There aren’t many times in life when we get the chance to swim into a rip by choice!
But a team of Dilworth’s Year 10 students, along with their Learning in the Outdoors instructors, recently had the opportunity to do just that, turning their ocean experience into a real-life classroom and first-hand experience.
They were taking part in Dilworth’s Water Safety & Beach Education Programme, which is part of the Learning in the Outdoors (LiTO) strand of the curriculum, and is run by Surf Lifesaving New Zealand’s Northern Region (SLNZ).
We spent the day at Bethell’s Beach to learn more about this dynamic and engaging programme based around real-life experience.
The Significance of Learning about Water Safety
Water safety is a crucial part of Dilworth’s LiTO programme - it absolutely should be, according to Rob Jolly, Deputy Head of Mangatāwhiri Campus (Operations).
“Of all the outdoor pursuits that we expose our students to - biking, tramping, climbing, kayaking, etc - we know that they are far more likely to swim in natural bodies of water again at some stage in their life than anything else”.
Rob says the kind of swimming skills needed to be confident in NZ’s beach conditions are hard to practice in a swimming pool environment, so it is critical to get students out to learn safely in real conditions.
He came up with an idea for a programme like this several years ago. The plan had been to include it in the original Year 9 programme, but Covid got in the way. When Jamie Pennell, Head of Mangatāwhiri Campus, started, he supported the idea and initiated the process with SLNZ to develop a programme for Years 7-10 that exposed Dilworth learners to a variety of water safety skills and scenarios. The result is this innovative programme.
It takes place over a day, in this case at Bethell’s Beach and is run by SLNZ. It is highly engaging for students but carries a deadly serious message that is equally relevant to all beachgoers.
Annielle Ryland-Higgins, Surf Lifesaving New Zealand’s Community Education Manager, explains that drowning incidents caused by challenging water conditions are all too common at Kiwi beaches, and the incidence has risen.
“New Zealand has some pretty awful statistics around water safety, and this year’s record has been one of the worst. Young males are one of the groups most at risk, along with people fishing on West Coast beaches”.
Knowledge Comes First
Students headed straight from the bus onto the beach, where their day began with a practical talk from SLNZ – not in the surf club but sitting right at the top of the dunes overlooking the beach and sea. There, they could observe conditions, see for themselves, spot a rip, understand different types of waves, and learn about the impact of tide changes.
This is the water safety checklist they learned about:
Water Safety Check List
- Always find a high place to look over the water before you go in
- Locate the flags and swim between them if lifeguards patrol the beach
- If the beach is unpatrolled (no flags are out), make sure you know where the safety equipment is: buoys and angel rings – most major beaches have them
- Look for rips – these look like glassy areas between waves
- Waves are actually the safest place to swim - they may not look like it
- Check the tide – it is safer to swim on an incoming tide
- Always know where you are
Next, they located the safety equipment. The SLNZ team advised students that if they see someone in difficulty, feel unable to help themselves, and there is no one nearby who can assist, they should call 111 and make sure they ask for Surf Rescue directly. They noted that it is important to keep an eye on the person in trouble in the water and to note the location so information can be relayed easily.
But the key message was clear: If you have any doubt about conditions, don’t swim.
Building Water Confidence
The next stage of the programme was designed to build students’ confidence in the water and to develop each young man’s natural ability to handle the water conditions.
Students had varying swimming abilities – just like people swimming at most beaches every day — and a few students had never been to a beach, let alone a West Coast beach like Bethell’s. As they made the trek over the hill to nearby O’Neill’s beach, then put on wetsuits and lifejackets, there were a few pale faces as they got ready to get into the water!
A few water games and fun in the shallows eased any nerves, and soon we could see that every student was feeling confident in the waves, ready for the final stage of the programme—a group swim out into the waves and into the rip.
Students were split into three small groups and paired with two LiTO outdoor instructors – an SL lifeguard was then assigned to each group.
The groups went one by one, wearing wetsuits and life jackets, swimming in a crocodile formation—two jet skis with an SLNZ experienced ‘rock hopping’ team circling the group in case anyone got into trouble.
Rob Jolly led one of the groups himself and explained why this exercise works so well.
“By exposing our ākonga to challenging dynamic water scenarios such as rips, surging water around rocks, west coast surf and swell, along with river crossings at Wero and in natural rivers, we are developing this ability - we expose learners to a force that is beyond their control but if they follow the 3Rs (Relax, Ride Raise hand) then they can experience how manageable this scenario can become”.
As they came back up the beach, there were some incredibly big smiles and camaraderie among young men, who felt pretty happy with what they had achieved.
Water Skills are woven through Dilworth’s Year 7–10 LiTO programme, including kayaking, free-time swimming, and Wero activities. Still, they are most explicitly covered in this Beach and Water Safety Education Programme in Year 10.
Rob Jolly says his goal is to make swimming at the beach and in natural water much safer for Dilworth students now and in the future.
“ I hope this newfound knowledge empowers learners to be safer around bodies of water and to share these lessons with families and friends”.
