Captain praises club’s ability to adapt

POINT Lonsdale Surf Life Saving Club (PLSLSC) will continue to brainstorm ways to keep volunteers engaged following one of its most rewarding and challenging seasons.

Throughout the summer patrol season, the club carried out 2,437 preventative actions and performed eight rescues, including the one involving 17 swimmers swept out near the pier in April.

“With volunteering, there’s always a challenge in keeping people engaged, we’re lucky we have a really exciting surf rescue certificate and bronze (medallion) program which attracts a lot of young members,” club captain Jess Robinson said.

“Our issue is trying to keep them engaged for the seasons coming. We’re trying to work out the best way to make sure people do stay and continue to volunteer.

“I personally have got so much out of it and believe everyone can, but it’s one of those things where you get out what you put in.”

Life member James Coutie is among those who have kept coming back year after year, and was awarded the Life Saving Australia National Medal for his dedication in February.

“James has been a long-standing member of the club and an incredible role model for me and a lot of other lifesavers,” Robinson said.

The club captain added PLSLSC trained almost 100 new awards every season, including inflatable rescue boat (IRB) crew/drivers, first-aid and advanced resuscitation.

The season began under tough conditions with the storm-damaged ramp out of action and construction delays impacting beach access.

Robinson said the club had to move the back beach patrol location closer to the lighthouse until the repairs were completed at Christmas time.

“We were able to be adaptable, showing everyone is able to patrol anywhere and we’re not reliant on the structures,” she said, before adding it was rewarding to see beach-goers swim between the flags in the temporary spot.

On a broader scale, volunteer lifesavers and paid lifeguards performed 1,011 rescues across the summer patrol season from November to April – the highest number recorded in Victoria in more than 20 years – according to Life Saving Victoria.

While hundreds of lives were saved, there were 22 fatal drowning incidents across Victorian coastal, inland and home environments from December to February.

This is an increase compared to the five and 10-year averages for the summer period (21 and 19, respectively).