Another website

This is an interesting blog. Basics Doctor

Never had the pleasure of working with a doctor at an Emergency but would be great to have one along side a ambulance crew! Basics Doctors are volunteers who respond in their own cars to emergency calls.

Inudctions

A week on Tuesday our inductions start. It looks like it will be a very busy two weeks. There is lots to cover before we are operational on the beach again. We will all be doing the new RNLI Lifeguards advanced first aid course , some will be requalifing on the RWC and ATV, there will be competency testing to make sure everyone is performing their recues to the highest standards, fitness tests, exercises with the Coastguard, RNLI Lifeboats and the Ambulance service all along with introductions for the new RNLI Lifeguards. All the Lifeguards will also have to get to know the operational procedures for each of the beaches.

Keep an eye out for us training hard on Teignmouth and Exmouth Beaches over the next few weeks.

Training with Exmouth Beach Rescue

I was down on the beach today training with Exmouth Beach Rescue Club. They train every Sunday morning and every Tuesday evening.

If your in Exmouth and fancy giving Lifeguarding a go come along and see what its all about.

We practiced recuing unconscious swimmers with rescue boards. I think the water is warming up (a bit) but it still has bite to it when you first go in! A rescue board is one of the key rescue tools for a Lifeguard. It is a lot quicker to paddle a board out to someone than swim out to them. It is also often quicker to paddle a board to a casualty that is close in to shore than launch a RWC or boat.

Next Monday I am heading down to Cornwall for some surfing and to re-do my beach Lifeguard qualification. Then the week after we start our inductions, some of which may be over at Teignmouth. Will be good to see how another beach is going to be run and work.

Exmouth RNLI Rescue 3 Children

On Friday 17th April Exmouth Inshore Lifeboat was launched to rescue 3 children stuck on rocks at Sandy Bay.

Sandy Bay has a long line of rock to the left of the beach that becomes exposed at low tide. The rocks are a great area for rockpooling and many people venture out on to them. There is also a couple of small bays between Exmouth and Sandy Bay where you can get trapped by the incoming tide.

As an RNLI Lifeguard 95% of our work is preventative.

One of the tasks we do while patrolling at Sandy Bay is to inform everyone on the rocks that the tide does come in and could cut them off.

Whilst every Lifeguard on the team in Exmouth is very capable of rescuing people, as the saying goes “prevention is better than cure.” Unfortunately we don’t patrol Exmouth or Sandy Bay at Easter but luckily it only takes Exmouth ILB minutes to get to Sandy Bay. It will be even quicker when the boat is located in the new station.

The three children were safely returned to their family on the beach by Exmouth ILB. See the full press release on www.rnli.org.uk

More aerial beach photos from Burt’s kite camera.

Burt’s latest kite photos of Exmouth beach can be found on http://www.flickr.com/photos/burtskitecam/

Check out one of his photos below taken on 16th April. Our hut is in the background. You can see the front the new Lifeboat house to the right and to the left is the new tractor and trailer that will be used to launch and recover the Mersey Lifeboat that currently is kept on a mooring in the Exe estuary.

Our huts in.

Our huts back on Exmouth Beach. It was put in a few days ago apparently.

In more or less the same place as last year.

And the hut at Sandy Bay is in the car park ready to be craned over the cliff back on to the beach.

Sandy bay hut with shiny new font windows.

Thames RNLI

Whilst paddling from Ham to Westminster on Monday we went passed the RNLI Lifeboat station at Chiswick, 1 of 4 on the Thames. It is reasruing that if anything had gone majorly wrong there is the support and back up of Lifeboat crews is only minutes away.

Chiswick RNLI

Exmouth RNLI New Boat House Latest Pictures

Check out Burts latest kite pics on Flickr.com or click the photo below.

The doors now on the boat house, its looking good. I guess our Lifeguard hut should go in soonish.

Its 4 weeks tomorrow until our inductions start. 6 weeks until we ar eon the beach. Lets home it comes around quickly. It will be great to get back on the beach and patroling. Time seems to have flown by since September. Lets home this summer is a good one.

The DW Canoe Race and Herts Canoe Lifeguards

Yesterday Herts Canoe Lifeguards my volunteer Lifeguard unit at home were down on the River Thames patrolling as part of the water safety team for the Devises to Westminster Canoe race. The last day of racing goes from Ham in West London right along the Thames to the London Eye.

The job of the Canoe Lifeguards is to make sure that everyone who starts the last leg of the race in Ham is accounted for at the finish line in Westminster.

We set off in two patrols. The first group to follow the first wave of races all in K1 Kayaks apart from two stand up paddle boarders! Check out the picture below!

The second patrol set off behind all the K2 and canoe racers. We left home at 2am on Sunday night to get down to Ham and be on the Thames for the very early start with the tide! An early start to a nice paddle I enjoyed. Everything went very well and there were very few people who needed any help or assistance.

An early start in the dark!

Stand Up Paddle boarding the DW! Must be mad!

First Patrol

Rescue Shark

Putney 7 miles to Westminster.

Putney Bridge

The Finish

Patroling the finish.

More photos here.

Check out Herts Canoe Lifeguards website here.

Busy Bank Holiday For Exmouth RNLI

5 Launches for Exmouth Lifeboats in 4 days! The weather turned out to be nicer than expected in the west country and from the looks of things the Lifeboats in Exmouth were busy rescuing a variety of people including broken down boats, people cut of by the tide, windsurfers and a capsized jet ski.

Coming off a jet ski is not fun and dangerous. Whilst on the beach last summer I witnessed 3 people fly off their ski at some speed. There was no significant swell but somehow they managed to become detached from their craft. We launched our RWC to assist them. Luckily they all managed to make it back to their jet ski.

The people rescued after coming of their RWC don’t seem to have been so lucky as the picture in the press release shows the Exmouth ILB towing the ski back in without its occupants.


Photo from www.rnli.org.uk
Click the picture for the full press release.

Elsewhere around the coastline Lifeboats, Lifeguards and the Coastguard have all been busy doing rescues first aid and preventing accidents.