Cape Town - Instead of spending their holidays with their peers, a group of talented youngsters from Strandfontein chose to spend the holidays helping out and saving lives through voluntary lifesaving at their local Strandfontein Surf Lifesaving Club (SSLC).
With thousands of bathers frequenting the Strandfontein pavilion, one of Cape Town’s busiest beaches, some of the club’s younger members told how they have been helping with crowd control and patrols to ensure everyone’s safety.
The club has been operating since 1995 with about 70 members consisting of nippers (young surf lifesavers between five and 14 years old), lifeguards and Surfski members.
Junior lifeguard Caiden Solomon, 15, joined SSLC with his friends. They eventually left, but Caiden stuck around and now spends his holiday and weekends helping those in danger on the busy Strandfontein pavilion.
“The most challenging thing we deal with is mainly drunk people, we always have the professionals around for the rescues, but it’s some drunk people in the crowds that want to get involved and swim when a rescue takes place,” Caiden said.
Junior lifeguard Saskia Mathee, 14, started out as a nipper at SSL two years ago where she was taught about rips and currents, treating bluebottle stings, understanding flag signals, as well as when to swim and when not to.
“This is my first year as a junior lifeguard and every day has been a new experience; anything can happen at any time, which is why we patrol to ensure everyone’s safety,” Saskia said.
SSLC captain Abdul-Waahid Slamdien, 26, added that lifesaving kept people away from a lot of bad things experienced at home, especially on the Cape Flats, where youngsters were exposed to gangsterism and drugs.
“Spending my weekends and time off at the beach meant that I was away from those things and it saves you from them,” Slamdien said.
Dilnuwaaz Conrad, 27, a lifeguard at Alpha Surf Lifesaving Club and from Elsies River, joined the Strandfontein club yesterday and said: “Lifesaving is not easy. We sacrifice our family time and holidays to be here early and watch over people, not to mention the difficult training we go through.
“Sacrifice is a big part of lifesaving and sometimes the public does not recognise the hard work we put in to keep them safe.”