For surf life saving clubs
Nippers, patrols and carnivals — one clubhouse, one platform.
From Sunday-morning nippers on the beach to a full patrol roster and a state carnival away weekend, ClubHelix keeps your surf club’s enrolments, rosters, comms and money in one place.
Summer season · Sunday nippers, weekend patrols · Updated 10 Aug 2026
Why committees of surf life saving clubs come to us
The same problems show up in every committee meeting. ClubHelix is built to retire each one for good.
- Nipper enrolment day is a trestle table, a cash tin and a three-hour queue.
- Patrol swaps arranged over six different group chats, and the roster on the wall is already out of date.
- Carnival entries collected in a spreadsheet, paid by bank transfer, reconciled never.
- Proficiencies and award expiries tracked in someone’s head until the season audit.
- The cancelled-nippers call going out too late for half the parents.
What ClubHelix does for surf life saving clubs
The platform mapped onto the moments your season actually runs on.
Nipper enrolment
Term-based nipper programs with per-age-group capacity, parent-and-child accounts, under-18 consent fields and Stripe payment in the same flow — plus automatic waitlists when U8s fill up in the first week.
Patrol rosters
Publish each patrol as a volunteer roster with named positions — patrol captain, IRB driver, first aid. Members sign up for shifts, see their season at a glance in a personalised calendar feed, and get reminders before their patrol.
Awards and proficiencies
Track Bronze Medallion, SRC, IRB and first-aid accreditations against each member with expiry dates — so you can see who is patrol-ready before the season starts instead of during the audit.
Carnivals and championships
Carnival entries as paid registration forms with per-event fields, plus travel and team pages members can RSVP to — the age manager sees who is coming before the bus is booked, not after.
Beach-morning communications
Broadcast the surf-conditions call to every nipper parent at 7am, or push it to phones for members who have installed the club’s app. Message a single age group, the patrol roster, or the whole club.
Clubhouse income
Club shop for caps, pink rashies and hoodies; native ticketing for the season launch and presentation day; donation pages for the new IRB fund — all reconciled through your own Stripe account.
Incident logging
Structured incident reports for beach and clubhouse incidents with restricted visibility, so the record exists when the season report or an insurer asks for it.
Patrol and award reporting
Patrol hours, current awards and member numbers are what the branch asks for, and what determines whether the beach is covered. Accreditation expiry and roster coverage reports show the gaps while the season can still be re-rostered.
What is surf life saving club management software?
Surf life saving club management software has to cover a club that is half sporting club, half emergency service: nipper enrolments by age group, patrol rosters with named positions, award and proficiency records, carnival entries and a clubhouse that runs on volunteers. In ClubHelix that means nipper programs with per-age-group capacity and waitlists, patrol rosters members claim themselves, accreditation tracking with expiry dates, paid carnival entry forms, incident reporting with restricted visibility and broadcasts that make the 7am surf-conditions call actually land.
Nipper enrolment without the trestle table
Sign-on day stops being a queue, a cash tin and three hours of a volunteer's Sunday. Each nipper age group runs as a term program with its own capacity and fee; a parent registers once, links each child as a dependant, completes the under-18 consent fields and pays for all of them in one Stripe transaction. When the U8s fill in the first week, the waitlist forms automatically and in order. And on the mornings the surf says no, the call reaches every family in the program at 7am by email — and by push notification for anyone with the club's app on their phone — targeted at one age group or the whole program.
Patrols, proficiencies and the incident log
Each patrol publishes as a roster with named positions — patrol captain, IRB driver, first aid — and members sign up for shifts themselves, see their whole season in a personalised calendar feed and get a reminder before each patrol. The laminated sheet on the clubhouse wall is finally retired. Behind the roster, Bronze Medallion, SRC, IRB and first-aid awards are recorded against each member with expiry dates, so the club can filter for who is patrol-ready before the season starts instead of during the audit. Beach and clubhouse incidents are logged as structured reports with restricted visibility — the record exists when the season report or an insurer asks for it.
Carnivals, the clubhouse and your surf club website
Carnival entries run as paid forms with per-event fields, alongside travel and team pages members RSVP to — so the age manager knows who is coming before the bus is booked. Clubhouse income runs through the same platform: caps, pink rashies and hoodies in the club shop, ticketing for the season launch and presentation day, and a donation page for the new IRB fund — all reconciled through the club's own Stripe account. The public site itself is built with the page editor; start from a template or see the member view in the live demo.
Free surf life saving club management software to start
Every ClubHelix club starts on the free plan, with no time limit — website and core admin included. Paid plans carry a 14-day free trial, bill on a 28-day cycle and can be cancelled any time; current tiers are on the pricing page. Enrolments, carnival entries, shop sales and donations settle straight to the club's own Stripe account — ClubHelix never holds funds — and the platform fee is never surcharged to members.
Ready before the first sign-on Sunday
Most surf clubs make the switch over winter: import the member list, build the nipper age groups, publish the patrol roster, and let the first cashless sign-on day make the argument. Surf clubs run ClubHelix in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, Canada, Ireland and South Africa. Talk to us about your patrol structure, or read the complete guide to running a surf life saving club — it covers nippers, patrols and the clubhouse year in depth.
Features in your plan
Every plan starts free and includes the whole platform below — browse all features or compare plans.
Canvas page editor
A no-code, drag-and-drop club website editor. Your page, exactly as it publishes — click a section to edit it, drag to reorder, add new ones right where you want them.
Self-registration
Club membership software that handles the joining for you: online registration and season sign-ups on your own branded site, with email verification and optional admin approval.
Events
A club events calendar with one-off and recurring events — and ticket sales built in, so you never send members off to an external ticketing site.
Competitions
Leagues and divisions with published fixtures and game schedules, entered-once results, and ladders (standings) that compute themselves.
Team management
Team rosters with captains and jersey numbers, training sessions and practices with availability, and scoped access for coaches.
Broadcasts
Send a message to everyone, a role, or a custom segment of members.
Club shop
Run a club shop or team store: take uniform, kit and spirit wear orders online with variants, carts and order management — with GST handled properly on every sale.
Mobile app
A club app of your own — install-to-home-screen with your branding, push notifications and digital membership cards, no app store required.
Frequently asked questions
The questions surf life saving club committees ask before signing up.
- Yes. A parent registers once and links each child as a dependant, enrols them in the right age groups, pays in one transaction, and receives comms for every group their kids belong to.
- Patrols are volunteer rosters with named positions and capacities. Members claim shifts themselves, the roster page is always current, and reminders go out before each patrol — no more laminated sheet on the clubhouse wall.
- Yes. Accreditations are recorded against each member with an expiry date, and admins can filter the member list by award status to see exactly who is patrol-ready.
- Send a broadcast email to every enrolled family in seconds, and push notifications to members using the club app on their phone. You can target one age group or the whole program.
Can parents manage more than one nipper from a single account?
How do patrol rosters and shift swaps work?
Can we track Bronze Medallion and other award expiries?
What about last-minute nippers cancellations?
More clubs like yours
ClubHelix isn't a single-sport tool — browse other sports we support out of the box.
Bring your surf life saving club online in under 30 minutes.
Start on the free plan, then take a 14-day free trial of paid features when you're ready — nothing to pay today, cancel any time before the trial ends.