Northern Beaches lifeguards are heroes of children’s water safety series

As we move through summer our beaches are a magnet for locals as well as scores of visitors.

Even though our summer has seen its fair share of rain, together with the impact of COVID, we have still seen nearly 1 million visits to our beaches from Manly to North Palm Beach since the beginning of December.

Over the same period, our lifeguards performed an amazing 67 rescues and over 400 first aid episodes on our local beaches.

A more sobering statistic however is the 44 coastal and ocean drownings that were reported across NSW for 2019/20.

We were therefore excited to have our lifeguards feature in a recent ABC series on water safety for children on their channel.

Known as Water Safety with Kangaroo Beach, the series offers brief three minute episodes about staying safe in the waves, including learning about rips and what to do if caught in one.

One of the episodes sees cute cartoon characters Pounce and Gemma learn from their hero lifeguards, featuring our very own Northern Beaches lifeguard crew, along with some of our volunteers.

The cute cartoon characters are interspersed with shots of our gorgeous beaches including Manly, Freshwater and Dee Why and explain how the lifeguards train, the equipment they use and how they patrol our beaches.

Kids also learn about how they can get involved in nippers to learn more about water safety and water skills.

Want to share these educational videos with your children? Find them now on ABC Iview.