Keynsham
  Lifesaving Club

On 26th June, ten members of Keynsham Lifesaving Club headed to Bournemouth beach to find out whether we had what it takes to be a beach lifeguard. After a quick safety brief and orientation, the first task of the day was to learn the lifeguard hand signals; these are essential for communicating clearly with fellow lifeguards. Once we'd mastered the basic signals, the next session was a bit more energetic: beach sprints! The session crammed three International Life Saving Federation events into just 45 minutes. Once we understood how to sprint on sand (not as easy as it sounds) we quickly progressed to practising baton changeovers for the beach relay event. The final part of the session was an introduction to beach flags - this lifeguarding version of musical chairs tests competitors reaction times and sprinting ability, and it certainly brought out our competitive sides!

With temperatures approaching 30°C, we couldn't wait to get into the sea to cool off. Although we're more used to training in a swimming pool we quickly got the hang of the high-knees running and dolphin-diving techniques required to enter the water at speed. This was also an opportunity to see how the contact tows we'd learnt in the pool performed in a real situation with wind and waves. We rounded off the session with a few torpedo buoy rescues - dragging our casualties up the beach with assistance from our fellow club members.

After lunch we hit the water again for our first taste of Malibu rescue boards. Bournemouth Lifeguard Corps lent us several race boards for the day - these streamlined boards are great for speed but much trickier to balance. Most people got the hang of it in the end and we moved onto unconscious casualty rescues and two-man paddling. Great fun!

For the final session of the day we split into two groups. Whilst half the group learnt how to to use a hand-held VHF radio, the rest of the group set of on a beach patrol. It wasn't long before HQ radioed through a report of an unconscious child lying face-down in the water! When our lifesavers arrived on the scene they discovered a child manikin in waist deep water. Putting all their skills to the test, they landed the casualty, radioed for assistance and started CPR. When the exercise was complete, they returned to the HQ for a video debrief.

At the end of the day we headed home, tired but happy; and already looking forward to next year! Thank you Bournemouth Lifeguard Corps.