Those are the words of South Coast Surf Lifesaving Branch president Steve Jones, as he prepares for the upcoming 2021-22 season.

Mr Jones and his nine South Coast clubs are less than two weeks away from starting their summer patrols, which will run from Saturday, September 18 through to Monday, April 25.

"Over the past three weeks, I've had three different Zoom chats with the Surf Lifesaving NSW and the other 10 branches in the state as to our plan to return to the beaches, how the season will look and the issues presented by the evolving COVID-19 landscape."

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For this first time ever, each club's patrol will only consist of a maximum of six volunteer surf lifesavers (and a minimum of three) due to COVID-19 protocols - which has also seen all posts provided with personal protective equipment kits of gloves, masks and eye-covers.

"All of our clubs on the South Coast, except Sussex Inlet which is working through a couple of issues, have indicated they are all set to start next week - compared to the Illawarra, who have two clubs weighing up their options currently," said Jones, who admits some clubs are down on numbers as some volunteers have safety concerns.

"While the patrols might not necessarily be set up on the beach like before, the flags will be up, there will be cases where they are seated in watchtowers to protect the volunteers from unnecessary contact with patrons on the beach and potentially bringing the virus back to their family home.

"In the case of first-aid, it will still be conducted as normal, with our volunteers just wearing their PPE gear.

"In the water, you can't wear the protective gear, so we're developing slightly different techniques to keep everyone safe."

Further to that, no club's cadets (under 16s) will be allowed to partake in patrols.

"The main reason for this is because children can't be vaccinated yet, so this is a way of us protecting them from the virus," Jones said.

"All our patrol members have been strongly encouraged to get vaccinated and as they are considered emergency services, they have been given priority to receive their doses if they choose to."

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The other major change to the surf lifesaving season, at this stage, is there will be no nippers run each Sunday morning.

"There is a big question mark around this season's nippers, as it is all dependent on when the department of health allows community sport to resume and what protocols will be in place," Jones said.

"We hope to return to the beach in some capacity this season and administer our water safety programs, which is a crucial part of what we do.

"Obviously all the sand activities are fun but we also need to train our kids to be safe in the ocean.

"At the end of the day, we know it's going to be a difficult season but we don't want to create alarm within our members and the public, by trying to create as safe of an environment as possible."