New team ended up with deaths outside the bathing season. “Many would like” to be a salvador swimmer, but they give up-“career does not exist.”
The municipality of was the first in the country to have a bathing surveillance all year, which ended the drownings out of season, after, in 2017, nine people were died on the beach, in the spring.
Daniel Meco, president of the Nazaré-salvador swimmers association, explained to Lusa that the deaths recorded at sea in the winter and spring period focused not on swimmers, but among excionalists, usually elderlywho reached the marginal of the village and would wet their feet, or take photographs by the coast, without realizing the danger they ran, in the face of the Atlantic coast.
“Some people did not die because there were a number of people here, like me and others, who were surfing or were around, and rescued people in time. But even so, until 2017, there were enough drowning deaths here on the beach,” he recalled.
New team ended up with deaths
After insisting on the need for all year rounds-something that other municipalities, such as Cascais, Matosinhos or Póvoa do Varzim, also had-the municipality ended with the association with this surveillance, even the increase of visits to Nazareth in the face of giant wave surf tests in Norte beach.
“A team of five people was formed [apoiadas por uma moto-4] by protocol with the House, which remains today and From then on no one died On the beach for drowning, ”said Daniel Meco.
This device, in winter, is added three other salvator swimmers in Norte Beach (who work on weekends and on giant waves) for a total of eight operational. In the summer period, in the current bathing season, the device in Nazaré integrates 26 Salvador Swimmers.
“To the flavor of the tides”
The existence of a career to prevent the experience accumulated by the most veterans be sure to exist on Portuguese beaches, but also so that there may be greater uniformity of salaries, is defended by Daniel Meco.
“Things are still a bit of the tides,” he said, alluding to salaries of 2,500 euros monthly or higher, in some cases, which considered a exaggeration.
“It cannot be the minimum wage as provided by law, no exaggerations like 2,500 or 3,000 euros, not both to the sea, not so much to Earth. And sometimes there is a rigidity in the law that has nothing to do with what exists on the beaches. The beaches are all different: What serves for a beach may not serve another. The Algarve is different from the North and the Center, and the decisions should be managed locally by the captains of the ports and the city councils, ”argued the associative leader.
Daniel Meco insisted on change in the legislation in forceeven if the drowning prevention basis law will be approved, after a first proposal, delivered in 2023 to the then government, to return to the Castrokens Institute of Relief (ISN), where it still remains.
The president of the Nazaré Association recalled, in this regard, that The current law requires the existence of two salvator swimmers every 100 meters of beach“Well, I have a north zone here, with the promontory, where in summer there are hundreds of people. I have been forced to have two salvator swimmers and I always have three, because two can not stand the flow of people on the beach,” he noted.
This year, Nazareth already has a beach watch tower (something that the new law advocates), there placed by the municipality, but, as it is not approved, because there is no specific legislation, “one cannot call the Watchtower,” said Daniel Meco.
About 60 kilometers in line straight north, Figueira da Foz is the continental municipality that has the largest device of saving swimmers in the country, with a total of 77 operational, in a bathing time that began on May 31 and extends until September.
João Matias, coordinator of the municipal civil protection, explained that, given the letter of the law in force, whose change also defends, and the 30 existing bathing zones in the county, It would be necessary “more than 200 salvator swimmers, which was unthinkable.” The solution has undergone an integrated plan, “adequate the device to existing needs in a risk matrix”, submitted to the Porto Captaincy, which gave positive opinion and ISN, which approved it.
“Just remember the course when the sun comes”
In addition to the Castroostem Institute of Reliefs (ISN), which certifies all courses taken at national level, and is responsible for final exams, two only public schools Existing in Portugal are located in Nazaré (Leiria district) and Figueira da Foz (Coimbra district), which is the only one detained by a municipality.
Speaking to Lusa Agency, Pedro Figueira, coordinator of the formation of salvator swimmers, argued that the Courses should start earlier And not on the bathing time, but candidates are missing, mostly young college students.
“Every week I have requests to disclose job offers and I see entities, municipalities to dealers, very afflicted because they need saving swimmers. The big question is that Everyone only remembers salvator swimmers when the first rays of sunshine appear”Argued the For-Mar Higher technician.
The Nazareth School intended to take a course during the winter season, but has come to the conclusion that trying to prepare the bathing time “more calmly, it is an impossible task” because there are no candidates available.
“The career does not exist”
Os Candidates are young between 18 and 30in the vast majority university students in their 20s. Saved swimmer activity ends up acting as a financial complement while studying, but without a professional career, or perks, such as the exemption of tuition fees or mechanisms that do not have to abdicate their scholarships, end up giving up their function during their studies or ending.
Although in the recent past the activity of saving swimmer, at the low prices practiced, it was not so attractive (leading to public tenders, specifically promoted by municipalities, they were deserted) at this time, according to Pedro Figueira, “is relatively well paid.”
“It is the law of supply and demand to work. But most young people exercise two, three years, while studying, then guide their lives and stop exercising, The career does not exist, many of them would like, but give up”He noted.
ISN -certified formations in public or private entities are all identical – 150 hours long, theoretical and practical pool modules, with mandatory sea (coastal beaches) or open water (for reservoirs or river beaches) – although public courses end up having lower prices (200 euros at Nazaré, 220 at Figueira da Foz).
Pedro Figueira stressed that the first module is a historical, legal and civic framing of the activity, even before talking about beaches, first aid or rescues, and that the activity of any salary swimmer is directly linked to prevention.
“The activity of the saving swimmer, in 99% of his duties, has to be prevention, and people have the idea that it is to take people out of the sea, prevention is the basis of all the work. A salvador swimmer who does a good prevention rarely seek someone from the sea,” he said.
In 2016, in the absence of salvator swimmers on their beaches, 30 bathing zones in so many kilometers of coast, the Figueira da Foz Authority created Foz Rescue, the only municipal school in the country.
João Matias, municipal coordinator of Civil Protection, explained to Lusa that if the school activity began in this coast of the Coimbra district, rapidly extended to other areas of the country, with requests from north to south, from Trás-os-Montes to Alto Alentejo, undergoing several municipalities of the interior, such as Arouca-where it continues to give courses-although created structure to be dimension and the idea is not massive.
“Even Matosinhos have come to us, it’s because something we’re doing well,” noted João Matias.
Currently, Foz Rescue already has certification for Moto-4 and Rescue Water Motorcycles, and the certification for coordinators is underway.
According to the data available, in five years, between 2020 and 2024, the school formed more than 600 salvator swimmers, approved in ISN exams (rates between 70% and 86%), although the number of enrolled in the two courses that annually give Figueira da Foz-one in the daytime, another before the post-work-based time-more than the time. of approvals.
In 2022, one of the years with the lowest approval (69.2%) among the candidates subject to examination, 306 were enrolled, but only 268 started the course after the first compulsory physical tests. And of these, 231 reached the final exams, and 145 was approved.
