Your course is designed to provide paddlers with the key safety skills and knowledge to work as part of a water safety team where open water swimming is involved. This could include safety cover at an event, supervising swimmers at an aqua-park or managed venues that offer open water swimming.

This course is aimed at all paddlers, Kayakers, Canoeists and Paddleboarders can all get involved.  The objective is to introduce, explore and practice simple strategies and safe skills to provide swimmers safety cover at a managed site or event.

The Swimmer Safety and Rescue course is a programme that consists of 6 modules. This can be delivered in a day or modular, over a maximum of an eight-week period to suit you.

Please note, this course will replace the Swim Event Safety Award on the 9th February 2024.

There will be opportunities to develop and progress your own paddling skills and meet like-minded people during the course. Many of our course candidates develop long lasting friendships, connections and contacts.

You can also find a range of free resources here: Safety Resources

There is no need to register for this training course, by using the ‘find a course’ function you can book course.

However, to get the best from your course you need to feel comfortable and be able to independently paddle your craft.

Holding the, Sea Kayak Award, Touring Award, Canoe Award, SUP Sheltered Water Award etc would put you in a position to fully engage, enjoy your course and meet the assessment requirements.

VALIDITY:

Once you have gained your Swimmer Safety and Rescue Award you will need to be committed to keeping your skills up to date and well practiced. the Swimmer Safety and Rescue Award is valid for 3 years and can be revalidation either by attending another course or by doing a skills verification with a Swimmer Safety and Rescue Tutor.

Note: Whilst the holding of a First Aid Certificate is not a pre requirement of the Swimmer Safety. and Rescue Course it is strongly recommended that you should be First Aid Trained prior to using the award.

This is a mainly practical training and assessment course. The objective is to introduce, explore and practice simple strategies and safe skills to provide swimmers safety cover at a managed site or event.

We have chosen to provide the British Canoeing Awarding Body Swimmer Safety and Rescue Course for two reasons:

• Firstly, British Canoeing Awarding Body (BCAB) has a longstanding reputation of providing industry leading qualifications that are recognised internationally as well as closer to home
• British Canoeing Awarding Body has over 40 years’ experience in safety training and we have every confidence in the robustness and procedures that underpin the course design and delivery.

This training course is open to everyone over the age of 16.

To get the most from this course and to gain the award paddlers need to be competent on/ in their chosen craft (Canoe, Kayak or SUP). We recommend that you hold one of the following BCAB Personal Performance Awards or have the equivalent skill level:

Craft           Personal Performance Award

Kayak         Sea Kayak Award

                                     or

                       Touring Award

Canoe        Canoe Award

SUP             SUP Sheltered Water Award

MODULE 1 - THE SWIMMING ENVIRONMENT

• Safety frameworks
• The effects of weather

MODULE 2 - WORKING AS PART OF A TEAM Team Leader and individual responsibilities

• Team briefings
• Communication
• Debrief

MODULE 3 - CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT

• Personal clothing and equipment
• Personal welfare
• Issued equipment by deployers

MODULE 4 - SUPPORTING SWIMMERS

• Supportive role
• Positioning of the safety cover craft
• Dealing with common minor issues
• Calling for additional support

MODULE 5 - STABILISING AND CALLING FOR SUPPORT

• Identifying swimmers in distress
• Techniques for supporting a swimmer/ casualty from the craft
• Calling for immediate assistance
• Unconscious/ unresponsive

MODULE 6 - REFLECTION AND DEVELOPMENT

• Reflection, development and skills checklist
• Remit
• Deployer responsibilities

COURSE ASSESSMENT

Our tutors are great at putting you at ease, consequently the assessments are part of the learning and as enjoyable as the rest of the course! By the end of the course, you will have to demonstrate knowledge and skills in the following areas:

You are only required to demonstrate your competence from your chosen craft

• Personal Paddling Skills
• Supported Rescue
• Timed Rescue

Courses are run by fully qualified and vetted external trainers. Visit the SCA's Event Finder to find a course on JustGo.