Our club founder Jan Shepherd began her involvement in Surf Lifesaving in 1970 at Porthtowan Surf Lifesaving Club (SLSC) before moving to Bournemouth in 1988. Then on a cold wet October afternoon in 1989, Jan identified an empty building on the promenade at Branksome Chine and saw an opportunity to set up her own Surf Lifesaving Club. None of the existing SLSC’s in the area covered from Flaghead Chine to No Man’s Land (the border between Bournemouth and Poole) so Branksome Chine filled in the gap along the bay. Support from Bournemouth and Poole Council and from two funding streams (The Princes Trust and Local Lions Club) provided funds and other clubs gave the club some old equipment to get us set up.

In May 1990 with just 6 members Branksome Chine Surf Lifesaving Club was born.

The club started off their first patrolling season on the beach that summer and in September 1990 the first squad passed their surf lifeguard course.

In the 1990s our governing body: Surf Lifesaving Great Britain (SLSGB) only accepted junior members from 12 years old. Jan Shepherd led Branksome Chine SLSC to pioneer a Nippers programme (8 years upwards). Once we adopted the Nippers programme things got much busier in all clubs. See the Nipper Team in the National Nipper Champs held at Boscombe beach on 2nd & 3rd August 2003 in the photo, today we can’t get everyone into one frame for a picture!!

In 2019 Branksome Chine SLSC hosted the National Championships at Nippers, Youth and Masters age groups for the first time in its history. Not only this, Branksome Chine SLSC club were the overall winners of the competition at Masters level that year.

After the COVID break, in the summer of 2022 Branksome Chine SLSC hosted the National Championships again at Nippers, Youth and Masters age groups. This time the club went one better doing the clean sweep and becoming overall winners across all three age groups – a feat unprecedented in the history of SLSGB National Competition.

Today the club consist of well over 400 members from aged 8 upwards and continues to promote safety at sea, cleaner seas and training its members in the skills of Surf Lifesaving including offering course to its members. Not only this the club contributes to providing safety cover for local events and also hosts regular events such as the Wessex SLS Competition (our local competition), the Great Britain Ranking Event (to decide the squad for the GB Team) and the National SLSGB Competition for 2024 at Masters, Youth and Nippers age groups.