Media Release
Puttur, Feb 16: Two certified and experienced life saving trainers Niroop G R and Srikrishna Vasanth from Puttur Aquatic Club had been to Coogee, Sydney to understand and get trained in various aspects in surf lifesaving training.
Drowning is one of the major causes for unintentional death and injuries in India. India accounts approximately 30,000 such cases as per survey conducted till 2014 and coastal drowning playing a major role. Educating people with aquatic safety measures is the only way to reduce this.
AUSTSWIM course, Towards Swimming and Water Safety (TSWS) provides excellent training in water safety and rescue techniques. Rashtriya Life Saving Society India (RLSSI) and Surf life Saving (SLS) Australia together started SLS through AIC funding in 2014 and has trained around 33 nippers (junior SLS) in India. This favored in advancing knowledge to prevent drowning and educating people about beach safety and the importance of starting beach safety centers in India.
Dough Hawkins (Trainer, Assessor and Facilitator, and Director of Surf life saving SLS Sydney Nippers) inspired a bunch of youngsters to make Mangalore Surf Club India's first surf lifesaving club following Australia's surf lifesaving model. Partha Varanashi and Niroop G R with their trainers from Mangalore Surf Club trained over 500 surf life savers and successfully prevented 14 possible drowning cases.
Niroop G R and Srikrishna Vasanth life savers from India were extremely fortunate to be a part of Life Saving and Beach Safety Course in Coogee Surf Life Saving Club, Australia from January 5 to January 22. Their motive of attending the course was to advance their skills and knowledge on aquatic safety and to initiate first beach safety center in Mangaluru and then cover all the coastal states of India to educate people regarding water safety and rescue techniques.
The Lightning Bronze Medallion Course that they underwent provided them with in-depth knowledge of hazard identification, risk control, resuscitation techniques, performing Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), patient management techniques, patient retrieval with and without equipment and performing radio communications. Silver
Medallion Beach Management course included advanced search and rescue techniques covering both day and night, executing complex patient rescue and demonstrating recovery. Beach management also included complete beach surveillance, managing rescue recovery requirement and preparing for the rescue, excelling the effectiveness of team, responding to the casualties, building up leadership qualities, undertaking work activities, setting performance requirements and maintaining team performance, communicating with management and management of aquatic spinal injuries.
Their training also included Nipper's Age Manager Course that was about educating youngsters aged 5 to 14 years regarding beach safety and training them to be a life saver.
Apart from this they underwent advanced swimming training by Ceri Weeks who is the AUSTSWIM presenter for India from January 23 to February 1 in Tasmania. They were fortunate to undergo ‘Learn to Swim’ training and high performance coaching in Launceston Aquatic Centre, Hobart Aquatic Centre and Collegiate Aquatic Centre.
They have been benefited immensely through the course and are hoping to garner support from the local administration to set up the India’s first beach safety centre in Mangaluru.