Lifesaving Resources will be conducting a combined Swiftwater Rescue and Water Rescue Technician Course on Saturday and Sunday, April 19 & 20, at their Water and Ice Rescue Training Center in Harrisville, New Hampshire. This two-day program is specifically designed for Law Enforcement, Fire, Rescue, and EMS personnel and includes 6 hours of classroom sessions, 4-hours of practical sessions conducted in a static water environment, and 6-hours of practical sessions conducted in a moving water environment.
Course candidates must be able to demonstrate prerequisite skills prior to the start of the course. These prerequisite skills include: (A) swim 100 yards continuously while wearing a Personal Flotation Device (PFD); (B) while in deep water, remove the PFD, surface dive to a depth of 9’, and recover a 10 lbs. brick and recover it to the surface; (C) Support a 10 lbs. brick at the surface, using legs only, for 1 minute; and (D) surface dive and swim a distance of 35’ underwater on 1 breath.
Water Rescue Technician and Swiftwater Rescue candidates must provide their own wetsuit or drysuit, wetsuit booties or tennis shoes, and water gloves to participate in this program. Lifesaving Resources will provide specially-designed PFDs to all candidates, along with helmets. Course candidates are also encouraged to bring their own swim fins. The practical session on the first day will be conducted in Harrisville Pond and will include practical evolutions on shore-based, non-swimming rescues; basic extension and swimming rescues; management of aquatic spinal injuries; firefighter survival in the water; types and uses of Personal Flotation Devices; cold water rescue and survival; etc. The practical session on the second day will be conducted in the Asheulet River in Keene, New Hampshire and will include low head dam rescues; live-bait swimming rescues; shore-based rescues; management of spinal injuries; etc.
Lifesaving Resources is dedicated to drowning and aquatic injury prevention and emergency management. Their award-winning 500+ page website (www.lifesaving.com) currently attracts more than 4,000 visitors daily from throughout the world. The company develops Aquatics Safety, Lifeguard, Water Rescue, and Ice Rescue curriculums, and conducts this training throughout the U.S. for the Public Safety and Rescue Sector, as well as the Lifeguard and Aquatic Recreation Sector.
The course will be conducted by Gerald Dworkin, a professional Aquatics Safety and Water Rescue Consultant for Lifesaving Resources, along with a faculty of Fire, Rescue, EMS, and Law Enforcement personnel. In addition to the development and conduct of Water and Ice Rescue training programs, Dworkin also regularly consults as a Forensic Expert Witness in drowning and aquatic injury litigation, and consults in the development of educational materials and rescue equipment. Dworkin has over 30 years of professional experience in his field, and has been a career and volunteer firefighter and Emergency Medical Technician for over 30 years.
The Lifesaving Resources’ Water & Ice Rescue Training Center is located in historic Harrisville, New Hampshire in a refurbished mill building. The Training Center offers state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment and comfortable student seating and is the perfect setting for the conduct of their Swiftwater Rescue, Water Rescue, Ice Rescue, and Aquatics Safety training programs. During the 2008 winter, Lifesaving Resources conducted a series of Ice Rescue Technician courses at this new facility and trained several hundred First Responders from throughout the U.S. and Canada at this facility.
For more information and/or registration, access the Educational Programs Section of the Lifesaving Resources’ website at http://www.lifesaving.com.