Port Fairy Surf Lifesaving Club confirmed its nipper program was returning on Sunday December 20.

The club will run two sessions, splitting its younger and older age groups into two hour-long sessions to comply with COVID-19 restrictions.

The under 6-9 age groups begins at 9.30am before the under 10-14 hit the beach at 11am.

Nippers Coordinator Nicole Dwyer said it was pleasing for the club's younger members to return to the water.

"At this stage we are happy to have a start date after everything we have been through this year," she said.

"The club has been working hard through all the necessary restrictions and the requirements by Lifesaving Victoria to enable the kids to join the nipper program again.

"The kids have missed out on so much this year. There is light at the end of the tunnel with the positive signs with limited cases which has helped us to get deeper into planning."

The club confirmed there would be no numbers cap but age groups would then be split into groups of 10 with hopes of 20 in the future.

The program has been slightly modified this summer to comply with COVID-19 restrictions.

Age groups will be split across East Beach and online registrations are required before every session to plan water safety volunteers to nipper ratio. The club will also have a QR code.

Age groups won't do every event as they did last year and Dwyer has asked members to be patient this season.

"With the events we used to move up and down beach but now we will be based in one section of it," she said.

"Kids will have to be more patient with the amount of events they can do on any given day as we don't have 400 boards for everyone to have a board each.

"It might mean they are doing particular events every three or four weeks and we have had to change it that way (due to LSV's hygiene and sanitising practices)."

Dwyer confirmed the club's weekly BBQ and fresh fruit table would not be on offer at this stage.

Listen to the latest episode of our weekly episode The Booletin and Beyond:

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.