At the beach today and tomorrow

Tomorrow night at 7 is Exmouth volunteer Lifeguards club demo. The club put on a demo doing all sorts of rescues to show the Exmouth public and media what the volunteer club do.

As three of the RNLI Lifeguards at Exmouth and Sandy Bay are also members of the club we shall be taking part in the demo all doing a rescue or two!

Today at Exmouth we were quite busy launching the ski quickly to a person trying to swim to one of the channel marker bouys in the estuary. (They did make it to the bouy and back while the ski stood by!) We also assisted 2 inflaitables back to shore, one at Sandy Bay and 1 up towards the entrance to Exmouth docks.

Rain forecast tomorrow so it might be quieter on the beach.

Sunday

Sunday

Originally uploaded by Joe Haines

This was how the beach looked yesterday afternoon before it got busy.

Although the beach was busy with thousands of people we were sprising quiet with incidents. The RWC was on the water all afternoon advising people about the out going tide and shepparding people out of the no bathing area while patrols went up and down the beach also offering advise.

If I rember rightly we did one search for 3 missing children, one search for missing parents after the children had come up to the volunteer lifeguards and sevral minor first aids.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

School Holidays

School holidays start this week for most people and the weather is good.

By the sounds of it most the beaches around the southwest have been busy.

My two days off this week were Wednesday and Thursday so I have missed the realy packed days on the beach so far this week!

It sounds like Lifeguards, Lifeboats, and the Coastguard have been busy all over the coast yesterday and today.

Remember if you want to go to the beach allways go to a lifeguarded beach and then swim between the red and yellow flags!

I managed two days of surf on my days off this week. One at Watergate Bay in Cornwall which was the best surf I have had in ages, then a messy couple of foot at Sidmouth today.

Back to work tomorrow on the beach at 9am for staff training then patroling from 10.

People on the beach.

People seem to have travelled far and wide to get to the beach today.

Suprisingly we had more people on the beach today than yesterday. We had quite a few school groups on the beach, some of them spending a fair bit of time in the water ofcourse between the red and yellow flags!

No one had to be assisted or rescued, maybe our preventative work while patroling is realy working and we are stopping people swimming the the estuary currents and they are instead swimming between the red and yellow flags.

Starting to get busy

Lots of people on beach in Exmouth and at Sandy Bay today. One minor first aid, two swimmers rescued from the estuary currents and observations of a small inflaitable with a motor that had broken down.

One second the two swimmers were in their depth the next second they were fighting against the out going tide and moving quickly backwards. The RWC (aka the jet ski) launched very quickly and got to both the swimmers. Once picked them up the RWC retuned to the beach to drop them off and give them some advise about swimming between the red and yellow flags.

Who knows what tomorrow has in store!

The weekend

The weekend

Originally uploaded by Joe Haines

The picture above shows the duck pond again this time with a few kite surfers on it. Strong westerly winds with a strong tide today made the estuary potentialy very dangerous so the duck pond was the best option for some people.

Luckily the kite surfers that went out in the estuary were all very good and none of them needed assistance. We assisted one windsurfer using our RWC when the wind dropped briefly and the tide swept him seawards very quickly.

Weather forecast for tomorrow is good so we could be busy.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

A popular bit or water

A popular bit or water

Originally uploaded by Joe Haines

Whilst we get many kite surfers on Exmouth beach it is not the best place to learn due to the stong estuary flow.

Pictured above is an area called the duck pond. Its a large area of the estuary that’s only covered at high tide and stays relativly shallow with minimal tidal flow, all these facts mean it is a great place to learn.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

5 School Talks

Today we did 5 school talks. The RNLI provide us with a information pack and leaflets so we can plan our sessions.

The general format we follow Is a few demos to show a RWC rescue, a board rescue and a tube rescue. Two of us will do the demos, one the casualty one the rescuer whilst another Lifeguard commentates on what’s going on.

The next thing we do is talk about the flags on the beach. The red and yellow, black and white and the red flag. We also have a chat about the hazards on the beach.

The next bit we do is to talk through the kit. We show the children a lot of the kit we use including our responder bag which holds oxygen, a defib, neck braces and various other bits of kit.

Whilst it was quiet on the beach and in the water the school talks kept us busy all day.

Sunshine

Lots of people on the beach today but still fairly quiet for us.

One lost child who was reported to us and the police and was found within 15 minutes which was great news.

Lost children on the beach can require lots of resources, especialy if the child was last seen near or in the water.

We worked closely with Exmouth Beach Rescue Volunteer Club again today covering the beach with patrols looking for the missing child.

The view west.

The view west.

Originally uploaded by Joe Haines

The view west.

To our west we have the no bathing/paddling area, the exmouth ILB slipway, the National Coast Watch tower and two more slipways. All of this is out of sight from our hut. Regular patrols east and west enable us to keep our eyes on what’s going on.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device