‘There’s a lot of stuff going on’: The everyday Australians saving lives in our waters

Hundreds of Australians are are jumping in seas across the country in an attempt to save lives.

As the number of drownings increase, citizen lifesavers are entering waters in record numbers to help stricken Australians.

Associate Professor at the University of NSW Dr Rob Brander says people should take into the account their level of training before deciding to help.

“Some circumstances people are absolutely going to (enter the water),” he told Ross and John.

“We just did a study which shows the people who aren’t trained in water safety find it the hardest to make these rescues and put themselves at risk.

“We know they’re going to go in (to the water) but what we wanted to do is give them some information about what to think about before trying to make the rescue.”

A third of citizen lifesavers haven’t received formal water safety training in any capacity and Dr Brander – known as Dr Rip – said that made it more dangerous for citizen lifesavers.

“The drownings are going up across all water bodies and the number of rescues are going up,” he said.

“Anecdotally, the number of people making these bystander rescues is increasing because more people are going to beaches and secret riverways.

“There’s lot of stuff going on.”

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