CHRISTCHURCH LIFE SAVING CLUB

Christchurch Life Saving Club FAQ's


  1. Why do we affiliate to both the RLSS and SLSA ?
  2. What Training could we offer to young people ?
  3. What sort of Question should I ask during training sessions ?
  4. What are the differences between a Lifesaver and a Lifeguard ?
  5. What do I have to do to become a Lifeguard ?

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Document Revision 1.5 and last updated on 6th June 2000.












Why do we affiliate to both the RLSS and SLSA ?

From a historical point our club initially was really a Surf activity only and SLSA covered all our needs. As time progressed we started getting involved with pool activities and the Exams part of the club leaned to the RLSS.
To give use the best of both worlds we now affiliate to both. This means we can take advantage of RLSS activities and well as the SLSA ones. As the SLSA is a smaller organisation when we attend national events (especially the Junior and Nipper events) it is quite common for us to recongise many of the faces around us even if we do not remember the names. However its the bottom line, with a foot in each camp the club gains all round. More Competitions , Awards , Exams. For the members .. more choice.
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What Training could we offer to young people ?

For young people from about 5/6 to about 13 years the Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS) produce a nice awards scheme called the ROOKIE life savers. It comes in two books.
Book Title or CommentsISBN
  
The Young persons version is called
SWIM SURVIVE SAVE ISBN 0-7234-2768-2
  
and for the Instructor
ROOKIE TRAINER GUIDE ISBN 0-7234-2986-3.
  

The book/s in the above table can be obtained from :-

The Royal Life Saving Society UK
River House
High Street , Broom
Warwickshire
B50 4HN

Tel 01789 773994
Fax 01789 773995
email mail@rlss.org.uk




Alternatively you can use the Open Water Books again for young people aged about 7 to 13 years the SLSA of UK (Surf Life Saving Association UK) and use the

Book Title or CommentsISBN
  
Young persons or Instructors version is called
NIPPER TRAINING MANUAL ISBN Unknown
  

The book/s in the above table can be obtained from :-

Surf Life Saving Association of Great Britain
Surf House, Marine Building
Victoria Warf, Plymouth
Devon
PL4 0LP


When dealing with over 14 years the more appropriate books would be :-

Book Title or CommentsISBN
  
For Open Water
The RLSS manual BEACH LIFEGUARDING ISBN 0-907082-41-6
  
For Pool based activities
The RLSS manual POOL LIFEGUARD ISBN 0-7234-3057-8
  
For General water activities
The RLSS manual LIFESAVING ISBN 0-907082-59-9
  
Other useful manuals are
The RLSS manual LIFE SUPPORT ISBN 0-907082-64-5
The RLSS manual AQUATIC SPINAL CORD INJURY MANAGEMENT ISBN 0-907082-61-0
  

The book/s in the above table can be obtained from :-

The Royal Life Saving Society UK
River House
High Street , Broom
Warwickshire
B50 4HN

Tel 01789 773994
Fax 01789 773995
email mail@rlss.org.uk



I hope this has been of some use.
Comming, eventually, a short review of book contents to assist selection as well --- when time permits.

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What sort of Question should I ask during training sessions ?

In the club we have overcome this problem by recording typical questions asked by various examiners and building a super crib sheet that covers most areas for a Lifeguard , Life Saving , General Safety and First Aid.

To avoid problems of reading the file contents, the Question and Answer sheets have been embedded in a small .EXE programme with built in display reader. The programme is actually a .COM file structure however some Browsers get confussed when transfering that file extension so it was renamed. The programme runs in a pure DOS environment or DOS window (Sorry MAC users however I could EMAIL you a text copy if required). The document is separated into page areas separated by markers defined as ~~START and ~~END. Each page is up to 60 lines long and 80 characters wide. The file in total is about 750 lines or 13 pages long.

NOTE 1. Some of the questions are specific to our Club and local area you may need to adjust some of the answers to suit your particular environment.
NOTE 2. The legal point.
Copyright (C) 1999 by R. J. Spriggs. All rights reserved.

The author disclaims all warranties , expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential , which may result from the use of the programme described in this document. The programme suite may be distributed freely, and no fee may be charged for them except a nominal copying fee. All trademarks contained within this document , associated sources and programmes are registered to their respective owners.

The JQA programme has been virus checked for all known viruses and was clean when dispatched to the WEB site.

To claim your free copy just click here Programme size 30KB Gift icon

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What are the differences between a Lifesaver and a Lifeguard ?

Regards the Lifeguard qualifications the level of commitment is considerable more than Royal Bronze and both Beach and Pool Lifeguard are considered professional qualifications and in general they run on a very formal NVQ style structure. The qualification currently remains valid for about two years and unless you have a friendly club like ours the costs can quickly run into many hundreds of pounds per person every two years. The costs being made up of Examiner fees, Trainer fees and Pool time fees. From personal experience the Beach Lifeguard qualification can be an order on magnitude more difficult than the standard Pool qualification for the following reasons :-

  1. You may have little in the way on backup from team members if any.
  2. You may well need to be more than just craft competent.
  3. A much higher level of fitness is usually required for open water.
  4. Your knowledge base needs to be significantly broader.
  5. As you may have little if any support your First Aid skills need to be much more competent.
  6. You may need RYA radio competency.
  7. When dealing with the general public older persons are often very dismissive of younger lifeguards and will place themselves in danger on the ground
    (Oh I've been doing this for years ...)
    [ In Christchurch in recent years two people have died in the
    [ sea from Heart failure after ignoring lifeguard advice when
    [ swimming too far out from the beach.
    [ In both cases the incidents occurred directly in front of the
    [ Lifeguards observation positions. The unfortunate lifeguards
    [ then had to rescue a dead person !! , they started resuscitation
    [ ( a very unpleasant experience ) until the emergency services
    [ could arrive to pronounce them dead.
  8. A higher level of accepted responsibility hence this post may not be offered to persons below the age of 18 years.
The minimum training period for a Pool Lifeguard is 28 logged hours with a qualified Trainer Assessor (TA). The Royal bronze is recommended as a prerequisite so that the Lifeguard also knows and has experience of how to deal with incidents and is fully competent in all lifesaving skills. The lifeguard will also need Life Support 3 as a minimum First aid qualification, however First Aid at Work qualification is often preferred at some work places.
Note 1. Pool lifeguard will and can assume team backup is available.
Note 2. All Lifeguard qualifications carry a Duty of Care responsibility
i.e. You may well be expected to act where as Lifesaving leaves some option of personal choice on ones action.

The Beach Lifeguard will in general need all of the above as well significant extra skills as they may be the only resource available at the location of an incident.

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What do I have to do to become a Lifeguard ?


In general the basic qualification these days is Pool Life Guard.
So how do you get it :-
1) Visit the local pool/s, usually on the notice boards someone offers a training course, however can be quite expensive.

2) Join Local Life Saving Club. Take course with club. This is usually the cheaper route however they do expect you to give a little to their club in the way of patrolling support helping with fund raising activities etc.

Try to build up contacts at local places that have pools. Remember that many hotels and camping sites also have pools. Quite often club members have contacts in the leisure industry and hear of vacancies before they are advertised. Another good reason to join a club. Apply for Non life Guard jobs at leisure centres and then try to persuade managers to offer training.

However once you have the qualification, apply to local pool to see what vacancies they have. Do remember Life Guards cannot watch water all the time (you become danger / hazard blind) and most establishments rotate staff every 20 to 30 minutes to avoid problem. This means they get you to do other little jobs like cleaning toilets, setting up equipment and general cleaning and other boring duties. The Job is not always Baywatch.

Remember that to become a Life Guard carries with it a lot of responsibility. The skills of a Life Guard can be gained quite quickly. However in an emergency, the experience gained through long term practice will reduce personal stress levels greatly and increase the chances of a successful rescue outcome. Again another reason for being part of a Life Saving Club.

So which club do you join ?
The short answer is always CLSC. However the honest answer is a club that you can attend easily and is convenient to you. The Local club always offers best choice as they have the local knowledge and local contacts.

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What Question 6 ?


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