BOXING DAY SWIM 2003

Water temperatures in Hawaii, Bondai Beach, Los Angeles and...Whitley Bay - the 2003 Boxing Day T-shirt

26/12/03 - Once again, members of NSVL braved the icy waters of the North Sea on Boxing Day for some sponsored insanity, and even a bit of swimming, to raise money for the club.

With a water temperature of 6°C and air temperature of 10°C, we had pretty fair conditions and although no records were broken, a few members stayed in a good 15-20 minutes, swimming out to the sandbank and playing in the waves.

This year, as last, we had a specially designed T shirt to commemorate the event listing the water temperatures at other world famous beach resorts...just to make us feel even colder...

As well as welcoming some of our new Rookie members into the water for the first time, we also had four members of the North Tyneside Swim Squad, who are used to waters a lot warmer than this to swim in. Oddly, though, it doesn't seem to have put them off us - they want to come back in the new year to start lifesaving training!

More Boxing Day photos here.

MORE TEACHERS FOR NSVL

01/12/03 - A Modules A-D Lifesaving Teacher's course was run by NSVL's Lifesaving NTAs in November, attended by 5 NSVL members, along with 4 members from our friends at the South Shields Volunteer Lifeguards.

All the candidates passed the course and are now in the process of having their teaching moderated to become fully qualified Lifesaving Teachers. They will then hopefully go onto complete the assessing part of the qualification to become full Trainer Assessors, indeed some have even shown an interest in becoming Beach Lifeguard TAs.

In the meantime, two NSVL members who attended the Modules A-D course last year have just completed their moderation to become fully qualified Lifesaving Trainer Assessors, bringing the total number of teaching and training qualifications within the club to well over 50.

BECOME A ROOKIE LIFEGUARD!

01/10/03 - The North Sea Volunteer Lifeguards can now boast a whole new generation of members, after recently taking over the running of Whitley Bay Leisure Pool's Rookie Lifeguards session on a Sunday evening.

The sessions, previously run by North Tyneside Council, have now been integrated into the club allowing potential young lifesavers from the age of 6 upwards to progress right through the Royal Life Saving Society's lifesaving awards programme, from the introductory Lifesaving 1/2/3 and Rookie Star Grades, right through Bronze Medallion, Award of Merit, Bronze and Silver Cross open water awards and the highest lifesaving award, the Distinction. In the future it is hoped that this will feed into the Rookie Lifeguards going on to achieve the full National Beach and Pool Lifeguard Qualifications.

But it's not just the new young members who are benefitting. The take over of the Rookies session has given the club new impetus. The sessions, which run from 5-6pm on Sunday evenings, are now exclusively for the under-16 membership of the club. With a new lifeguards/senior session from 6-7pm, it means that the teachers now get a chance to have a swim afterwards. The lifeguards also get to help out with the teaching before the lifeguard training session.

The number of teachers available to teach the Rookies is also steadily increasing as more people become qualified lifesaving teachers and TAs. Indeed, most weeks there are at least 7 Lifesaving teachers, TAs or NTAs on poolside. 5 more NSVL members have just finished their Lifesaving Teacher's course and are in the process of being moderated, while another 2 members have just qualified as full Lifesaving Trainer Assessors. Additionally, it is intended to put all the qualified lifeguards who help out with the teaching through the Assistant Teacher's course.

Aside from the influx of new members the Rookies has brought, along with the new impetus to the teaching side of things, there are many other benefits - not least having a lot more pool space during the lifeguard sessions, enabling us to fully utilise the facilities of the Leisure Pool, such as the waves and diving pool, during training for beach lifeguard courses. It also means that those who just want to come along for a swim can do so without getting in the way!

The future for the Rookies looks bright, with a waiting list for places already. The Rookies are also being encouraged to get involved with other club activities like the annual visit to the pantomime and the Boxing Day Swim. Plans for the future include open water training sessions during the summer, and specially designed NSVL Rookie clothing for the youngsters, while the Rookie teachers are to get their own uniform, with white polo shirts (the new official Rookie Teacher colour).

If you would like to find out more about the Rookies check out the Rookies Zone.

RESCUE BOAT TRAINER ASSESSOR COURSE RUN BY NSVL

25/04/03 - North Sea Volunteer Lifeguards ran a course to qualify a new generation of Rescue Boat Trainer Assessors over the Easter weekend, believed to be only the second ever Rescue Boat TA course run since the introduction of the qualification in the mid-1990s.

The people on the course included one from Boscombe Lifeguards and seven others who are members of NSVL working in North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland. The course was run by NSVL's Rescue Boat National Trainer Assessor, Neil Hunter and also Joe Welsh, who is running the course to become fully qualified as a Rescue Boat NTA.

The RLSS Rescue Boat Crew and Helm qualifications are intended for holders of the National Beach Lifeguard Qualification to become qualified to use inshore rescue boats (IRBs), but the Rescue Boat programme has long been in a moribund state and it is hoped that the injection of new TA blood into it will mean the qualification becomes more available and beter recognised. For more information on the Rescue Boat programme and courses, click here.

In the North East it will mean for the first time lifeguards in North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland will have the opportunity to achieve a specialist rescue boat qualification rather than having to rely on qualifications from other organisations which are not specific to lifeguard rescue boats.

NSVL HELPS CULLERCOATS LIFEBOAT RESCUE 3 MEN FROM SINKING BOAT

27/03/03 - Off duty NSVL members became involved in the rescue of 3 men after their boat sank just off Whitley Bay.

At around 12 noon on Saturday 22nd March, members of NSVL who had just arrived at the beach base for a training session spotted a small yellow speed boat just off the horseshoe rocks at the south end of Whitley Bay beach.

Looking at the boat through binoculars it appeared that the engine had stalled and the three crew were attempting to restart it. The lifeguards were scanning the maritime distress channel (Channel 16), but no distress call had been made and as conditions were calm it was decided just to keep an eye on the boat.

Shortly afterwards the crew were observed bailing out water from the boat. Seconds later the boat sank, leaving the three crew floating in the water. As the boat had drifted some way out and there were only 2 lifeguards present at the time a rescue by them was not viable especially as Cullercoats Lifeboat would be able to launch within 5 minutes and reach the casualties more quickly. Harvey Smith, one of the lifeguards present and also on the Cullercoats RNLI Lifeboat crew, immediately made his way to Cullercoats to crew the lifeboat, while Geoff Wade, the other lifeguard, maintained radio contact with Humber Coastguard on Channel 0.

Visual contact with the three casualties was maintained from the beach base and directions were given over the radio to Cullercoats Lifeboat once it launched. By the time the lifeboat reached them, the three casualties had split up and were spread over a distance of approximately 200m. All three casualties were picked up by the Lifeboat, and Robert Oliver, the leading helmsman, radioed the Coastguard to get them to send an ambulance for the casualties who appeared to be suffering from hypothermia.

The day in question was the warmest day of the year so far and the first sign of summer weather, which often causes drownings as people are drawn to the beach but the water is still extremely cold. These three men could easily have ended up in these drowning statistics. None of them were appropriately dressed for powerboating, wearing jeans and leather jackets. Only two of them had lifejackets on, and they tried to swim to safety leaving the one who had no lifejacket on his own. He was by far the worst affected by the cold as he was using energy to keep himself afloat and was close to going under by the time the lifeboat reached him. Although they had managed to phone the Coastguard by mobile phone just before they sank, the three heads in the water were invisible to the naked eye from shore and if they hadn't made the call they could easily have gone unnoticed and drowned.

The happy ending to this incident is an excellent example of how the close working partnership between the Coastguard and the local search and rescue agencies, including NSVL, really can help save lives. But next time there might not be a happy ending...

For more information on boat safety visit Maritime and Coastguard Agency's web site at www.mcga.gov.uk. Cullercoats Lifeboat's site can be visited here.

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