As the wind and waves battered the beach, a group of lifeguards at Boscombe in Dorset ran through their final chilly drills on the water before what the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) believes will be its busiest summer ever.
“I’ve been working here since 2006 and I’ve seen it get busier and busier,” said the RNLI lifeguard supervisor Tomas Thorndycraft, who was leading the training exercise on Thursday. “There is a strong beach community and culture, a surf school, cafes and a refurbished pier.” It means a more crowded beach – and more people who need saving. “But we’re ready for it,” said Thorndycraft.
Before the first wave of beaches – including Boscombe – was patrolled this weekend as the Easter holidays begin, the RNLI released figures that showed more than 25 million people visited a lifeguarded beach in 2022, the highest since the charity began providing patrols for local authorities in 2001. Lifeguards aided more than 23,000 people in 2022 and saved 117 lives.
This story is from the April 03, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the April 03, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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