What safety rules apply at junior contests?

From the SSA Rulebook 2025 and the SSA Event Sanctioning Policy:

Event safety (sanctioned events): organisers must take reasonable measures to protect participants. Arrangements should include, where relevant, water safety personnel, first aid and medical response, emergency and evacuation procedures, and procedures for severe weather and dangerous surf. The Contest Director (or other authorised person) must have authority to suspend or stop competition when conditions are unsafe.

Shark sighting: five horn blasts and a PA call for everyone to leave the water immediately. The area is closed for at least 20 minutes; heat time, scores and priority are recorded and resumed. After a shark attack, competition stops for the day and until further notice (on the final day, the event is cancelled). Only safety officials, the Contest Director, Head Judge and Events Manager decide on restarting; parents, coaches and athletes aren't part of that decision.

Dangerous surf or weather: the Contest Director, Head Judge, Events Manager and Head Water Safety decide whether to suspend, reschedule or cancel, taking into account the skill level of the competitors. Interrupted heats resume with the time left.

Minimum surf: waves must be at least 0.5 m (18 inches) for a contest to run.

Life-threatening situations: water patrol or officials may move a surfer to a safe area (no closer to the line-up), from where they can carry on with the heat.