CAVES Beach Surf Life Saving Club pool rescue pioneer Gabby Grieves returned from the 2015 Australian Championship with a gold and two silver for the state.
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One of 23 lifesavers on the NSW team, Grieves helped win the under-19 girls' manikin carry relay event.
She was also on the team that claimed silver in the open manikin relay and under-19 medley.
Held concurrently with the 2015 Interstate Championship at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre last month, the national titles were Grieves' third in as many years.
The 18-year-old Caves Beach resident has been with the surf club since she started in Nippers at age five.
She has competed in branch, interstate and national surf carnivals.
About four years ago, Grieves started to compete in pool rescue - a highly technical sport conducted in the off-season - and introduced it to her clubmates.
At that time, she was the club's only competitor.
Now, Caves Beach is represented in pool rescue by about 15 competitors.
This year's national pool rescue titles were one of Grieves' best.
She said she owed much of that to her performance at the state championship held at Woy Woy in July.
There, she won the 50-metre manikin carry.
Grieves won silver in all of the other events she competed in, including the 200m obstacle, 200m super lifesaver (75m freestyle swim to recover a submerged manikin followed by a 50m freestyle swim to secure the manikin with a rescue tube to tow to the finish line), 100m rescue medley, 100m manikin carry with fins and the 50m freestyle swim with fins.
"I was pretty happy with that," she said. "It was a good lean-in to [the] Aussies."
Grieves hopes to one day be a member of Royal Life Saving Australia.
For now, she said she was happy to coach Caves Beach's Nippers in the surf on Fridays and compete in events.