With summer holidays on our doorstep, many will be looking to cool off at the beach, leaving lifeguards and rescue workers on high alert.
Already, Llandudno Beach has claimed the life of a teenage girl who is believed to have slipped and fallen off a rock before being swept away by strong rip currents on Friday October 28.
The 15-year-old girl’s body was recovered the following day, Saturday October 29, after a drone spotted it floating in the ocean off Llandudno Beach, near a pod of dolphins, according to the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesman Craig Lambinon.
Stewart Seini, the NSRI’s lifeguard operations manager, said the countdown to the December holidays had already begun, which meant lifeguards and rescue crews needed to be on the alert, as the likelihood of drowning and water-sport-related accidents increased.
“Training normally occurs from one to three times per week throughout the year, depending on the lifeguards’ availability,” Mr Seini said.
“This training is normally increased in frequency and duration in the summer months.”
The training itself comprises drills that focus on keeping the lifeguards fit, as well as giving them the opportunity to practise trickier skills. This includes everything from using a rescue board for multiple casualties, to performing rescues in and around hazards like rocks and fast-flowing tidal streams.
Lifeguards are also trained to respond to critical incidents like mass-casualty rescues, unresponsive casualties, shallow-surf search and rescue, as well as incidents that fall outside of the lifeguards’ area of responsibility, such as planes making an emergency landing on the beach, assisting fishermen who have been washed off the rocks, boats capsizing in the surf, medical- or trauma-related emergencies that occur along tricky terrain, or any incident in which the lifeguards would have had to call the NSRI or emergency services.
“Each year the trainees focus on performing tasks identified for them on a task sheet that contains all of the criteria that we require of our lifeguards to qualify as a lifeguard or re-qualify for the year,” Mr Stewart said.
“The training also allows newcomers to join and train as lifeguards.”
NSRI advice on how to deal with rip currents:
Rips are strong currents running out to sea, which can quickly drag people and debris away from the shallows of the shoreline and out to deeper water. They tend to flow at one to two miles per hour but can reach up to four to five miles per hour, which is faster than an Olympic swimmer.
Rips are especially powerful in larger surf, but never underestimate the power of any water. They are also found around river mouths, estuaries and man-made structures like piers and groynes.
Rip currents can be difficult to spot, but are sometimes identified by a channel of churning, choppy water on the sea’s surface.
Even the most experienced beachgoers can be caught out by rips, so don’t be afraid to ask lifeguards for advice. They will show you how you can identify and avoid rips.
The best way to avoid rips is to choose a lifeguarded beach and always swim between the red and yellow flags, which have been marked based on where is safer to swim in the current conditions. This also helps you to be spotted more easily, should something go wrong.
