Hi, it's Dr. Warrick here, and I'm super excited today to have the chance to participate in the third edition of Podcastathon, which is an international event. For one week or more, thousands of podcasts will be highlighting different charities of their choice. And today I have the chance to speak with Adam Weir from one of the most recognized... organizations in our country, Surf Life Saving Australia. Hi, Adam. How are you? I'm really well, Dr. Warrick. Great to be with you. Yeah. Look, thank you for finding the time. I really think this is a great idea. Podcastathon is an international event. It is there to try and raise awareness and let people know what some of the not-for-profit organizations are doing in their own community. So you guys have a great visibility in yellow and red. I'm sure most people would recognize Surf Life Saving Australia, but this is a great chance to get a little bit more detail. My guess is it's a huge organisation. What sort of numbers do you have, Adam? How many patrols do you have around Australia at any given moment of time? Yeah, and this is a great forum and a great channel to try and get information out. Like you said, Dr Warrick, it's really, you know, to be able to give a platform to so many worthy causes is fantastic. And I'd love to talk about surf life. So I think actually this week... The club behind me, so the view behind me is actually the walkway at Bondi Beach. Our office is at Bondi Icebergs. I've got no control of what happens behind me, so hopefully it stays okay throughout the podcast. It looks like a beautiful day. But Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club, just over my shoulder here, celebrated its anniversary, and it's recognised as the first surf lifesaving club back in 1907, where a few... So life-saving clubs popped up around Sydney. So well over a century ago since we started. And today there's 315 clubs just like Bondi around the country in every state. that where you'll see the red and yellow lifesavers uh patrolling uh to keep the public safe and they do a fantastic job and um we have 200 000 members now around the country or should be ticking over to 200 000 anytime uh now we were as of reporting last year we were just under a thousand members short of that so uh And many of those patrol, not all of them. So a large number of them patrol and do the volunteer life saving and keep people safe. Each year, Dr. Warrick, they do about 10,000 rescues. So a huge number of people rescued around the country. About 1.6 million volunteer hours provided to the community. About 50,000 first aid treatments. So not all of it's about the water. Much of it's about, you know. treating people that get injured on the coast, whether that's a cut or a scrape or anything up to something we might talk about later in terms of heart attacks that happen on the beach. But I think really important, and sometimes we often forget it, there's a lot of support that goes into surf clubs behind the scenes to ensure that service is provided. And we did a little bit of research on that not too long ago. And it was something like 14 million other hours that are donated behind the scenes to get that 1.6 million of volunteer surf lifesaving hours. So a huge amount of effort. It's been calculated. should be worth around about $6 or $7 billion to the Australian economy each and every year. And that number seems to grow every year as well. And it would be remiss of me not to recognise our lifeguard colleagues as well who do a fantastic job. And most of them are employed by local councils around the country and are working throughout the week, often on beaches like Bondi 365 days a year. So, you know, they do. a fantastic job. Wow. Really quite mind-boggling statistics there, Adam, in terms of the number of people involved. And what's incredible is these voluntary hours that are given, and that speaks volumes to what must be an amazing heart that the organisation has and what a connection it must have with the community. So, yeah, it is such a trusted organisation. Look, one of the things in delivering and looking after so many people, there must be some major challenges on a day-to-day basis. What are some of the things that are really impacting Surf Life Saving Australia? And I'm sort of aware that the landscape is changing in lots of different areas from things like coastal erosion, which I know you've got a science background in. And I didn't jump on a bio for you, But as CEO of Surf Lifesaving Australia, that's almost enough of the bio. I mean, I think that sums it up. But for those interested, Adam actually came from a science background. He had volunteered in Surf Lifesaving for a number of years. His science background was in coastal erosion and he came to work with Surf Lifesaving Australia. really in risk mitigation and back in 2018 moved to a more encompassing role as CEO where you've been since. So what are some of those challenges, Adam? Yeah, there's a good background there. Coming at it from a risk perspective gave me a real... holistic overview of all parts of the organization, which has really helped me as I've come into more senior roles like this one. Look, it's hard to put your finger on one key challenge that's coming up. We're a volunteer organization and many organizations with large numbers of volunteers, community organizations are struggling a little bit at the moment. people's time is probably their most valuable commodity. And, you know, they're very selective of where they use it. And so, you know, we ask a lot of volunteers that come in. But I think it's important also for people to realise that, you know, volunteering in Surf Life Saving is not, or it's not a single approach to roles. Like people might look at the organisation and see those people. who pull on the red and yellow and do the 10,000 rescues and think, oh, I could never do that. But really... A surf club is a community and you spoke about community before. And within that community, there's all sorts of people. And there's certainly, we pride ourselves on ensuring that there's a place for everybody in surf lifesaving. And that's an aspiration that we have into the future as well. It's a big part of our next strategic plan to make sure that, you know, everyone can see themselves in surf lifesaving. So it's the bronze medallion and those lifesaving awards. still the pinnacle for us but you know there's there's many places for people to come in and be part of our community um and i guess counter to what i just said that the um we've noticed that year on year we have about two to three percent growth in our volunteer numbers so we we we are doing something right there and i think the cause our cause that we have resonates with people obviously our location and the healthy environment and the activity and being part of that community really helps so there's challenges in that space I'd say there's also challenges for the service itself because our research is also showing us that The way in which people are using the coast, particularly since COVID, has really changed and really gone up another level. We do a survey every year, a population-based survey, which tracks the way in which people are using the coast, you know, how many times people are going to the coast and using the beaches. And that number has gone from, you know, 450 million visitations a year. Now, last year, it was 700 million. visitations so that could be you going multiple times and we'll count each of those as separate visits but it's a huge number and and that load is increasing all the time on the service and i think one of the big challenges for us is you know how we how we take that research and use it to shape the service that we're going to provide in the future to try and, you know, turn the tide on coastal drownings and bring that number down. I think last year we had 150 coastal drowning deaths. You know, one is too many, 150 is way too many. And we have a vision of zero preventable drowning deaths in Australian waters. And that's aspirational, but we're really, you know, putting resources in to try and achieve that. And one more, if I may, I think a lot of people see us from a funding perspective as an emergency service, Dr. Warrick, and as a well-funded emergency service. But in truth, we're not. funded in the same way of like your police force or your ambulance and we do rely on the support of the community um and you know in tough times that we've seen with the cost of living pressures and things like that um you know the the people that are able to support us it just you know it goes a long way every dollar that someone donates or gives to Surf Lifesaving, we're able to provide a $20 benefit back to the community through the works of the volunteers. So there is a big return on the investment. And if you are in a position to help by donating or buying a lottery ticket or whatever it might be, or buying a raffle ticket at the local club, you can be assured that that money is going to really good use in the community. Well, we will underline the possibility of donations. The podcast on is not about generating donations, but the awareness could leave people with a feeling once they have a better understanding that they'd like to contribute financially. But before we change topic a little, Adam, if it's all right with you, I'll just come back. And for those listening, one of the things that really struck a chord with me about what you were just sharing, Adam, is that. It sounds like Surf Life Saving Australia is a big tent and welcomes anyone who's happy to contribute. And I, for example, love to bring any expertise I've got as a cardiologist. I don't see myself wearing the red and yellow and saving people down the beach. I think I'm probably a bit past that. What I want people to realise is that you might be an accountant with some skills and finances. You might be able to help that way. You might be someone who doesn't have a desire to get in the surf, but you might be able to help get the equipment out. And there's lots of ways you can support your local club. So don't be put off or scared by the physical... intimidation that you might think from those people who keep right at the coalface. So, yeah, important point. Look, what I also want to cover, and I do like to try and keep these podcasts short, but it's very clear that there's such a lot with Surf Life Saving Australia that I'm happy to keep on going. One of the things that we've talked about is change. And you guys are obviously keeping lots of statistics so you know what's going on. If you don't measure, you can't manage. But you're also adapting to changes in the environment, changes in medicine, changes in practice. And one of the things that we've talked about previously off-air is the changes in CPR, the broader use of... automatic external defibrillators and even the use of things like drones. So would you like to speak to some of the changes in technology that Surf Life Saving is embracing, Adam? Innovation technology is really important to us. And it has been, I think, since our inception, we've always tried to improve the way we rescue, improve the way CPI has been done, improve the chance of people's survival. in the water we we held an innovation day in fact last year we tested a whole range of new equipment from devices that can help track people in the water or inflate if someone's in trouble to you know new drone technology we're using drones in all sorts of ways you know most of our we have we have drone operator awards that can sit alongside patrolling. So for people that can't swim, for example, that's a great opportunity. Or even people with different abilities that aren't able to patrol in the same way as others can get involved in that way. And we're also using drones when we're doing other emergency work, such as the floods that you might have seen. So those have been really effective in that scenario. AI is also starting to come into play. We're doing research around cameras with AI to help spot rips and other hazards that can alert people in real-time information. So that's very exciting. And CPR is no different, Doctor. come from you know we've come such a long way even since the advent of cpr um from we used to have you know one breath for every five compressions and then we had uh two breaths to 15 compressions and then we're at 30 to two um but now i think yeah the research is really shifting um again or not or improving again and um and really you know through through something called high-performance CPR, which a lot of the emergency services are using. And we'll be looking to bring that into the organisation over the next few years in what we call life-saving CPR. But it's really trying to enhance the hands on the chest. compression, making that more effective, ensuring the recoil of the hands off the chest is done effectively to maximise the compression. And we've done a little bit of pilot research around that and the efficiency gains just in one day of training have been enormous for life. So I'm really excited to be rolling that out over the next year or two as well. Well, look, let's stick with heart. It is, after all, my wheelhouse and my area of interest. When it comes to heart and heart-related events, what sort of number of rescues or what sort of number of heart events are you seeing in those circumstances where we're talking about those thousands of interventions over the course of a year? Yeah, so I had to ask the team a little bit about this. And some of our data on the sort of first aid isn't as probably where it should be. But another thing that we're really working on is our IT in the back end. So that we'll be looking to improve on. I think from what I could see, though, in the data, there's about, you know, we do about 30. 30 to 40 CPR, like heart attacks a year. There are a couple of states that I don't have data for. So not a lot. And that number has been pretty sort of stable. And of even that, there's a lesser percentage where we're actually using a defib or CPR. the the the rescues that we're doing as well um so a lot of them a lot of them a lot of those interventions are intervening while people are still conscious so and our priority there dr Warrick is to actually you know, prevent someone from getting into trouble in the first place. That's what we teach lifesavers to do. So by having to get in the water and rescue someone, you know, we haven't been able to prevent that from occurring in the first place. But, you know, so there's about 10,000 rescues. We're seeing that number drop and we're seeing the preventative number rise, which is good for our service. But I'm not sure about the actual breakdown then of how many of those go on to need CPR at this stage. Certainly, we share a perspective on prevention, Adam. There's no question in my own mind. I work very hard to raise awareness and really look to identify people at high risk before the event occurs, because it is much easier to do something beforehand. As you realise in risk management, actually, much better to avoid the event than deal with it. And that's exactly what the Lifesavers are doing on the beach, exactly what you're doing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Look, slightly different question. 200,000 members. Now, a lot of those would be nippers and a lot of those would be some of the fittest guys in Australia. But a lot of those would be Surf Lifesavers have been kicking around for a while and family of the younger members. Do you know, do you have a feel for heart attack within the organisation? So members of Surf Life Saving Australia having coronary events? We're a subset of the community. And I think what you're seeing in the community happens in Surf Life Saving and certainly not all of those 200,000 members. uh active patrolling or even um or even doing their proficiency so um you know that there probably is a need for us to do a bit more in that space so um you know really uh really keen to see some of the publications that you've produced yourself, Doctor, and how they might be able to help us. We have, as you pointed out, there's about 80,000 of those members that are under the age of 18. So youth's a really important piece of our membership and being able to introduce like some of those healthy lifestyle factors, being fit, having confidence in the water is really important at that age. But as we get into that, patrolling area. We are doing tests each year. We're teaching people new CPR. We're doing the fitness testing that can kind of help show people where they are. But, you know, any organised sort of heart health monitoring at this stage has been left up to the individual and their medical professional. Well, obviously now is not the time to leap into that, but maybe we'll touch base on that. offline but I do know that Surf Life Saving have been strong advocates for raising awareness about skin cancer and even moving into mental health and I really applaud that taking on that responsibility as a well-trusted organisation with a far reach trying to make a difference out there in the community. Do you want to speak to the skin cancer awareness and mental health initiatives that Surf Life Sail in Australia have done? Yep, I'd love to. Sun safety in Australia has been on a journey since I was young. Me too. You got a little bit older than you, so I might have even seen a bit more. Yeah, some of the things that I used to do when I was a child, my children certainly don't do. And that's a good thing. But, you know, like we've got... policies in place and education in place for members around sun safety our patrol uniforms have changed over the years and now it's you know there's much more you know covering up long sleeves all the things that you would find in your workplace hats sunscreen you know long sleeve shirts shade provided sunglasses um so it's really important um you know there's still we are in we are in a has this environment for all sorts of reasons. And the risk management that we have around that is really important. And clubs do an even better job at working within their local environment to ensure members are safe. So we have a national approach that sets a minimum and then other parts of the organisation can go above and beyond. And then the mental health side is very important. And I guess we're very aware that... you know members can new people can come into the organization be trained up go on a patrol and potentially be exposed to a rescue on their first day and so what we're what we've really tried to do is or what we are trying to do is work better through the training so that people are better prepared for some of the stresses they might find on the job so that preparedness again is coming through here so how do we prepare people better so that they're more able to cope with stress not only cope with stress afterwards but cope better and be more resilient through that stressful period of having to do a rescue. And we also have lots of structures after the fact in incident debriefing, counselling provided, you know, EAP programs that can be extended to the club and in-person counsellors provide. So there's a whole range of things that we have in place now that, you know, when I was coming through, the organisation didn't exist. And that's a wonderful thing. Yeah. Very impressive input and impressive sort of goals and objectives there, Adam. Very, very impressive as an organisation. Look, we're sort of coming towards the end. Imagine we had one of those opportunities where you could wish for one or two things. It comes around very rarely, but if you had a wish and you could wish something for the future of Surf Life Saving Australia, where would you be thinking? Where would you think you would wish for something different or wish for something more? Well, I guess the dream for Surf Life Saving Australia is we achieve our vision in our strategy, which is that no one's drowning around the country. There are no preventable drownings. And in order to do that... You know, we need people, we need the volunteers and we need the resources to help us get there. But ultimately, if I had one wish, it was that no one drowned or died along the coast that was in a preventable way. Yeah, wow. That's our aspiration. Well, I might steal that for heart attack, actually, because I believe we can prevent heart attacks. So let's continue to make a difference in the best way we can. Congratulations on... running really one of the most highly regarded organisations in Australia. And thank you for sharing today as well, Adam. Thanks, Dr. Warrick. It's been a great experience. Look, I'm going to wrap up there. I've got a little spiel from Podcastathon that I'll make sure I read so I don't mess it up. It says, as we wrap up this special episode of Podcastathon, if you enjoyed it, feel free to visit www. podcastthon.org and that podcastthon is spelled p-o-d-c-a-s-t-h-o-n and discover hundreds of other associations through the voices and talents of the podcasters Adam thank you once more and for those listening I really do hope you live as well as possible for as long as possible take care and bye for now
