The Rescue Sport Series is entering its third season with its biggest racing calendar yet, increased investment, new competition formats and a renewed focus on growing lifesaving sport across the Western Cape.
Season 3 will feature 11 days of racing across seven months, spanning Surf, Pool, Ocean and rescue-specific competition, with five competitions taking place before the Lifesaving World Championships in South Africa in December.
Season 3 is about more than simply getting bigger.
It is about growing the sport, developing world-class athletes, raising the standard of competition and building the future of Rescue Sport.
Watch the Full Launch Video Here. Where Rescue Sport Series General Manager Christina Mallion and Rescue Sport Series Event Production Lead, Dawid Mocke take you through all the exciting goals and plans for Season 3!
IN SEASON 3 WE GO FULL CIRCLE IN OUR STORY
The story of the Rescue Sport Series began in 2024 at the Lifesaving World Championships on the Gold Coast in Australia.
A small group from South Africa travelled to the Championships with a simple goal: to learn as much as possible from one of the world’s most established lifesaving sporting communities.
What they found was that the foundations were already there.
The same poles in the sand. The same batons on the beach. The same manikins in the pool. The same volunteer officials. The same unpredictable ocean. The same passionate community.
Conversations with members of Australia’s Summer of Surf, now the World Ocean Series, helped shape the idea of building something uniquely South African.
Two years later, the World Championships are coming to South Africa. And this time, we’ll have a story of our own to share, a story of what can be achieved when a community gets behind an idea and builds it together. The Rescue Sport Series is our story.
OUR BLUEPRINT FOR SEASON 3
Season 3 is built around four clear goals:
1. GROW THE SPORT
2. DEVELOP OUR ATHLETES
3. RAISE THE STANDARD
4. BUILD THE FUTURE
GOAL #1 | Grow the Sport
Increase participation and strengthen pathways through lifesaving.
The Series will feature its biggest racing calendar yet, with 11 days of competition across seven months.
New for Season 3, the 200m Obstacles event joins the Rescue Sport Series Champion Series, bringing the total to 12 cash-prize Champion events — six Surf and six Pool — across U19 and Open. The Champion Awards prize pool sponsored by Solid Oak Insurance has now increased to a record-breaking R201,800! Read more about the Points, Prizes and Rules of Champion Races here.
A new Surf racing day, Rescue, has also been added to the calendar, while an additional day has been added to the Western Cape Surf Championships to create more space for athletes to compete as participation continues to grow.
The Series is also challenging every club in the Western Cape to achieve positive participation growth this season.
GOAL #2 | Develop our Athletes
Prepare athletes to compete at the highest level.
With the Lifesaving World Championships ahead, Season 3 has been designed to give Western Cape athletes more opportunities to prepare for international competition.
Athletes will have five competitions before Worlds: two Pool competitions, two Surf competitions and the new Rescue competition.
Competition formats across Surf, Ocean and Pool have also been adapted to provide more targeted preparation, including new speed and skills-focused events in the pool and Worlds-specific events in the surf.
OCEANWOMAN & OCEANMAN
The Oceanwoman and Oceanman competition will also receive a format refresh, with M-Course formats, a live draw for event order and greater variation across the swim, board and ski legs.
The R100,000 Oceanwoman and Oceanman prize pool, supported by Solid Oak, continues for Season 3.
There will be four opportunities to score points towards the Ocean leaderboards, with the Milnerton final carrying double points.
For full Oceanwoman and Oceanman points, formats and prize information, visit the Rescue Sport Series website. Read more about Ocean Racing prizes, points and rules here.
GOAL #3 | Raise the Standard
Deliver a more professional and competitive Series. At the end of Season 2 we established our Rescue Sport Series Operations Team. We’re proud to have the following community members help steer the strategy and spirit of our series.
Christina Mallion – RSS General Manager
Tommy Veldhuis – RSS Surf Competition Officer
Bryan Allott – RSS Pool Competition Officer
Ed Tuohy – RSS & LWC Treasurer
Dawid Mocke – RSS Event Production Lead
James Thomson – RSS Strategy & Development
Christine Kennedy – LWC Chair
Ed Schroeder – LWC & LCT Office
Solid Oak has increased its investment in the Rescue Sport Series to more than R1 million for Season 3, allowing greater investment into equipment, competition delivery, athletes, clubs and the overall Series experience.
New Rescue Sport Series equipment will be introduced across Surf and Pool, including buoys, manikins and tubes.
Peter Hodgkinson and Denver Beukes will join the Series as Gear Officers for Pool and Surf respectively, while Christine Kennedy steps into a new Officials Officer role to help grow, retain and recognise the officials who make the competition possible.
GOAL #4 | Build the Future
Strengthen the community, clubs and long-term sustainability of the sport.
Season 3 will introduce new ways to recognise the people who contribute to the Series. Read about our Season Awards here.
Solid Oak Insurance has invested more than R1.7 million into the Rescue Sport Series across its first two seasons, and that investment continues into Season 3 with more than R1 million committed for the season ahead. With continued investment from Solid Oak Insurance, more than R1 million will be invested in the Rescue Sport Series this season, including support for athletes, clubs and equipment.
A bigger focus this season is club growth, with separate R25,000 Surf and Pool Club Growth Awards, alongside the R25,000 Top Point Scoring Club Award — putting R75,000 on the table for clubs.
Our challenge is simple: we want every club in the Western Cape to grow.
Post-competition lucky draws, supported by our two new Community Partners, Sealand and Ocean Trade Supplies, will give athletes the opportunity to be recognised beyond the podium.
The Series will also continue investing in storytelling and content, building a growing library of races, athletes, clubs and moments from the sport.
The ambition is simple: to make Rescue Sport the best TV channel you never need to switch off.
THE SEASON AHEAD
Season 3 gets underway at UWC Pool on 10 October 2026.
From there, athletes will compete across Surf, Pool, Ocean and rescue-specific events before the Western Cape Surf and Pool Championships bring the season to a close.
The full Season 3 calendar is:
10 October 2026 — Pool #1, UWC
17 October 2026 — Surf #1, Fish Hoek
24 October 2026 — Rescue, Fish Hoek
7 November 2026 — Surf #2, Clifton 4th
14 November 2026 — Pool #2, UWC
6 February 2027 — Surf #3, Strand
13 February 2027 — Pool #3, Bellville
27–28 February 2027 — Western Cape Surf Championships, Milnerton
13 March 2027 — Western Cape Surf Championships, Milnerton
3 April 2027 — Western Cape Pool Championships, UWC
THE CHALLENGE
Season 3 isn’t just a challenge for the Rescue Sport Series.
It’s a challenge to every club across the Western Cape.
Build your squads.
Bring someone new into the sport.
Tell the friend who’s been thinking about trying lifesaving to come and give it a go.
Put on an extra lifesaving course.
Keep your athletes training.
Keep your members engaged.
Keep telling your stories.
And help make Season 3 the biggest year of growth for lifesaving clubs across the Western Cape.
We’ll see you on the beach.
We’ll see you in the pool.
We’ll see you on the start line.
Welcome to Season 3.