Drowning, not Waving

I‘ve been reading the annual report of Coffs Harbour’s council’s chief lifeguard, Greg Hackfath - you can always tell when he’s in the office because there’s a ute parked outside with some surfboards on the back.

Lifeguarding is a serious business round here. Greg, his three temporary lifeguards and a host of volunteers cover seven beaches, spread over 56 kilometres of coastline. They spend a fair bit of time in schools, educating children in sun safety, surf safety and first aid relating to bluebottle bites, bluebottles being small, blue, virulent jellyfish that deliver a nasty sting. They also tell them how to cope with rips and “the onset of panic.” I‘m sure we could all do with lessons in that, one way or another.

Last year, they dealt with three serious incidents, all, strangely enough at Diggers Beach, at the bottom of our road. I say strangely because, at first glance, it’s the most innocuous of the local beaches. The most serious was the rescue of a man who’d drifted round from Charlesworth Bay, to the north, and had been in the water for some hours before they got him out. All three casualties survived.

You might think being a lifeguard on our beaches is quite a cushy number. If so, be prepared for The Mission, a twice-yearly test to be completed in under 28 minutes consisting of a 600m ocean swim, a 500m beach run, a 600m board paddle and another 500m beach run. Once a year, they have another test, consisting of a 800m pool swim, a 1,600m run, The Mission, and then a simulated rescue. All the lifeguards have their results printed in the report.

And yes, there were sharks, with sightings at five of the beaches, including Sawtell, which was closed when three were seen there. Of course, there were also the times when they weren’t sighted…..

No one was bitten, however. But 70 people were stung by bluebottles. As a few hundred thousand people used the beaches in the last twelve months, I’d say it was safe to go in the water.