Training at Gunnamatta
Courses required for Patrolling
In order to patrol you are expected to have either a Surf Rescue Certificate or a Bronze Medallion. A Surf Rescue Certificate (SRC) is for patrollers that are under 15 years of age. It is almost a Bronze Medallion but the physical requirements are not quite the same.
A Bronze Medallion (BM) is what most patrollers hold. It is available for all patrolling members age 15 or older. A Bronze Medallion is a pre requisite for some other courses, such as IRB Crew and Driver as well as Patrol leadership courses. Both SRC and BM focus on aquatic rescue skills and basic first aid and CPR. They also have some elements of how to use a radio and some basic knowledge of the surf lifesaving organisation structure.
At Gunnamatta we have made a change to minimum age for SRC.
At Gunnamatta only we have set a nominal age for SRC at 14, rather than the SLSA minimum age of 13. We did this as some of the SRC’s graduating are not quite ready for the physical demands of the Gunnamatta ocean beach. We therefore decided to move the age to 14 in order to have our junior patrollers a little bigger. The 14 years old date is a little flexible, but only to (say) a month or so around the date of the assessment course. Our Bronze and SRC courses tend to be provided in mid December. We would expect that someone attending the SRC course to be 14 by the assessment date or close thereafter, not months after. Flexibility here is important as some individuals are ready at an earlier age than others.
In terms of Bronze Medallion, SLSA has a hard date rule. You must be 15 years old at assessment date. If you are not 15, you will not be qualified at that assessment and therefore do not attend that assessment.
Once you have qualified in either your SRC or BM, there is annual skills maintenance required, usually completed in the latter part of November or in December. This is requirement of SLSA and LSV. You will need to complete an online module of questions to refresh your memory of skills and then attend a practical session at the Club to demonstrate skills such as CPR and your physical fitness via a Run-Swim-Run activity and supervised rescue. This all needs to be completed by the end of December each year else the qualification lapses.
Courses that are optional for patrolling
There are a host of course that are available as options for patrolling:
First Aid courses
First Aid and Advanced Resuscitation are the main courses that individuals do to enhance their skill base. These are nationally recognised units of competency (UOC) and therefore have refresher requirements that are in addition to the normal skills maintenance.
The main UOC and their refresher requirements are
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HLTAID009 – Resuscitation; ANNUAL
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HLTAOD010 – First Aid; Every three years
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HLTAID011 – Basic Life Support; Every three years
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HLTAID0015 – Advanced Resuscitation; Every three years.
Powercraft courses
Inflatable Rescue Boat Crew (IRBC) and Silver Medallion IRB Driver (IRBD).
The IRBC is a course for junior Bronze Medallion holders. It is available at age 15. It is a three day course of the technical skills to crew a boat and rescue persons from the sea.
The IRBD course is for slightly more mature patrollers who must hold a Powercraft licence (min 17 yo) and be a competent crew.
The IRBD course is usually at least 3 days, sometimes 4 days.
The IRBD course focusses on boat command, rescues and the various skills required for search and rescue.
ATV Driving (Side by Side operator)
This course is to ensure that the persons driving the ATV have the appropriate skills to drive this vehicle – which is quite different to a normal vehicle.
To obtain this qualification you need to do a half day course and already hold a Driver licence.
Advanced and Development courses
LSV offers courses for individuals to obtain some self-development opportunities.
These are:
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U13 development camp
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U15 development camp
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U18 development camp
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SLSA Leadership College
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Advanced Lifesaving Camp
The under age camps are weekend activities with team building as the main focus. There are opportunities for each club to send 2 persons to each of these each year. They are great fun and Gunnamatta commits to send one boy and one girl to each of these under age camps each year.
The SLSA Leadership College is an annual leadership and management forum for five days held in NSW. Victoria is able to get about 5 -6 attendees each year. It is designed for young seniors in positions of importance. It is for members aged between 20 and 30.
The Advanced Lifesaving Camp is the “gold Medallion” course. This occurs in the Spring time and will generally be attended by those that wish to be Lifeguards. It is a 5 day course that is focussed on physical fitness and aquatic rescue skills. In order to attend you need to already hold your Bronze Medallion plus:
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All the first aid qualifications
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IRBC and preferably IRBD
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SSV operator.
Patrol Leadership
There is a new Course that is called – Silver Medallion Patrol Leader.
This course is two day course that focusses on patrol dynamics and patrol scenarios.
It is an intense course buy very well worth while.
It provides a good basis for understanding the resources available to a patrol leader and how to employ them.
It also provides the patrol leader with experience of the personal issues that some patrollers have and ways to address them.
Training / Instructional courses
In order to be a Trainer one needs to compete a Training officers certificate course.
This is a two days course and is run by LSV.
After that is completed you then obtain your specific areas of training competence, by running a course under supervision of an Assessor who will at the end of the course adjudge whether you are competent to be deemed a Trainer in that skill.
This is called an evidence certificate. It is required for every skill that you wish to train.