RESPONSIBILITY |
THE RESCUERS IT’S BEEN 31 YEARS SINCE DAVID HASSELHOFF AND THE BUXOM PAMELA ANDERSON BOUNDED INTO VIEW, IN SKIMPY RED SWIMSUITS, CLASPING RESCUE TORPEDOES. BUT THE TELEVISION SENSATION THAT BAYWATCH CREATED HIGHLIGHTED THE IMPORTANCE OF WATER SAFETY.
T
wo things will have been guaranteed over the 2019 festive season: the daily tally of road deaths will have been a feature of daily radio and television news broadcasts and at some point a television news reporter will have been filmed at a coastal location, with the beach absolutely packed with South Africans enjoying a cooling dip in the ocean. Sadly, there will also have been a report of either mass rescues because of the congestion on the beach and in the water – or at least one drowning. The fact that South Africa’s rate of drowning or water death at 3 per 100 000 is low when contrasted with 13.1 per 100 000 for Africa as a whole, doesn’t make much difference to the fact that it’s still the second leading cause of accidental death for children. Water safety is a problem in South Africa and it’s not only children who are at risk. Lifeguards, professional and amateur, clad in their red shorts, yellow t-shirts and broad-brimmed sun hats can be found at beaches from Fish Hoek and Clifton to Plett, Jeffrey’s Bay, Scottburgh, Durban and Richards Bay – as well as at local swimming pools throughout the land. These rescuers are supervisors and are there to ensure the safety of everyone in the water. According to American statistics, lifeguards prevent four to five times as many drownings as actually occur purely because of their vigilance. A shrill whistle blast is one of the sounds that forms part and parcel of a day at the beach. Those
66 w w w .t o p s a t s p a r. c o . z a
whistles mean that folks have strayed beyond the safe swimming area and need to be herded back between the beacons. Those yellow and red flag poles are placed strategically to ensure that bathers aren’t caught in rip currents and swept out to sea. Nowadays lifeguards have a host of rescue aids at their fingertips: inflatable boats powered by outboard engines, wet bikes, Malibu paddle boards and rescue buoys. But 120 years ago that wasn’t the case. The historic development of lifeguarding makes interesting reading.
that activities began locally after the visit in 1913 of Sir William Henry of the Royal Life Saving Society. KwaZulu-Natal had the first lifesaving clubs which were begun in 1927 but a year later, two belt reels were donated to the Cape lifesavers by the Australian Bondi club. Each reel had 500 yards of line and these first two sets of kit were stationed at Fish Hoek sports club and the False Bay Swimming and Lifesaving club. In 2002 the Surf Lifesaving Club and South African Surf Lifesaving Union merged to form Lifesaving South Africa, the
The Lifesaving Association of South Africa activities began locally after the visit in 1913 of Sir William Henry of the Royal Life Saving Society. KwaZulu-Natal had the first lifesaving clubs. As far back as 1804 a lifebelt was developed, invented by WH Mallison – but it was dismissed by the Royal Navy since it “took up too much room and the navy did not want sailors to swim, in case they decided to desert,” Wikipedia reports. The Patent Office records that in 1877 a cork lifejacket was invented. And in 1891, the Swimmers Life Saving Society was begun by two members of the Amateur Swimming Association of Great Britain. This was the forerunner of the Royal Life Saving Society. It’s recorded in the history of the Lifesaving Association of South Africa
umbrella body which oversees all lifesaving clubs, inland and coastal. It plays a vital role in training a new generation of younger lifesavers through the Nipper programme as well as training and certifying both volunteer and professional lifeguards who do duty at pools and beaches during the holiday season. It was in America that lifeguards became so popular around the turn of the previous century. One man, George Douglas Freeth, became a legend in California as the man who literally walked on water. Having been born in Hawaii in
