Lifeguards exchange experiences

 

Israeli and German lifeguards have plenty of fun as they demonstrate different life saving techniques in Israel.

 

“Hey! Hello! It’s women’s bathing day today, what are these men doing here?” someone is shouting across the almost empty beach. Five women in long bathing costumes and swimming caps are standing in the shallow water, a grim look on their faces. It is shortly before 7 a.m. on what is known as Tel Aviv’s religious beach, and life guard Jossi has just hoisted the flag on watch tower no. 17. The Mediterranean Sea is smooth as glass this morning. “It’s fine, they’re German lifeguards,” Jossi shouts back. “Lifeguards? Well, in that case...” the Israeli ladies still don’t seem convinced, they turn towards each other and whisper. Plus they evidently don’t know what to make of those outfits – red and yellow T-shirts – worn by the 12 men and two women from the German Lifesaving Association (DLRG), who are on their beach this morning.

 

The German delegation has not understood a single word of the short dialogue, except for Rouven Sperling, who has witnessed the exchange with a broad grin on his face. A voluntary DLRG leader based near Berlin, Rouven has organized the German visit to Israel. Next month, Israeli lifeguards will be travelling to Germany in return. The exchange is supported by the Federal Foreign Office, the Israeli Embassy, and the Goethe Institute. “We can learn a lot from one another, and we share common ground in the field of lifesaving,” as Rouven explains. Now 40 years old, he has been an active DLRG member for over 20 years and, as is typical of long-serving lifeguards like him, he cannot help but look over to the water during conversation. It’s second nature to him.

 

Then the group of German and Israeli lifeguards gets together for their first joint training session. It is easy to tell them apart: The Israelis are tanned, showing off their six-packs and standing to one side in shorts. The Germans, on the other side, are still rather pale-skinned and wearing their full yellow-red kit. Rouven smiles: “Let’s see what things will be like in a couple of days.”

Tal Pilater begins to speak, pointing to a kind of very large surfboard with two oars. “The hassake is commonly used for lifesaving in Israel,” explains the head of 13 rescue posts in Tel Aviv. The hassake board has space for two lifeguards, as well as for the “victim”, as persons being saved are called throughout the training. Every section of the beach in Tel Aviv has at least two of these hassake boards, with one of these kept on the beach and the other used by a lifeguard who paddles around on it a little further out in the water. “It’s much more stable than it looks,” 19-year-old Natalie comments later on, comparing it to a large stand-up paddling board. The German team agrees that a hassake would come in handy on the beaches of the Baltic Sea, too.

 

When using the hassake in lifesaving, the lifeguard will paddle towards the victim using two oars. Those exhausted or distressed will then be dragged onto the board by their hand and leg and placed between the two lifeguards.” If necessary, resuscitation can begin there and then, on the hassake,” the Israeli lifeguards explain.

So far, nobody has drowned on Tel Aviv’s 14-kilometre beach this year – at least not during those hours the lifeguards keep watch. As regards the times before 7 a.m. and after 7 p.m. (in summer), it’s a different story however. Once again a person floating face down was found at 6 a.m. this morning. “It makes me really angry. Why do these people go swimming when we aren’t there?” says Roni Nissim. He is the warden of the station on the religious beach and has remained in the tower while the others are doing their training.

 

The DLRG team is impressed. Though life for those sun-tanned Israelis seems incredibly relaxed, it is nonetheless highly organized: Three to four lifeguards are assigned to each post per shift, there is always someone on the tower to watch swimmers at all times. “In Germany the tower often stays empty because we’re down at the beach or in the water, we simply don’t have enough lifeguards,” explains Lukas. The Israelis can hardly believe it – not when it comes to the highly structured ‘Jeckes’, as Germans are called in Israel.

 

Water safety is a full-time job in Israel, in the summer months lifeguards work seven days per week, 12 hours a day. In return, most of them have three months off during the winter. The German Lifesaving Association, on the other hand, is made up if volunteers who spend part of their annual holidays on the guard towers. In Israel, the 300 state-approved lifeguards undergo a four-year-training course to qualify, while Germany’s 47,000 honorary lifeguards are certified lifeguards once they have completed a 12-hour induction and a First Aid Course. Plus they have to have gained the Silver German Rescue Swimming Badge, which is quite challenging. Nonetheless, the Israelis are speechless. Voluntary? “Respect!” Stefan exclaims. Especially as the water is said to be so cold in Germany.

 

Stefan, Jossi and Roni are quite amazed as the German team demonstrate their methods. They don’t use the hassake at all – instead, a swimmer runs into the sea carrying flippers, which he puts on when he is a few meters deep into the water. Then he swims towards the person drowning. A second lifeguard wearing a First Aid backpack waits on the beach and directs the swimmer with his arms stretched out. “Ten freestyle strokes, turn on your back, optimize the direction with the aid of your teammate and keep swimming,” the German team explains. This is the best way to guide swimmers in case of strong waves. 

 

Back on the beach, Germans and Israelis spend some time analysing each other’s methods. Both teams see aspects that are well worth adopting and elements that ought to be improved in the respective other technique. On the third day of the exchange, the German lifeguards have taken their shirts off. Now sporting a nice tan, they are manning the watchtowers alongside their Israeli colleagues as though they had never done things any differently.

    

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