‘Calmest days can be the most dangerous’

In recent weeks, several tragic drownings have highlighted the extent to which Irish water can, in an instant, switch from being a source of great pleasure to inflicting great pain.

Even during one of our normal, dull summers, such as last year, more than 300 children were rescued by Irish lifeguards. On one day alone last week, head lifeguard Séamus O Riain (27) and his team of two others at Spanish Point in west Clare estimate they helped 25 people in distress. It was the largest number of incidents the lifeguards have dealt with in a single day in recent years.

Rip current
One of those they assisted was included RTÉ broadcaster Seán Bán Breathnach who got into difficulty when he was caught in a rip current. O Riain says the day was so hectic that the lifeguards don't know which of them came to the aid of Breathnach, as every time they assisted someone, they had to turn their attentions almost immediately to the next person needing help.

“Everything came together last week,” O Riain says. “It was the combination of a large swell, the sun and the Willie Clancy Festival that meant for us it was all hands on deck for eight hours non-stop.

“We were running on adrenalin. We’d move people down to the designated swim zone, turn around, and then we’d have to do the same again with another group. We were so busy none of us is sure who helped Seán Bán. It could have been any of the three of us.”

When he’s not helping to save lives, O Riain is a qualified woodwork teacher, who, like many other recent teaching graduates, has found a full-time permanent job elusive.

“Interviews for jobs could be held over two or three days such is the volume of applicants. In some cases you will have hundreds applying for one job. I enjoy woodwork and a lot of my family are teachers, so it is in the blood, but it is frustrating not knowing from month to month whether you will have work. I stay positive and have been kept busy so far. I don’t get paid for the summers so it is great to have the lifeguarding.”

While he grew up in Tipperary town, O Riain's grandfather is from west Clare, and that's where he spent all his summers and developed his love of the sea. This is his seventh year working as a lifeguard, and generally he starts out on part-time hours in June and works full time for July and August.

Six-day week
The working day begins at 11am and ends at 7pm and O Riain will work six days a week from now until the end of the summer.

He and his team will deal with everything from medical emergencies to sunstroke as well as preventing potential drownings and giving beach goers general advice. They will assess hourly what areas of the beach are safe and mark out those areas with flags and regular patrols.

He says that thankfully, no one has ever drowned on his watch.

“Every day you go to work and don’t know what the conditions will be like. The sea is so unpredictable. The calmest days can be the most dangerous sometimes. It changes so quickly that sooner or later something happens and you have to be ready.”

The important message to get out is that beaches are safe where there are lifeguards on duty and where swimmers stick to the areas marked between the flags and respect the advice of lifeguards.

On a typical day, O Riain will swim and run somewhere in the region of three kilometres. If it is a quiet shift, he will get in an extra training session in the afternoon or evening.

Sounding somewhat jaded, O Riain says that comparisons to the US TV series Baywatch are something of an inevitability for lifeguards. "You walk down the beach and someone making fun will sing the Baywatch tune. It is funny the first time you hear it and then it gets old fast. When something happens they realise it is a serious job."

Train hard
So, is it a fiction then that all lifeguards are obsessed with maintaining the body beautiful? What about his toned and tanned Australian equivalents on Bondi Beach cutting a dash on their jet skis? Doesn't he ever feel jealous?

“Look, Irish lifeguards are all blessed with Irish bodies. We train as hard as we can, but we’re not too worried about image,” he says. “People ask me, is it a dream job? It is, I suppose, but as this is Ireland, you have to suffer the wet and windy days too as well as the good ones.”