Moray surf instructor urges water safety awareness following two recent emergencies at Lossiemouth East Beach
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A MORAY surf instructor has issued a warning about water safety after two recent water emergencies at Lossiemouth East Beach.
Kev Anderson, who coaches at Lossiemouth Surf and Lifesaving Club praised the heroic efforts of a family who rescued two teenage girls in distress at the Lossiemouth beach on Saturday, July 8 and highlighted the need for increased water awareness after being made aware of another incident two days prior on July 6.
He said: "During the summer holidays, we as surf instructors are dealing with incidents in the water all the time. We see first-hand how close some of these incidents are and how naive people can be about the whole thing.
"On July 8, the water was trecherous, with strong winds and a powerful current which had taken the girls far from safety. The two girls were in extreme distress and the family on Saturday without a doubt saved the girls' lives. It could have been a very different story."
The surf instructor also mentioned another incident that occurred in Nairn on the same day, further emphasizing the need for action. Mr Anderson intends to meet with the Partnership Action for Water Safety (PAWS) group to discuss potential interventions and long-term solutions to enhance safety at Lossiemouth Beach.
He said: "The club is going to try and do little intervention things but long-term I think we need to look at other solutions. Visit Lossiemouth released numbers that around 70,000 went across the footbridge to the beach in one month alone, I think something as big as that should prompt some data collection to see if those kind of numbers and associated risks need extra provision in some form. There has been countless near misses at Lossie East but at the same time thousands of people are fine.
"We may also need to look long term at better education, signage, lifeguards. Personal responsibility is also a huge part of living by the coast without a lifeguard the difference between a swimming pool and a beach is horrendously different but sometimes people don't realise."
According to the RNLI website, around 140 people lose their lives at the UK and Irish coasts each year. If facing difficulty in the water, the RNLI advise leaning back and floating to help increase chances of survival and if someone else is in trouble in the water, call 999 or 112 and ask for the Coastguard.
