Hub Staff

Saugeen Shores Lifesaving Club held a fundraiser on Southampton Beach on the afternoon of Canada Day. The renting out of paddleboards, hosting a surf ski challenge and playing games on the beach were all part of the afternoon's activities.

"We're going to give paddleboard rides to the kids and little boat rides for them, little water safety demos and that kind of thing. It's a fundraiser for one of our athletes who's on the national team for lifesaving," explained Saugeen Shores Aquatics Supervisor, Shanna Reid, who has also managed the Canadian Lifesaving team for the past eight years.

The athlete is 22 year old local, Chris Stoner who will be heading to Japan later this month, on July 17th, with the Canadian national team to compete in the 2015 Sanyo Bussan International Lifesaving Cup. The event is hosted by the Japanese Lifeguard Association and is held on July 20th at Aoshima Beach, Miyazaki, Japan. This will be Canada's fourth participation in the event.

"I'll be doing mostly paddleboard races, so it will be on the ocean. Hopefully there'll be waves. They're about 500-600 meters long and you start on the beach, you go around three buoys and you come back and finish on the beach," said Stoner, who will be competing against other national teams such as Austrailia, New Zealand, the U.S. and Japan.

Canada has five male and five female participants in the competition. Stoner qualified for the team by competing and being placed last summer in the the Canadian Surf Lifesaving Championships, held in New Brunswick.

Shanna Reid was very optimistic about Chris Stoner and the Canadian team in the competition. "Chris has done very well," she said. "We do pretty well on the world format."

See competition results HERE.