SURF LIFESAVING –
Killcare Surf Life Saving Club (KSLSC) lifesavers have already clocked up over 704 hours, 34 preventatives, five fist aids and a rescue across 13 patrols so far this season.
Club president, Craig Sheppard, said it had been a great start to the season and thanked his team for their dedication to the club.
“The Club feels like it is in a really good place right now (if anyone doesn’t feel that way I really need to know please) and there are some people I’d particularly like to dips me lid to for putting us and keeping us there,” Sheppard said.
“Top of the list is every single person who’s pulled on that yellow shirt and hit the beach.
“At the start of the season particularly it was all a little uncertain but there was a fair bit of joy there in getting out of the stay-at-home orders before everyone else.
“For me it’s a dream team and I, along with Branch, State and SLSA and of course the community we serve, couldn’t be more grateful.”
KSLSC’s first patient for the season was brought in on Sunday, October 24, after he was caught up in a heavy rip.
Sheppard congratulated Patrol 8’s Steve McCoombe, Oscar McCoombe-Lopez and Darren Bradley for their assistance in the rescue.
“It was late in the day and they were heading back up for surveillance when a young bloke came and asked them to help his mate out up the beach,” Sheppard said.
“He was in a pretty heavy rip that seemed to be menacing all day between the first and second car parks, well north of the flags.
“Steve tasked Oscar to grab a rescue board to go out and float him while they followed on tubes, but with the sets picking up again the board couldn’t make any headway.
“Steve headed out with a tube and fins and when he reached the patient he was floating on his back and catching his breath.
“He was a decent swimmer but apparently he felt something brush his leg and panicked, freaked out a little and lost all his energy.
“Steve believes that he had seen help coming and that was enough to get him to relax and float on his back until we arrived.
“He spectacularly went over the falls with the tube but luckily Darren was there to fish him out.
“Both the rescued and his mate were very grateful. They went out again a little later but neither went out past their waists so hopefully a lesson learnt.”
Source:
Newsletter, Oct 31
Killcare Surf Life Saving Club