Surf life saving is on a similar wave to most other sporting codes around New South Wales as they eagerly await confirmation when their season can commence.
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But they have already dipped their toes in a COVID-normal world with last season also affected by the pandemic.
It's why Surf Life Saving Mid North Coast president Rod McDonagh is confident they will be ready to go once the green light comes from the state government, likely next month for a November start.
"We're fairly confident in the next couple of weeks we'll be able to get some activity happening even if that's at least getting the kids' sign-on days and things like that because that hasn't been able to occur either," Mr McDonagh said.
"There are things clubs can do in the background to gear up and some of the pools are open now, so they can get back into that and the general preparation for the season is taking place for a lot of them at the moment."
Mr McDonagh said while they had to be adaptable 12 months ago, their juniors were largely unaffected and that was where the difference came ahead of the 2021-2022 season.
"We went through a similar thing last season, not so much with the juniors at the start of the season, but the patrols at the start of last season were in a similar situation," he said.
But for now, the focus was to start surf patrols at beaches on September 18 and then switch their focus to competition.
"We thought it's better to get the patrols up and running, get that sorted and when we get some updates regarding sporting events we can slip into gear fairly quickly," the president said.
"We're anticipating (clarification) in the next couple of weeks at least, but a lot of our clubs don't start until the long weekend or after the long weekend anyway so it's not like it's anything new."
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