Surf Life Saving Queensland Integrate NFC Tech With LiveHeats Partnership

Surf Life Saving Queensland (SLSQ) and LiveHeats have announced a three-year partnership bringing LiveHeats’ NFC wearable technology and competition management platform to all state and branch level carnivals.

The partnership follows the appointment of LiveHeats at the 2021 Youth, Senior, and Masters Queensland Surf Life Saving Championships to run a live pilot of its competition management platform.

This led to LiveHeats developing an athlete wearable solution using Google’s recently released NFC for web tools, meaning athletes will wear wristbands to be scanned by official’s smartphones for live recording purposes.

SLSQ CEO, Dave Whimpey, said: “This is an exciting time to be a volunteer and competitor in our surf sports program.”

“For the first time in our history we will be eliminating the on-beach paper shuffle by partnering with Live Heats.

“We are investing in the ongoing development of this tech and licensing it for three years to continuously improve it.

“Feedback from officials and participants has been overwhelmingly positive during the trial period.

“In our search for a technology partner, in line with our new surf sports strategy, Live Heats were an absolute standout.

“They are nimble and they truly understand the many nuances and specifics of our sport and have adapted their technology accordingly.

“We are now very proud partners and we thank Chris and Fernando and the entire team for making this a reality,” Whimpey said.

On the three-year partnership, which was first showcased at the Queensland Endurance Championships, LiveHeats CEO, Chris Friend, said: “Surf Life Saving is an iconic sport and we’re very proud and excited to be a part of the next chapter of competition.”

“Our vision is to make life easier for the officials running carnivals, but at the same time enhance the competition experience for athletes and spectators,” Friend said.