Water Safety and Lifeguard Training

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Courses on Offer:

WSI  “National Pool Lifeguard Award” Course.

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Now taking registrations for our next Poolguard course. March 30th to Wednesday 3rd April.

email info@thewaterschool for details and to register

Water Safety

We all love the water, either we love to drink it, swim in it, sit beside it, sail upon it, play with it ,wash with it, often all of these and more. We are largely made of water, it pervades every aspect of our lives whether we are aware of it or not. Here at The Water School we encourage the love of water but also encourage respect for the water!

Unfortunately every year tragedy strikes and people drown, either through accident, carelessness, lack of knowledge, or worse. Can we ever stop this, even for one year? Almost certainly not, but we can minimise the risk and increase our awareness of the dangers inherent around water, whether it be a swimming pool, the sea, lakes, or rivers. For more information follow the link to our Water Safety Guidelines.

Lifesaving;

For the average person out and about there are a few simple rules you must observe for your own safety to prevent a double tragedy taking place. If you see someone in trouble in the water, don’t rush in Baywatch style but rather, keep your head and;

  • Call for help- without losing sight of the person alert someone either by shouting or phoning and alert the emergency services (EMS).

  • Keep eye contact- all that can be seen of someone is usually their head and maybe an arm, it is horribly easy to lose sight of them if your eyes waver.

  • Voice contact- shout to the subject and reassure them that help is coming, encourage them to kick their legs and try and swim towards you.

  • Use buoyant objects- if possible use a ring-buoy; keep the line attached to you. Anything buoyant will help.

  • Reaching rescue- if possible use a stick or pole to reach out to the subject and pull them in, always maintaining a safe position.

  • Never attempt to swim out to them- unless you are a fully trained lifeguard. Every year we hear of double drownings occurring and very often it is because one untrained person has gone to the aid of another.

  • Take Water Safety Classes- Water Safety Ireland hold lifesaving classes all over the country, at swimming pools in the winter and on beaches in the summer. Make contact to find out more at iws.ie. If every swimmer took water safety classes there would be a dramatic fall in accidental drowning every year.

Here at The Water School, we don’t just offer training to new swimmers. We also train lifeguards to ensure that Ireland’s pools, beaches, and open water areas can be properly supervised. Water safety is at the heart of everything we do, and better training in water safety quite simply saves lives.

If you’d be interested in taking up a lifeguard training course, please do get in touch for more information.