Throughout October, anyone interested in doing lifesaving courses – from nippers to seniors – through the East London Surf Club is invited to sign up.
Lifesaving is an essential service, provided by volunteers.
The drowning at Nahoon Beach on September 25 highlights the need to recruit and train more lifeguards.
Speaking about beach safety, EL Surf Club instructor Benji Gane urged people not to consume alcohol when at the beach. The tragedy that struck beach goers on September 25 was exacerbated by alcohol and poor crowd behaviour as well as an emergency vehicle that was stuck on the road. “Because of alcohol, people lose the ability to reason, they engage in poor decision making and poor crowd behaviour and it is left to lifeguards to pick up the pieces,” Gane said.
Before the festive season starts and the hard work begins for lifesavers, Gane encourages the community to support lifeguards by writing to ward councillors and local authorities to strengthen efforts to promote water safety at grassroots level through education and punitive means.
Emma Hemple is a trained lifeguard who attended the courses offered by EL Surf.
Recommending the training, she said not only did she now have the capacity to respond in an emergency situation, but doing the course had also impacted positively on her social life and sense of community.
She said an important aspect of being a lifeguard was promoting water safety, as drownings were almost always preventable.
She believes enforcing bylaws around drinking in public will help.
She urged the municipality to establish safe public swimming areas and increase funding and opportunities for lifeguards to conduct frequent public awareness campaigns.
There are no prerequisites to register for the courses. Anyone interested can contact Alida Owen at:
alidaowen@mweb.co.za
