More than a dozen youngsters holidaying at Haven Holidays Kiln Park site in Tenby developed their surf safety skills with the help of RNLI’s Hit the Surf team on Wednesday 2 June.
Hitting the surf in near-perfect summer weather, the group of eight to 12-year-olds were taught all about safety in the surf by the RNLI team of Nicky Palmer, Michael Vincent, Kylie Jones, Owen Evans, Sam Willmott and Olivia Draper.
The youngsters had come with their families to spend their half-term holidays at Kiln Park from as far away as Grimsby and Surrey, with a good contingent of Welsh children in the group as well.
The Haven holiday group, which operate family holiday parks throughout the UK, own Kiln Park, and which has direct access to Tenby’s South Beach in Pembrokeshire, has been encouraging children who stay at the park over the half-term holiday to attend the Hit the Surf sessions run by beach safety experts from the RNLI.
Hit the Surf is a unique scheme that teaches the youngsters surf safety skills and how to stay safe at the beach.
Throughout the summer, the RNLI will be working closely with the Haven holiday group to help promote beach safety messages to the hundreds of thousands of families that visit their holiday parks around the country.
Beach safety leaflets will be distributed, highlighting key information for the local area, including hazards and the location of the closest lifeguarded beach.
The charity is also running its Hit the Surf programme at the Haven park at Devon Cliffs in Exmouth.
The programme has been designed for children aged between eight and 12, and it combines theory and practical lessons about how to keep safe in the surf. This year schools will also participate in Hit the Surf sessions elsewhere in Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Swansea. Each year, surfing and bodyboarding are the activities accounting for the greatest proportion of incidents on RNLI lifeguarded beaches.
Last year, they accounted for 41 per cent of activity-related rescues carried out by RNLI lifeguards. In Pembrokeshire last year, RNLI lifeguards responded to 509 incidents and assisted 561 people.
- Now in its fifth year, the Hit the Surf scheme has proved extremely popular and has quickly expanded since it began in 2005.
- This year sees its biggest expansion – being delivered to up to 5,000 pupils from 145 schools in coastal areas around the UK – more than doubling the number of schools and children it reached last year.
- The programme will run in Pembrokeshire in June-and August (dates below). Schools interested in participating in future Hit The Surf sessions should contact Dave Gorman, RNLI Divisional Beach Safety Manager on 07970 080806 or email [email protected]
