How the SNSM trains its lifeguard swimmers, essential during the summer season

In the salty waters of the Mediterranean off Cros-de-Cagnes in the Alpes-Maritimes, silhouettes emerge from the waves. These are lifeguards that are tested by professionals in the National Society for Sea Rescue (SNSM). Trainers check the skills of “board swimmers”, the name given to those volunteers who dive into the water for an emergency operation.

Off the Côte d’Azur, they must swim 500 meters in less than 15 minutes. “It is not a competition, but a test whose success is like a guarantee for their safety and the safety of all”, testifies Patrice Rous, trainer at the SNSM stations in Cannes and Cros-de-Cagne. That day, all the swimmers equipped with flippers, life jackets and snorkels were on time. “The last one arrived in less than 13 minutes”breathes Laurent Darteyron, national trainer in local support for the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var.

This margin of two minutes on the maximum time allowed is not too much. Edge swimmers must be prepared to jump into the water in any type of weather condition. Traveling half a kilometer in rough seas is obviously not the same as sinking your breaststroke under a bright sun. “Today they are lucky. There is no current or wind”, notes Emmanuel Nocet, lifeguard at the SNSM station in Pornic in Loire-Atlantique. He was in Cros-de-Cagnes to oversee the training.

The qualifying course to be a swimmer on board is now standardized in all SNSM stations to guarantee equivalent skills on all coasts. “There is a framework that allows us to offer turnkey swimmers in the resorts. It will be the boss’s Swiss army knife in a boat”smiles Laurent Darteyron.

The swimmer on board is the last link in the sea rescue chain. When the rescue shuttle has come as close as possible to an operation site, the swimmer(s) on board jump into the water. “The swimmer on board is the person we are going to send in contact with the victim or in contact with the boat that is stranded. This will allow us to establish a link between the place of rescue and the speedboat”, testifies Gil Rochette, boss of the Cros-de-Cagnes SNSM station.

At the SNSM, there are also lifeguard swimmers. They are lifeguards who watch the bathing places during the summer season. Of the 9,000 SNSM volunteer first aiders, around 2,000 are deployed on land as lifeguard swimmers. They also benefit from very structured training. “We try to be very concrete. We emphasize the practical and technical goal. Because tomorrow, these are the techniques that they will have to implement. There is the reference system, but behind it there is this experience that they will have to forge to be good”warns Julien Drelon, deputy director of SNSM training logistics at Fort-Mahon in the Somme.

Generally speaking, shore swimmers and beach lifeguards are different links in the same chain of rescue. The internships also serve to oil a collective mechanism that must be perfect. “These are values ​​that are dear to us: cohesion, team spirit, fraternity. When we find ourselves at sea, we are forced to trust each other because we find ourselves in conditions or situations where we say to ourselves: ‘it was borderline'”. But the primary goal is to save people.”point Julien Drillon.

“It can happen in any season, night, day, winter, summer”

Pierre Rochette

lifeguard on board at Cros-de-Cagnes

In Cros-de-Cagnes, swimmers get back on board the boat. The faces are surrounded by the traces of the masks. Bodies are tired from exhausting swimming in the high seas. But there is the satisfaction of feeling ready to face the unexpected. “It can happen in any season, night, day, winter, summer. One of my colleagues stayed 1h30 on a seawall in the port. So yes, there is a certain adrenaline”summarizes Pierre Rochette, lifeguard swimmer on board in Cros-de-Cagnes.