OKEHAMPTON Otters achieved high honours at the Royal Lifesaving Society’s National Rookie Lifesaving Festival hosted at Bovey Tracey.

The two Otters teams entered had superior swimming speed and style but lost out on some of the events requiring size and strength. Paddling boards wider than their shoulders was hard as was coiling and throwing rescue lines from small hands.

However, the teams rose to the challenges and thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with other clubs in Bovey’s festive atmosphere. Otters are looking forward to the next round of these festival events that help to save lives.

The Rookie Lifeguard programme instils in eight to eleven year olds the need for safety when in or close to water, survival techniques and how to help others. Key to these skills are improving swimming ability and developing fitness. The club also believes in making swimming fun amongst friends.

Badges and certificates are awarded at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels, with the Gold Rookie Lifeguard Award giving the swimmer the opportunity to enter the Survive and Save programme at Silver level.

During the training, swimming ability and water confidence will be improved so Rookies is a useful foundation for going on to become competitive swimmers with Okehampton Otters.

The Survive and Save Programme is a progression of Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards that teach, challenge and develop skills and knowledge in aquatic survival, rescue, sport and fitness. The training focusses on water safety as well as personal survival and fitness. Learning to help others is achieved through first aid training, rescue techniques and maintaining the safety of the rescuer. Successful candidates are rewarded with a medal and certificate for the successful completion of their chosen awards. The awards are also useful activities for the Duke of Edinburgh Award and can count towards GCSEs. They also help swimmers progress to the National Swimming Pool Lifeguard vocational qualification. Participants must be 12 years old by Christmas and able to swim four lengths.