A LIFESAVING instructor for Okehampton Otters Lifesaving Club has proven his skills after competing at the Royal Lifesaving Society (RLSS) UK and Ireland National Lifesaving Championship finals.

In his first major competition, David Bowles represented the South West region in the masters’ category at the Ponds Forge pool in Sheffield.

The national event is held with the aims of promoting the skills, knowledge and techniques of lifesavers to as wide an audience as possible.

More than 200 competitors from across England were joined by teams from Wales, Scotland and all Ireland to participate in a series of initiative based tests and basic lifesaving skills such as rope throwing and towing a casualty.

The first test involved being presented with a scenario of seven people in the swimming pool and a potential casualty on the pool side. With about three seconds of planning time each lifesaver has to assess the situation, decide who are casualties, decide how to make them safe and effect the rescue. Participants were armed with whatever the judges decide they can use — in this case two empty Tupperware boxes, two empty coke bottles and a carrier bag!

To make it more challenging competitors are only given 90 seconds to complete the task.

Immediately following this task they ae walked away to be presented with the second ‘dry’ initiative test. Similar to the first test, competitors are presented with a scenario where two or three people simulate potentially life-threatening medical conditions.

In 90 seconds competitors have to prioritise and treat the conditions, while two judges score performance.

The remaining two tests are straightforward tests of skill and technique against the clock.

The third test is how fast each competitor can coil a rope, throw to a casualty 12 metres away and then pull them to the side, and the final test involves swimming 50 metres of the pool, collecting a ‘casualty’, and then towing them 50 metres back down the pool.

Medals are awarded for each of the four tests and the overall scores for each competitor totalled to determine the winner of each age group.

David was awarded a bronze medal for his dry initiative test and came seventh out of nine competitors in his age group.

David said: ‘While the day was challenging and definitely stressful during the initiative tests it was a fantastic thing to do. The sport is all about using skills that could potentially save someone, and I can’t think of any other sport that is about saving lives.’

Okehampton Otters Lifesaving Club runs on Friday evenings at Parklands Leisure Centre. For younger swimmers aged eight to eleven, the rookie programme instils the need for safety when in or close to water, survival techniques and how to help others.

For swimmers aged 12 or over the Survive and Save programme is a progression through bronze, silver and gold levels, teaching assessment, planning and rescue skills, alongside first aid and after-care knowledge.

The Survive and Save awards are useful activities for the Duke of Edinburgh, may also count towards certain GCSEs and are a good grounding for National Swimming Pool Lifeguard qualifications.

Okehampton Otters’ lifesaving aim is to improve swimming ability, know how to survive, learn how to help others and have fun with friends.