautiful beaches.