Noosa’s Isaac Smith said he was honoured to be named Regional Lifeguard of the Year.
“I feel very chuffed, especially amongst all my peers, because there’s so many great lifeguards here on the Sunshine Coast, both male and female,“ he said.
Although Isaac has been in countless major incidents throughout his career, he said it was the little things that meant the most to him.
“It’s not about how many rescues you’ve done, it’s the little bit extra that you do,“ he said.
“Whether it’s someone’s having a bad day in a major incident out at the National Park and being able to assist them, or reassuring someone’s loved one who has been hurt that they’re going to be fine.
“It’s about being that person that they remember as being there for them in a time of need.“
His career highlights include being a mentor to the junior lifeguards, some of his peers and showing leadership.
“I’ve loved watching the nippers and aspiring lifeguards come through the ranks. Over my years I’ve seen a lot of little nippers start in under fives and now they’re professional lifeguards, which is great to see,“ he said.
Isaac implemented the interservice Noosa National Park induction which has seen countless lifeguards and lifesavers become familiar with the dangerous Noosa National Park Area that is the subject of numerous calls for assistance every year.
“A lot of years ago we found that we were getting called into the National Park more and more,“ Isaac said.
“We don’t just do the typical lifeguarding in front of the tower at Main Beach. We get called to the River Mouth, the North Shore, the street for first aid, and also to the National Park.
“The National Park, as you know, is so big and vast. It’s very populated but very isolated, so if someone gets injured in there, whether it be at Tea Tree, Granite Bay or Hell’s Gates, regardless of what injury they had, we were finding we had a lot of communications problems with radio dead spots.
“I came up with the National Park induction to teach safety, risk assessments, what equipment to take, and all that kind of stuff.“
This induction has been rolled out to all emergency services including QAS, QPS, QLD Fire and Rescue.
“It’s made a huge difference to our response times because everyone knows the best tracks to take and how to relay messages to our communications centre,“ Isaac said.
“It makes rescues a lot more streamlined.“
Isaac said he would continue lifeguarding as long as his body will enable him to.
“It’s a healthy, happy job,“ he said.
