As you know, we closed our beaches on March 28 after large crowds meant social distancing was impossible. We kept the beaches closed for three weeks. We know access to the water is important for many members of our community so we recently decided to provide access to our beaches for exercise purposes only.

Allowing access to the beaches primarily targets those members of our community who have been concerned for their health due to the closure. This is referring to those with arthritis or joint problems for whom swimming is the best exercise, for older members of our community who run on the sand to cushion their joints, and for surfers and ocean swimmers with mental health concerns who use the water activity for relief.

While we can’t determine who does or doesn’t need to be on the beach for physical or mental health reasons, we encourage people to be considerate and keep their use of the beaches to a minimum.

Health bodies recommend 30 minutes of exercise a day for your mental health and well-being. If everybody is able to do their 30 and go, we can all share the beach safely, get our exercise and keep the beach accessible into the future. Together we can get our exercise safely and reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Please remember, we are in a pandemic - our actions have consequences and we are all being asked to stay home unless absolutely essential.

With that in mind, we are asking people who do visit the beach to be considerate. Do your exercise and head home as soon as you're finished. We're doing our best to keep the beach accessible for exercise purposes, but we need your help to ensure it doesn't get crowded. People can't hang around.

The beach is not open for coffee gatherings or play dates. It's not open for sun-baking or kicking a ball. It's open for exercise purposes only. There should be no loitering before or after your exercise.

We appreciate how frustrating this is - we live here too! But this is a pandemic. People will live or die by the actions of the community. We want our community to thrive and we look forward to the day we can all gather together and celebrate how we got through this time.

But for now, we're calling on the community to work together to stay apart - and be quick at the beach!

If you do visit our beach, we ask you to do 30 minutes of exercise & go as quickly as you can! Thanks so much for understanding, practising social distancing and helping to stop the spread of COVID-19.