Completed RNLI Advanced First Aid to Help Keep our Beach Safe

Keeping Mawgan Porth beach safe out of season…

We are in full swing of the half-term holidays, the beach is packed and the surf school has been boshing out lessons left, right and centre. The lifeguards are now down here full time, keeping the beach safe, and have been since the beginning of May. However, for the best part of the winter, the beach is unsupervised.

Cold water surfing is getting more popular, wetsuits are warmer, winter swells are more consistent, and the sea is quieter. But every single beach has its dangers, areas where it isn’t as safe to surf, and no one likes a weaver fish. Regardless, we are down on the beach more and more, when the lifeguards aren’t on duty.

What is being done to help?

casulaty care course advanced rnli first aid keeping cornwall beach safe

In the last few years, the RNLI have opened up their casualty care courses to non-lifeguards, in order to spread their knowledge and expertise in how to help save lives and keep our beaches as safe as can be. The casualty care course is a prerequisite for all RNLI lifeguards, before they are allowed to work on the beaches.

Kingsurf coaches have been lucky enough to have been invited on this advanced first aid course three years on the trot. The ‘community responder’ status has been created for people who are frequent beach-users. This might include people working in restaurants and shops near the beach, surf instructors, or just people who walk their dog on the beach a lot. We’ve completed this course on top of our coaches’ surf life-saving award, necessary to qualify as a surf instructor, that – between Alice, Tom and Pete – they have been doing for collectively over 30 years!

So what does it involve?

The course covers how to preserve life, prevent deterioration and promote recovery. We were taught how to asses a situation dealing with the injuried, ill and/or drowning victims. Practicing role-plays and triage scenarios, we had to be quick on our feet, choosing the most effective course of action. The course also covers how to administer oxygen and entonox, using a defibrillator, correctly setting up spinal board, to name a few. As community responders, we now have access to the equipment in the lifeguard hut, in order to enhance the first aid we carry out.

It is brilliantly-presented, informative, technically-detailed course. It will hopefully help Mawgan Porth’s locals and holiday-makers, alike, feel more confident being in the beach environment out of lifeguarded hours. We’d like to say a huge thanks to Anton Page & Leigh Anderson for getting us involved and keeping Mawgan Porth safe.

Take a look at the RNLI’s website, to learn more: https://rnli.org/what-we-do/lifeguards-and-beaches/lifeguard-training