Phil Gilmore wants to see more kids learning to swim. Photo / Paul Brooks
Phil Gilmore wants to see more kids learning to swim. Photo / Paul Brooks
Phil Gilmore is a Whanganui institution. As a colourful personality and as a surf lifeguard, having volunteered at the beach since 1966. Like many of us, he is appalled at the latest drowning statistics and he says it shouldn't be this way. "I see the number of drownings in this country are not getting any better, humanity's not learning. "Since 1989 we haven't reduced the drowning statistics, and it's the 15 to 24 age group and mainly male. "In 1989 Tomorrow's Schools came in. That's when the Ministry of Education basically took its hands away from the schools and handed them to the parents, who were not skilled or qualified enough to be able to do that." Phil says it was that huge change in school administration that had an almost immediate effect on the use of school swimming pools. "A lot of schools had pools, but the parents were saddled with the responsibility for health and safety." He says too many schools found the responsibility too daunting so they got rid of their pools. "Rutherford had a big pool: it was brand new! That's gone."
Phil was a board member at Castlecliff School for 12 years and he successfully fought to retain their pool. "I kept the pool going and put lifeguards in there to keep it open." The lifeguards came from his team at the beach. "We had a roster for the lifeguards at the beach, so we'd roster two on for the pool at Castlecliff School. By keeping the pool open we kept the kids out of the wharf. The kids could pay 50 cents and come in and swim all day and there would be a couple of lifeguards there watching them."
He says we should be looking at the remaining pools — not the Splash Centre, because there they charge families to learn to swim. "It should be every child's right to learn how to swim. We bring them into this world and it's our responsibility to be sure to teach them to swim, and the schools are where that should happen." He says money for swimming lessons is not in every family's budget.
"I put people in the school at Castlecliff to help them [teachers] teach the kids to swim. Those people are still out there. Before we lose them we've got to turn this around and put the pools back, or create a system where the schools are able to get to a pool on a regular basis, with all of their children, and teach them those survival techniques. That will give them at least a chance." says Phil. "We've got to put the responsibility of learning to swim back in the education system. It won't cost a lot: it will save money because these kids will live to get a job one day and pay taxes."
Phil has seen more than his share of drownings, many of them children. "I still see the faces of the ones I've lost." He has also seen some of those he has saved go on to have children and grandchildren. "We ran surf safety programmes at Wanganui Lifeguard Service way back in1989, and we sent two lifeguards to every school in Whanganui in that calendar year. We reached 6500 children a year with the water safety message. We were averaging 180 rescues on this coast prior to that. Within three years we reduced that to zero. The message got through."
Phil says it takes a lot of time and effort to train a lifeguard, but the service has university students who turn up every year for their summer job at the beach, bringing their knowledge and experience with them. "That experience is absolutely valuable, because when the s**t hits the fan, you've got the right person on deck."
Phil Gilmore joined the Castlecliff service in 1966. "I was 11. They had a youth section. My older brother was a lifeguard, so I was just following the family, I suppose." He rattled off familiar Castlecliff names, kids who joined the service around the same time. "We grew up in the sea and learned the sea's conditions, and we could all swim. We had swimming classes at school. We would jump in the river at the wharf and swim across to South Beach."
There were swimming clubs based at school pools at the time, and a lot of children earned their certificates and progress stamps for distances and life-saving skills. He talks about swimming coaches like Toddy Sollitt who spent decades teaching kids how to be safe in the water. "At Castlecliff we had the likes of Colleen Higgs and the Young family. They were committed to teaching others how to swim." He says with the beach being near and a permanent temptation to all kids, it was imperative that they all learned to swim. "The west coast of New Zealand is treacherous. Our conditions here can change at a moment's notice and, often, you don't realise, and before you know it, you're in the s**t. The job of the lifeguards is to stop that before it happens. "We've got a lot of volunteer lifeguards in the country. Whanganui's lifeguards are funded by the District Council and they've done a good job over the years. Finding the lifeguards has not always been a problem because they have the incentive of being paid to be there." Local lifeguards take care of Castlecliff and Mowhanau beaches.
"The days of selling raffle tickets to keep the Surf Club alive are gone. It used to be tough, and all the gear we had to work hard and pay for, but we also had some good sponsors." Phil now has grandchildren who are lifeguards.
Cecilie Elliott is Taranaki Aquatic Education and Water Safety Advisor and has been working on her own in her region to spread the message and the importance of safety in the water. She agrees the statistics are tragically high, but … "In my role in Taranaki / Whanganui I'm really encouraged, because most schools that have a pool actually use it, even if it's for six weeks in term one only." Cecilie says about 15 schools in Whanganui have swimming pools. "A lot of schools like St Anne's, Mosston, Faith Academy: a lot of those schools go to the Splash Centre for lessons." She says sometimes their own teachers teach swimming skills, or they share the responsibility with Splash Centre instructors. Lessons are not free at the centre.
"Unfortunately, right throughout this region, it's becoming a case of 'the haves' and 'the have nots', with those parents who can afford to take their children swimming and those who can't. If schools can afford to transport their students to the Splash Centre, at least they are getting some sort of instruction. "But for schools with pools, honestly, it's the best thing because the kids can swim every day, they've got time in the water and they are not limited to, say, two weeks in the year for swim training."
Cecilie encourages schools to keep their pools operating. "Once you lose it, you'll never get it back," she tells them. "That benefit of having a school pool is really valuable. "In my role as Education Adviser, in terms one and four, I do the Water Skills for Life professional development for teachers." She does workshops and classroom based sessions. "In those classroom sessions I cover beach safety - rips and currents, river safety and safe boating." She says the sessions are effective, which are followed up with teachers' professional development poolside support. "Even schools that don't have a pool, I have been doing a lot of classroom-based sessions in Whanganui."
Cecilie says she still loves being able to teach people of all ages water survival skills. "With all our drownings … we want them to be able to survive in the water. Just because they can swim freestyle or backstroke in the pool, doesn't mean they are able to survive if they caught in a rip or a moving river. Getting our students to think about making safe decisions around water, I think is invaluable."
Cecilie covers Whanganui and all its schools on her own, and has done for 10 years, but she recently received funding from the Toi Foundation – formerly the TSB Trust – which enables her to have the help of two qualified swim instructors to support teachers poolside in Taranaki.
Swimming NZ has been trying to petition the Government to make funding available for schools so students' swim lessons are free and universally accessible. Ironically, while Swimming NZ is a national organisation it gets no funding from Government.
"We get funding from Water Safety NZ, and that's on a yearly basis." Water Safety NZ is an incorporated society with charitable status. Cecilie's services are free to the schools. She is one of only eight Swimming New Zealand education advisers throughout the whole country.
"We are spread pretty thin."
Cecilie Elliott urges all schools to keep their swimming pools operating and used. Photo / Paul Brooks
Cecilie knows the drowning statistics mean much more has to be done.
"We're doing the best we can; with the Water Skills for Life programme, it is taking the pressure off teachers to teach technical strokes at school. They are saying, let's focus on the basic foundations and survival skills." Once teachers have been shown how to do that, they are eager to take that knowledge to their young charges. She says teachers in Whanganui and Taranaki have embraced it.
"Our children are going to be able to survive in a variety of aquatic environments. If they get caught in a rip or a river, they are not going to be doing freestyle or backstroke, they will need survival skills."
Educating the whole community is key, she says, but the Government has to come on board. While billions of dollars go into road safety, water safety education misses out, relying on the passion and energy of people who see the drowning statistics and are appalled. It is being left to them to do something about it.
A day at Castlecliff Beach when it was not safe to swim. The flag instructs people to stay out of the water. Photo / Paul Brooks
"Our point of view is that, if a child who can submerge confidently and understand how their body floats and moves in the water, will be a child who is ready to learn to swim.
When a child has limited time in the water (8-10 lessons per year) it makes sense to concentrate on the basic aquatic skills to they can enjoy the water safely." Swimming New Zealand.
