Source : ABC NEWS
What would the Australian summer — or indeed winter — be without the ubiquitous yellow and red flags on beaches around the country?
Surf life savers are as essential as sunscreen and deliver an unquestionable sense of comfort and ease among holiday-makers and residents alike.
And the competitive arm of the movement, the Iron Series, is almost as synonymous with the Australian sporting summer as the echo of leather on willow at the nation’s cricket grounds or the thwack of tennis balls at Melbourne Park.
But as hard-fought and intense as the racing is throughout the series, the sporting aspect pales into insignificance when compared to the bigger picture of what Surf Life Saving is truly about.
“This sport is born out of such an important part of Australian culture,” number one-seeded athlete Charlie Verco tells ABC Sport on the beach at Surfers Paradise.
“That is ocean safety and being able to help other people in danger.”
Charlie Verco is the number one seed for this year’s Iron Series championship. (Supplied)
Just like fellow Iron Series number one seed Tiarnee Massie, Verco has first-hand experience of just how important his skills are away from the sporting arena.
“I’ve had countless examples of having to just apply those skills in living my everyday life … the skills that you learn to how to rescue people,” the 24-year-old says.
“And for me recently, I had a pretty full-on one example of that with the shark attack with Leah.”
Saturday, June 13, 2026, is a date that will not be quickly forgotten by Verco or anyone else who was on Coogee Beach.
Sydney teacher Leah Stewart was attacked by a three- to four-metre-long shark, believed to be a Great White, while swimming between the flags at the popular spot in Sydney’s east.
Stewart’s extensive injuries resulted in her having to undergo multiple surgeries and her arm being amputated during an extended hospital stay.
Fatefully and thankfully, Verco was also in the water that day and his training instantly kicked into gear as he rushed to Stewart’s aid, his quick response earning widespread praise as being among the reasons Stewart was not killed.
Charlie Verco grew up at North Bondi surf club and now competes for Newport. (Supplied: Charlie Verco)
“There was definitely a lot of thoughts going through my head,” Verco says.
“And it wasn’t clear thinking, but that’s what is going to happen no matter what, and it’s having spent that time ingraining it so that you don’t have to think about what the right thing to do is what made the difference.
“I actually had to tell some swimmers that were near me that wanted to get taken to the shore … I really wanted to paddle in, so picking up one of the swimmers near me would have been a really good excuse to go in.
“But then I assessed the shark and I thought because I was on such a big board I could scare away that shark if I went in there, maybe.
“Then I saw the shark come out of the water and I was like, ‘that thing’s not scared of me.'”
Battling his fears, Verco plunged into the mix, getting Stewart onto his board and quickly backing them towards the shore and further assistance.
“I’ve never been more grateful to being part of this life-saving community and having experienced that training,” Verco, who competes for Newport Surf Life Saving Club on Sydney’s north shore, says.
“So many of the lessons I’ve learned through that have played in as factors to what allowed me to help her that day.
“When someone started screaming shark and I saw this thing in the water, all I wanted to do was paddle to shore.
“But growing up in the community embedded a sense of responsibility to help others, especially in the water when I have the ability to [do it].”
Charlie Verco will look to win the title outright for the first time when the series concludes at Surfers Paradise in February. (Supplied)
That was not the only time Verco has had to race to the aid of a member of the public in the ocean.
“The shark attack’s definitely the most dramatic one that’s happened and probably the scariest one because it was the one where I felt like I was in real danger,” Verco says.
“But there’s been countless examples where I’ve been out surfing in Bondi and people will swim out and I’ll drag someone in.
“Up in Queensland, the beaches are so much longer so I’ve had to do some pretty serious rescues … we had to run 500 metres down the beach with a board before we actually padded out to get someone … they had some pretty serious water inhalation and got taken away to hospital but they would have died if we didn’t have the combination of fitness skills and knowledge to help them.
“All of my mates have heaps of different anecdotal experiences, whether it’s just driving to work and someone in the car in front of you had a heart attack, I have a mate who did CPR on the way to work, my mum and my sister were down at their camp for school and they had to do CPR on one of the parents, just out of nowhere.
“It happens. You never think it’s going to happen. But I never thought I was going to be in a shark attack.”
Charlie Verco finished the Moloka’i 2 Oahu Paddleboard World Championships in July in a new record time. (Supplied: Moloka’i 2 Oahu Paddleboard World Championships)
Verco, who is also a four-time Paddleboard World Champion, noted that the skills he has learned from a competitive aspects of Surf Life Saving helped him when it mattered most.
“Just in how to manage your mindset under a really high-stress environment,” he says.
“There’s a lot of pressure in being able to perform for that one race in massive surf to get that Iron Series title, but also when you’re managing a huge amount of fear and you see a woman getting attacked by a shark and being able to take that pause and think what is the actual best action to do as opposed to just reacting off of a whim and potentially make mistakes and put yourself or other people in danger.
“I think that transfers across in so many different areas.”
Olympic showcase with an important message
Australia’s leading Surf Life Savers have their eyes set on joining the Olympic family. (Supplied)
In six years’ time, Brisbane will showcase its sporting environment to the world when the 2032 Olympics roll into town.
Surf Life Saving is already making its case to organisers that their sport deserves to be included, and as two of the sport’s biggest names, Massie and Verco, are fully behind it.
“Surf Life Saving is such an embedded part in Australian culture,” Verco says.
“There’s no better way to represent Australia at such an incredible event. The Olympics is the top tier, the pinnacle event of sporting competition.
“It’s what any athlete who grows up watching sport says ‘that’s where I want to go one day.’
“Not only is the sport incredible, but it’s embedded in such an important idea around surf safety and helping others through surf safety as well.
“That is something that’s so well ingrained in Australia, but I also think it’s something that’s really important to spread around the world.
“There’s countless number of drownings on beaches all around the world every year, so I think being able to get this sport on a stage where people around the world can see it and see how incredible it is and maybe embed cultures that exist similar to the Nippers culture where you learn those skills about how to be safe in the water from an early age and then bring that experience and skill into helping others around the world I think will be able to save incredible numbers of lives every year.
“It’s a no-brainer to put surf life saving in it. I think it’s the best option there is.”
There are plenty of things in favour of Surf Life Saving joining the Olympic movement.
Under current arrangements, the Brisbane 2032 organisers can propose a maximum of four additional disciplines from the core events.
One of the key aims of the Fit for the Future program is for the Olympics to help promote: “A future where sport is part of everyday life for more people, creating resilient communities, enabling health and well-being, education and inclusion.”
No extra infrastructure is needed, and despite the sport being considered uniquely Australian, there is a world championships, which will take place this year in Gqeberha, South Africa.
Tiarnee Massie says giving Surf Life Saving a platform at the Olympics would be very important. (Getty Images: Matt Roberts)
Massie, who has previously made Australian national age group squads in the Olympic sport of kayaking, says having Surf Lifesaving at the 2032 Games would be “iconic”.
“Having the Olympics in Brisbane for 2032 is so special for every sport that is in the Olympics,” Massie says.
“But to get surf life saving into the Olympics is… it would be iconic.
“It is iconic to Australians, it’s iconic to everyone who lives here, who lives near the water and the beach and I think it it’s only right to have that in the Olympic Games, to showcase to the other countries what we can do and how important the sport is to Australians.
“No other sport does that; no other sport is trying to prepare to be the best at saving someone’s life. But our sport is.
“To showcase that to the rest of the country and to the world would be so important, and to get that to the Olympic Games and get everyone’s eyes on the importance of what we are doing, it would be so special.”
