Gwilym's Adventure Blog

This week I have been working in Swanage running a RLSS Beach Lifeguard Trainer Assessor course for a small group of 4 candidates.  

  Today started with facilitating a Beach Lifeguard exam before ending up have a Coasteering session to a bit of CPD for a group of Outdoor Instructors from Swanage. All 3 who were being examined passed. Well Done Off to a yacht for the night

This weekend I have been in Porthcawl with members of Newton Lifeguard Club finishing off their Beach Lifeguard Trainer Assessor's  course that we started in November 2019.  We had completed a couple of weekends before Covid hit and this was the first time that we could all get back together to finish the course

 This week I have been down in Swanage at Cumulus Outdoors running a RLSS Beach Lifeguard Course for a number of their staff. 4 candidates took and passed the assessment at the end of the week and the others will be taking theirs in a few weeks time

3 new Beach Lifeguard Trainer Assessors were produced this weekend at Brean Sands. It was a little chilly in the sea but all 3 did well and are looking forward to running their own courses in the near future. I have two of these courses on the go at the moment with the second one due next weekend.

This weekend I have been back in Porthcawl running the second part of a split RLSS Beach Lifeguard Trainer Assessor course for 6 candidates. We were warm inside and at the pool but getting psyched for a bracing dip during part 3 which will be in March

It has been a busy 7 days for me in my role as a Royal Lifesaving Society National Trainer Assessor and all things Lifeguard. Saturday and Sunday were spent in Porthcawl running the first 2 days of a split Beach Lifeguard Trainer Assessor course for 7 candidates from Newton Lifesaving Club. Monday to Friday was spent at Quantock Lodge running a full Pool Lifeguard Trainer Assessor course with a Level 3 Award in Education and Training for 3 candidates with 2 Beach Lifeguard Trainer Assessor Candidates joining us at the start of the week. They will finish there course in the New Year when we get in the sea. Training, Assessing, First Aid, Pool, Beaches and Presentation skills all covered and even though it has all been enjoyable, after 7 days I am looking forward to a well earned day off tomorrow. In case you are wondering, they did teach each other to make paper hats and tie shoe laces through either the "4 stage approach" or "whole-part-whole"

This week I have been at Adventure Activities base on the Isle of Wight working for Wet and High Adventures Ltd running a National Beach Lifeguard Qualification for some of their staff We had mainly sunny days but the water was still very cold and sub 10 degrees which made the open water sessions a little challenging at times. Good efforts from all candidates and all those who took the exam passed and there were some very impressive swim times in the pool.

After a few weeks of mountains, I arrived on The Isle of Wight today for something different. This afternoon I was out conducting some risk assessments at the two beaches I will be using during the week to run a National Vocational Beach Lifeguard Course . I also got to take my SUP back to where it was born (metaphorically as I am sure it was made overseas). You can see in picture 2 the logo and the headland that it was drawn from at Freshwater Bay.

Today I was down at Dawlish Warren mentoring a new Trainer Assessor and conducting some Quality Assurance on a RLSS National Vocational Beach Lifeguard Qualification . In simpler terms this would be described as getting very wet on the beach whist watching some people get battered in the sea.

Since Monday I have been in Coral Bay, Cyprus on behalf of Wet and High Adventures researching venues for  RLSS National Vocational Beach Lifeguard Course . Crys and I have been looking at accommodation options, beaches, training venues and of course checking out the food. 21" Chicken kebab was pretty impressive. We have most days managed to find time to go turtling. We have a couple of days left before we head back to the UK. We have now set a course date of 14th - 21st Oct 2019 and all the details are here

Today I was in Aberdare updating my National Trainer Assessor status for the Royal Lifesaving Society so that I can continue to run Trainer/Assessor courses for: Pool Lifeguard, Beach Lifeguard, Open Water Lifeguard, First Aid, Defib and more I got to play with the Laerdal Bluetooth resuscitation Apps which were much better than expected but still need a little bit of work in my opinion. I will getting some once the Android Trainer App is sorted. I will get some courses set up so watch here for details

Every so often you have to get in and prove you can still do it. Today I was on an update as a Trainer Assessor for the Royal Lifesaving Society Beach Lifeguard qualification. A new manual, new presentation slides and some skills practice on the board was the order of the day down in Exmouth. A little chilly in the sea but it certainly could have been colder. Thank East Devon Training for the pictures

Well done to all 6 candidates who cruised the NBLQ assessment today at Brean. Thanks to Tim for assessing. Ed the dog needs some more training as he tends to lick casualties rather than perform CPR.