Clifton Beach once again rose to the top as Penguin SLSC hosted the 2025 Tasmanian Surf Life Saving State Championships over the weekend.

The dynasty continued for Clifton with a 99 point victory making it three Open State Champs  titles in a row for the club.

Carnival Referee and former surf sports competitor Craig McKinnon said that besides the sheer  number of competitors Clifton enters, he believes it is the programs and systems in place that has enabled the club to dominate for so long - with this weekend being no exception.

“To me it is their (Clifton’s) team ethos, their culture, that really comes to the fore in their pursuit of points across the weekend,” said Craig. “Putting teams, even multiple, on the line every event I think helps them to get the win because they are getting points across all events.” 

While it was a successful weekend for Clifton, none of the events would have been possible  without the hard work of the carnival’s volunteers and officials. 

With unfavourable weather conditions forecast for the final day of the Championships, the competition committee had to reshuffle the event schedule in order for the carnival to successfully go ahead.

“It was a long day on Saturday with the restructure of the program because of the weather,” said Craig. “The decision to reshuffle meant we had to move a lot more of the water events into the Saturday program - which led to a long day and some very tired athletes, officials, water safety personnel and volunteers across the board.” 

The call to reshuffle the program proved to be the right one, said Craig, with wind gusts at Penguin Beach reaching 60km/h on Sunday.

“The fact that we got through the extended Saturday program meant that we got through just about every event of the Championships,” he said. 

Craig believes that not only competitors benefit from carnivals like these, but so does the greater Tasmanian community. 

“The events the athletes compete in test their skills in the surf and on the beach, which goes hand and hand with becoming better lifesavers,” he said.

To access the full results from the 2025 SLST Open State Championships, click here.