Bali Tourism News

Bondi Rescue boys feel heat on the beach at Kuta, Bali

September 10th, 2008

By Erin McWhirter

HAPPY holidaymakers scramble across the hot sand to plunge into the cool ocean off Bali¿s iconic Kuta Beach as a dazzling orange sunset fades on the horizon.

The mercury is still pushing more than 32C and the sweltering heat means these happy-go-lucky tourists, some of whom have been gleefully downing tropical cocktails at bars that line the beach, want to get all the fun they can in the last of the sun.

But fun turns quickly to danger.

A French woman and her two young sons are caught in one of Kuta’s famous rips and as spectators watch in fear from the comfort of their beach towels the beach’s lifeguards quickly spring into action.

Working frantically alongside the Indonesian lifeguards are two familiar faces for television fans – Ryan “Whippet” Clarke, 24, and Tom Bunting, 27, from Channel 10’s Logie Award-winning series Bondi Rescue.

The pair, along with several of their Bondi colleagues, including Kristian Yates, Anthony “Harries” Carroll, Andrew “Reidy” Reid and Dean “Deano” Gladstone, are in Bali on a cultural exchange of skills and knowledge.

However, without the state-of-the-art equipment usually at their disposal in Australia – jetskis, paddle boards, spinal boards, oxygen tanks and motorbikes – the Bondi boys are really being tested.

Adding to the strain for these larrikin boys in blue, both of whom will celebrate their fifth year patrolling Bondi this summer, is the fact they must adjust to reading the new surf conditions and the language barrier.

As Bunting, who is studying to become a chiropractor at university, and former Home And Away star Clarke, take to the water with just a tube (those flimsy boards that were used on Baywatch), they know they are in for a physically gruelling ordeal.

It turns out to be the toughest rescue of their careers and it’s all been caught on film for the new program Bondi Rescue: Bali.

“All the resources we associate with professional lifeguarding back at Bondi you don’t have here,” Bunting says after the rescue.

As he talks it is clear that daily patrols in the 35-plus temperatures and the basic equipment available for rescues is taking its toll.

“All you have is yourself, your two hands and your wits about you to basically manage the beach. The French rescue was so intense. I am not tall, so when I got out there I had the boy over my head and was just holding my breath underwater to get him in,” he says.

“There were moments when I just wanted out of it because it was too much. At Bondi we would have had two rescue boards and it would have taken five minutes, here I had a tube and the rescue took 15 minutes.”

Providing backup for each other is of the utmost importance to these Bondi boys and Clarke says it was paramount for the survival of those involved in the French rescue.

“We’ve has some pretty decent rescues while we’ve been over here,” Clarke says from the tree house-like control tower.

“Tom and I rescued a French lady and her two sons who were getting smashed in the surf a few days ago. That was pretty intense.

“It was one of the hardest rescues that we have ever been involved in.

“It was a bit touch-and-go during that time because we just didn’t have the resources we would have at home.”

To patrol the one-kilometre stretch at Bondi the lads sit at a lone control tower in the centre of the beach. In Kuta, there are five posts spread along a 5km stretch of sand.

Until recently, when the Bondi team bought two motorbikes, it was a case of running from post to post when someone was in trouble, a physically draining feat to say the least.

“If there is a rescue in the middle you have to run, dragging the board with you,” says Yates.

“I did a rescue the other day and by the time I got there I had run 2km and I was beat.

“The only reason we knew something was going on was because we saw the ‘circle of death’ around the two girls who had drowned and been dragged in. Sure enough there were two dead bodies there. I ran 2km and by this stage we had gotten them back to life.

“But when the ambulance came, it was nothing like back home. The best way to describe it is like an ice cream truck. It’s been an eye-opener being here.”

When the Bondi team depart they will leave a spinal board, an oxygen tank and a pair of bikes for the Kuta lifeguards to use.

Nine people have drowned at Kuta this year, with a yearly average of 20 to 30. The numbers are frightening, considering Bondi may lose one life every 12 months.

But while it has been a challenge, both sets of lifeguards are learning from each other.

“Just reading the surf here, in conditions we aren’t familiar with and the intensity of how fit they are has gotten us moving,” Yates says.

Terry McDermott, who orchestrated the entire exchange program and has had a long association with the Indonesian Professional Lifeguard Association over nearly 30 years of visits, says the Bondi boys have found the trip frustrating and challenging.

“I saw one of the worst first aid-related injuries in more than 20 years of lifeguarding over here,” McDermott says.

“It was a Swedish board rider who got impaled on his board, it was a life-threatening injury. I heard through the grapevine he got 200 stitches. Every rescue has been a huge challenge because it’s so different.”

Marshello Lolot Aryafara, 28, who has been a Kuta beach lifeguard since 2003, says viewers will see some action-packed footage.

But he also hopes the program boosts tourism in the area, after a dramatic decline since the Bali bombing, which claimed 88 Australian lives, six years ago.

“This is the real reality of our beach and hopefully it will help our economy and tourism in Bali so much,” McDermott says.

“These lifeguards are supporting us and giving us the tools we need, spending hours and hours with us to show us techniques so we can make our beaches a lot safer.

“We thank them.”

Source: http://www.news.com.au/

Entry Filed under: Bali Tourism News