Keynsham
  Lifesaving Club

To celebrate our last session before the summer break, Keynsham Lifesaving Club held a mini lifesaving competition. Unfortunately, many of our more experienced members were away on Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, but luckily Alan and Keeley from Bath University were happy to make up the numbers. Despite the wide range of age and experience, the competition was extremely close with some superb performances all round.

The first event was the land-based incident – each team was given 90 seconds to deal with a realistic first-aid scenario: three builders who had been injured whilst working at the leisure centre. Two builders had been “electrocuted” and the third builder was “bleeding” profusely and suffering from shock.

Most teams remembered to check for danger before tackling the incident and successfully isolated the electricity supply. The next priority should have been the casualty that wasn’t breathing (Since their condition will deteriorate most quickly) but some teams got distracted by the bleeding casualty. Even those teams that assisted the non-breathing casualty straight away could have benefitted from starting CPR sooner. Overall the standard of first-aid was high, with some excellent recovery positions and some good examples of “casualty care” when treating the bleeding casualty.

After the land-based incidents our teams went through to the pool for a very busy water-based incident. With a multitude of aids to choose from (Including a towel, a stick, an inflatable ring, an air-bed and a body board) competitors were heavily penalised for attempting to rescue a casualty without a rescue aid. With plenty of casualties to choose form, the hardest part was deciding who to rescue first, but most teams correctly prioritised the non-swimmer. By now the teams were more relaxed and there were some excellent rescues in the pool. The best teams made good use of the aids and communicated well with each other and their casualties.

The third event was a rope-throw race, with Keeley and Julian clinching first place with an impressive combined time of 37.1 seconds. Most teams posted clean runs, but SJ and Helen picked up a 10 second time penalty when the casualty let go of the cross-line before grabbing the throw rope.

The final event of the day was a swim and tow race. This was extremely close, with literally seconds separating the first three teams. SJ posted the fastest time overall, completing the 25m swim and 25m tow in a superb 56.3 seconds.