[Lifesaving] Scottish Nationals 2013

This weekend I took a trip up to Glasgow for my first competition of the new season, the Scottish National Lifesaving Championships. I say a new season, but I suppose that's my university-lifesaving bias showing through; really it's part of the 2013 season according to the RLSS. In any case, it was the first competition I'd participated in since the St Andrews event back in February! Spoiler alert - it didn't go too well.

Each year, the RLSS hold two main competitions. The first is the RLSS National Speed Championships in March, at which I helped out this year. The second is the RLSS National Championships, which runs from about May to November, and actually consists of three different levels of competition. The first level is the Branch round, but in Scotland there are so few branches, and indeed so few competitors in total, that this level is waived. The second level is the Regional round, and the third level is the National Championships themselves which take place at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.

The Scottish Nationals are part of the Regional round of the competition, and are historically very competitive. Looking at past results for the Nationals, the competitor(s) from Scotland are usually very high up the table, and have indeed won the men's competition on a great number of occasions. So I wasn't expecting to win, particularly since I hadn't been training over the summer, but I was hoping to do reasonably well.

Like the university competitions I'm used to, the Scottish consists of a wet SERC, a dry SERC, a rope throw, and a swim-tow. This was actually the first time I'd managed to compete at the Scottish. Last year I'd applied, but after a mix-up I missed the deadline, wasn't allowed in, was told I compete after all, then had to pull out after getting an observing run in Chile! So I was very keen to do so this time around. There were actually four Seacows, both current and alumni, taking part: two in the men's competition, and two in the women's.

St Andrews Seacows reunion! Only Hannah (2nd from left) is still a member of the club! (Credit: David Brown)

The wet SERC was run first, and as with the West Midlands Regionals that I went to four years ago had two tanks running alongside each other. There was an unconscious, breathing casualty on the side, a weak swimmer in throwing distance, and another in reach distance. Then there were two non-swimmers in the far right corner, what I thought were a locked pair in the far left, and a child manikin in the water. I did a poor job to be honest; I took two goes at checking the unconscious man's breathing, having done a poor head tilt/chin lift the first time, and what I thought was a locked pair was just a guy with a broken leg, and his friend next to him trying to help. I was quite disappointed with myself afterwards.

The dry SERC at RLSS events is always simple - a manikin, and something else to distract you from CPR. In this case it was a choking casualty with a phone. I was convinced that it was a partial blockage; he was coughing, so I just kept encouraging him to continue, which is the by the book approach. However afterwards I was asked how long you should leave a choking casualty before backslaps - clearly it was meant to be a full blockage, but in that case it was poor acting on the casualty's part. I wasn't the only one who did the same thing, but it was noticeable that it was only the university lifesavers who did so. I didn't handle the rest too well either; I stopped CPR to make the phone call rather than using speakerphone, and my CPR itself was poor.

In the rope throw I threw a personal best (as far as I know) of 12.97 seconds to come 5th, and that only because one of the others missed his first throw! Ridiculous really; at lots of other competitions that would have been good enough for a top 3! Then in the swim-tow I managed a 1m41.2, another personal best (for extended-arm tow in a long-course). Again, good enough for 5th place, but I was gratifyingly close to 4th considering my relative lack of training.

When the results were read out it transpired that I'd come 6th in the men's competition. Or to put it another way, last! PI was rather disappointed, particularly after being more competitive than expected in the swim-tow and rope throw. But looking at the scores, my SERCs were poor - 4th in the wet, and 6th in the dry. Pretty terrible for a trainer/assessor! I'm still not happy about the dry though, and I'm convinced that it was either marked incorrectly, poorly written, or poorly described to the casualties. C'est la vie I suppose. My friend Chris managed 3rd place, just missing out on a trip to the Nationals in Sheffield.

My friend Chris with his Bronze medal. (Credit: David Brown)

I'm not sure how much more lifesaving I'll get to do now that I've left university. I'm hoping to continue with the RLSS events at least, and I'm sure we'll get together an old boys team for St Andrews competition. But to be honest, it's becoming harder and harder for me. I still really enjoy the SERCs and rope throw, but the swim-tow takes so much out of me these days that its hard to see myself carrying out for much longer. Maybe if I get back into shape it'll become easier again....But I'm aiming to continue in the university level of the sport through judging. I've got so much out of BULSCA, that I feel I should give something back.