Notices

It was the squad's Annual General Meeting today and a new management committee was elected. The following changes are effective immediately.

Operations Manager - Dirk Erasmus was formally elected into the position after serving as interim ops manager for the past 6 months.

Treasurer - No changes, Andrew Smit remains our treasurer

PRO - No changes, Suzie du Plessis remains our PRO officer. 

Support Services - Chris Meistre remains in this position

Three additional members, Kim Barley, Roland Francis and Andrew Beuster were elected to serve on the management committee. 

Leani Horne (secretary), and Kyle Trader (training) has stood down from the committee, the positions they vacanted will be filled from within the new committee in due course. They will remain on the squad as rescue swimmers. 

Tonight at 17:45 the squad was activated after reports received from the NSRI of a kite surfer in trouble in the vicinity of Flat Rocks. It was later established that it was a wind and not kite surfer that was seen.

The NSRI performed an extensive sea search but did not find anything, our squad members assisted to check all location down to Kings Beach for vehicles or further info.

It was decided to stand down at 19:30 due to the lack of visibility. At this time there were also no reports of anybody that went surfing and did not return.

Great response by all the emergency services in very cold and wet conditions. Thank you to everybody that responded.

Today at 16:42 the CWR squad was activated after reports received from the BWBLSC that a boat had flipped in the river mouth with 4 occupants.

On arrival it was established that everybody was out of the water after being assisted by members of the BWBLSC and a stand down was issued to the rest of the squad. One person was attended to by Gardmed but no treatment was required.

Well done to BWBLSC for their quick response to this incident.

Today at approximately 18h00 CWR responded to a drowning incident at St Georges beach. A 10 year old boy was swimming with his friends and got into difficulty. CWR, Bluewater Bay drowning prevention, BWB lifesaving members, SAPS, Beach Office and NSRI were on scene. CWR rescue swimmers and the BWB lifesavers (on the jetski) did a thorough search of the area where the young boy was last seen. Strong currrents and the sand bank made the search area large. Due to fading light the search was eventually called off. The search will resume at first light tomorrow morning. Condolences to the family.

At 14:33 the emergency services was notified of a drowning in progress at Van Stadens Resort, sea side and not the river. The squad was immediately activated to respond, on arrival at the resort a stand down notice was received as the patient was out of the water. Two girls, ages estimated 17/18 years old got into difficulty in the sea, the one managed to get out and ran for help. The Van Stadens Resort Lifeguards were notified and immediately sprang into action by responding and sounding the alarm for additional help. The girl who was still in difficulty eventually managed to get out some distance from where she went in. Well done to the resort life guards for their quick response. On scene was SAPS, EMS, EMS Aeromed3 Chopper and Beach Office.

Today at 13:27 CWR was notified of a drowning incident in the St Albans area. An adult male went swimming in a farm dam and disapeared under the water shortly after entering. CWR did not activate the entire squad but sent a swimmer and road crew member. On arrival it was established that it had happened at least 30-40 minutes prior to arrival. Our rescue swimmer entered the water and did a search, but the conditions in the dam was not conducive to allow a search and CWR stood down. The SAPS K9 Search & Rescue Unit took over the scene, and the body of the victim was recovered from the dam. On scene was SAPS, SAPS K9 S&R, EMS, EMS Rescue Units, SAPS Helicopter and CWR.

At 15:16 today a second notice was received of a drowning in progress. A youth was spotted in trouble just off Smelly Creek. CWR activated, together with BWBLSC, EMS, EMS Rescue, SAPS, SAPS K9 S&R, Beach Office and the NSRI. A CWR member joined on the BWBLSC jetski and started a search immediately, and another CWR swimmer was deployed to the water to establish the flow of the currents, with the remainder of the swimmer remaining on standby on the side. The search was soon joined by the Beach Office rescue duck, 6A + 6B from the NSRI and the SAPS chopper. An extensive search of the area proved fruitless and the scene was handed over to the SAPS. The body of the victim remains missing. 

Tonight at 8.10pm a message came through from NSRI that there are two dogs in distress in the quarry in Westering, they had members on scene and needed assistance. Although not sure what assistance could be given two of our members went to assist and investigate before requesting more CWR members to come help. They arrived with the Fire Department and together with the Fire Department staff made their way down into the quarry where the NSRI members were already busy with attempts to reach the two dachshunds.