Qualified Lifesavers

Saturday was the Bonze Medallion exam, after 6 full weeks of learning CPR, First aid and lifesaving in the ocean. It was 3 beaches up from Manly at Long Reef and Heidi came along to the event as official photographer, her efforts are displayed in the Lifesaving Exam album.

As you can see I have a pair of Manly Speedos (or skimpies in Aussie). I bought them because our instructor (Greg) kept telling us we would save about 30 seconds on the swim leg of our exam. They are very fetching, I think you will agree! We had to do a 200m Run, then 200m Swim out to sea and back, and 200m run all in 8 minutes. Its a bit of a killer, when I came out from the swim I was so close to being sick ala Shrewsbury-Regatta-on-a-Sunday-morning style (for those DMU rowers reading this). The rest of the morning was spent doing a scenario, where the examiners set up some patients and we had to go and rescue them and treat them by whatever means necessary.

The whole of my course passed, about 16 of us, so we are all pretty happy, and went back to the club for a barby and a few beers after. We had a little presentation in which we received our uniforms and patrol rosters and we get our actual bronze medallions in a month or so.

Some of us went out on patrol the day after and had a great time. Rescues we made included: a few blue bottle stings, some people getting stuck in a rip, a girl hugging the sharp end of a surf board, and a looney larger lady on a body board. I might add that this was a quiet Sunday afternoon!