Coastguard Boating Education wins Sealord WSNZ Award

Coastguard Boating Education’s Safe Boating Programme won the Prevention Award at the International Water Safety and Aquatic Education Conference held in Queenstown in October of this year. 

The CBE Safe Boating Programme links with aquatic centres as the hub for water safety educational activities to provide young people - swimmers and non-swimmers - with the skills they might need to survive in a dangerous situation. The program includes a poolside lesson covering skipper responsibility and what safety equipment should be carried on board a vessel when venturing out, such as lifejackets, Marine VHF radio and distress signalling devices. The in water practical session includes the correct way to wear lifejackets, survival positions if a vessel should capsize due to poor stability and the students ever find themselves in difficulty. Students are awarded a certificate upon completion of the programme.

CBE have issued over 17,870 certificates this year in addition to providing professional boating safety training to the aquatic centre swim instructors. CBE General Manager, Neil Murray said that ‘CBE wants to ensure that the instructors are competent and confident in teaching the boating safety component of their overall water safety programme.’  CBE are now looking for a national sponsor to allow for greater expansion of the programme in a nationwide campaign aimed at reducing the injury and/or drowning toll.

The Sealord New Zealand Water Safety Awards was the first International Water Safety and Aquatic Education Conference held with more than 300 international water safety delegates attending the event, including water safety professionals from around New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Japan, US and United Arab Emirates.

Water Safety NZ CEO Matt Claridge says the calibre of this year’s awards entrants was very high. "There is a huge amount of incredible work being done in New Zealand’s water safety sector and the recipients of the 2013 Sealord New Zealand Water Safety Awards are making an enormous contribution to keeping New Zealanders safer in the water. The information and ideas shared between nations will play an important role in the ongoing work being done to reduce the number of people that are drowning both here in New Zealand and overseas."