National Vocational Beach Lifeguard (NVBLQ)
What does a beach lifeguard course teach you?
The highest level of water safety qualification we offer is the National Vocational Beach Lifeguard Qualification (NVBLQ).
This course is the one used by all RNLI Lifeguards, Surf Coaches, Coasteer guides and paddle instructors.
It takes place over 5 days, usually a Monday to Friday.
The units covered on these courses are the following….
Beach Environment
Beach Patrolling
Working Practices
Communications
Basic Life Support
First Aid
Pool Based Practical
Foundation Tube Rescuer
Foundation Ocean Board Rescuer
Course itinerary example…
9:00 - Meet at the Surf School, introduction, answer questions and brief for the day.
9:30 - Wetsuits on, head down to Great Western Beach.
Warm up, stretching (usually involving different games/activities).
Learn lifeguard skills.
Rescue scenarios - In pairs, casualty swims out and gets rescued, switch roles, both with and without rescue equipment.
Board practice - In pairs get used to paddling rescue boards and catching waves.
12:00 - Finish water session, lunch break. (Hang wetsuits in dry room so you have a dry suit to put on the next day!)
13:00 - Classroom session - Beach Environment (learn about rips, waves, tides and all environmental factors)
15:00 - Break
15:30 - Basic life support. Theory and practical.
17:30 - Finish for the day
Fitness requirements
Being a lifeguard requires good levels of fitness.
During the course you will be challenged to get the best out of your potential, within safe parameters.
There is plenty of running, swimming and paddling rescue boards throughout the course, always supervised by a highly experienced and qualified coach.
Coaches will only challenge your fitness levels within reason.
If you are comfortable swimming and paddling boards in waves up to 4ft, and running at a slow jog for a couple of minutes then you’d have no problems joining one of our courses!
The only actual fitness tests are as followed…
- 400m pool swim in under 8 minutes.
- 200m Run, 100m Swim, 200m Run