Puttur: Two certified and experienced life-saving trainers, Niroop G R and Srikrishna Vasanth, are in Coogee, Sydney, Australia to understand and get themselves trained in various aspects of surf lifesaving training. They have been selected to attend the Bronze Medallion, silver in beach management, IRB train, helicopter rescue and other surf rescue training.

Niroop G R as the centre head for RSLSS (I), Mangaluru has trained the Dakshina Kannada district police unit as well as students from several schools and colleges in first aid.

He trained about 100 locals in Uttar Kannada district last year and has saved about 14 lives from drowning so far. Under the Nippers programme, about 48 swimmers of Dakshina Kannada district have been trained and 38 schoolchildren from Udupi along with 100 fishermen kids of Udupi have been trained. He is the swimming teacher and age group coach at Puttur Aquatic Club in Mangaluru.

Srikrishna Vasanth has 13 years of surfing experience and is the chief Surf Instructor with Stoked Mangalore Surf Club. He has trained over 100 competitive swimmers in yoga.

He is an ISA certified surf instructor for the past two years training over 50 people in surfing. He was trained and certified by RLSS(I) as a Pool Life Guard and has undergone and completed TSWS Teacher of Swimming and Water Safety Programme from AUSTSWIM and works as a junior Assistant Coach at Puttur Aquatic Club.

Partha Varanashi director Director, Surf Lifesaving, India (affiliated to Rashtriya Life Saving Society (India) said, “When we take a look around the world we see most of the developed countries take a similar approach to battle this drowning epidemic such as development of ‘Beach Safety Centres’ and regular water safety and rescue training for local youths who live near the coast.

Australia leads the way in this type of training. They have established over 670 Surf Lifesaving Clubs (SLS, Club) (Beach safety centres) in different beaches all across their coastline.

With this, they have reduced Australia’s yearly drowning stats to less than 50 a year. It took them over 100 years to achieve this as their first SLS club was formed in 1905. In India, Mangalore Surf Association renamed as Stoked Surfers Club, Mangaluru is the first centre which is keen to follow in the footsteps of Australian Surf Life Saving module.

With the Assistance of Rashtreeya Life Saving Society India (RLSSI), Surf Life Saving NSW and Coogee SLS, Sydney and more importantly with the guidance from Doug Hawkins (Director Junior SLS, Sydney), Mangalore Surf Association are spearheading the Surf Life Saving movement in India.”

Partha said Niroop and Shrikrishna will be learning how to manage a beach safety centre, how to run and manage a Surf Life Saving (SLS) centre. They will be staying at Coogee, Sydney.

“Once they complete the training, we hope to run India’s first Surf Lifesaving Centre with the support of the district administration. We are seeking support from the state and central government for the project,” he said.

Regarding the funding for the course, he said funds were collected by Coogee SLS and Nipper parents. A significant amount of funds were raised under the leadership of Doug Hawkins to make this trip happen.

Their travel, stay and course fee has been taken care of by the contributions of Doug Hawkins, parents and many other well-wishers around the globe.

Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel helped in processing the visa by speaking to Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj.