I have now had the opportunity to review the Government's plans to move out of lockdown measures and what that means for our training. I've produced a simple infographic that summarises the pertinent points as I see them and what they mean for our training.
The good news is that we can start training, as planned, at the beginning of May. There is also an opportunity to get to the pool before training starts and I would strongly encourage you to do that and to build up very gently in those first few weeks. Do less than you think and focus on technique. For those of you who were at our last webinar, Jo laid out the importance of this approach well. Ruth also gave us comfort when she explained the science of 'it's in the bank'.
Quick summary
This is a quick summary of the areas where we have made adaptations:
Booking in advance
Signing in process
Safety briefing
PPE
Vaseline / suncream application
Handling your crocs
Feeding
On the beach
Payment for shop items
Certificate signing
A recap on the need to change
Last year, COVID-19 was all new to us and we had to get used to a new world with a host of changing restrictions and laws aimed to protect us from this seemingly invisible threat.
Lockdowns and social distancing were all a bit new then. Most of us were able to be a bit naive and believe that we’ve find out way out of lockdown and back to ‘normal’
A year later and as we emerge from our latest UK lockdown, it’s becoming clearer that we’ll be living with this ‘new normal’ for some time yet. Perhaps the 5 litres of hand sanitiser wasn’t such a bad buy after all!
In the same way as we did last year, we have looked at the Government’s path out of lockdown and interpreted what impact it has on our training approach. To be clear, we want to be compliant with both the letter and the spirit of the law and also be considerate to the local residents and other beach users.
As well as the need to comply for legal and socially responsible reasons, we care about your dreams. We want to ensure that our actions minimise the risk of you contracting COVID-19 from members of the beach crew and also from other DCTers.
Our approach
Before we could work out what adaptations were required, we needed to complete a risk assessment. For once, the time we’re in the water is low risk in this context. The main risks come when we are on or near the beach in areas such as:
Activities that involve physical contact
Activities where multiple parties touch the same objects
Times when there are large numbers of people in the same location or when social distancing is challenging
Socialising
Overnight stays
Assuming that the Government’s plan remains in line with their original dates, the season can be broken into the following time periods:
1st May - 17th May
17th May - 21st June
21st June onwards
The following sections show how we’ve chosen to adapt in order to comply and minimise the risk to all parties.
Booking in advance
We introduced this last year as it ensures that we are able to comply with any track and trace requirements.
You can book in advance on our booking system. Those with training subscriptions still need to book, though there is no charge. Those who are choosing to ‘pay as you go’ can pay when booking, if you are also a member, please use your discount code to get £2 off each session (get in touch if you can’t remember your discount code).
All swimmers need to have completed the annual disclaimer well before their first training session.
Change:
All swims must be booked in advance online
Signing-in process
We still need everyone to sign-in with the beach crew. This is one of our most important processes as it ensures that we know who is in the water at all times.
One of the issues with the old signing in books is that we couldn’t sanitise them when passed between beach crew. Last year we decided to create an app, which clearly has additional benefits over and above being able to sanitise the iPads. It also means that we can (amongst other things):
Get a photo of each swimmer so that should there be a time when we are looking for someone we have a visual cue for who we’re looking for. ‘You know, John, the one with the black trunks’ doesn’t really help.
Multiple iPads can be used to minimise your waiting
Keep a record of who did what and when, particularly useful to looking back at qualifying swims
Keep a record of conditions & temperatures
The other change is around hand numbers. As this involves contact, it’s not something that we can do until social distancing rules are relaxed.
Our plan is to use number wristbands that can be sanitised.
Change:
Multiple signing-in points. Sign in with your pod leader and if you are pay as you go, you can sign in with any pod leader
Wristbands instead of hand numbers. This will remain in place until social distancing rules are relaxed
Safety briefing - now in person on the beach
The safety briefing is always important. Our challenge is that it involves everyone gathering round and someone shouting what needs to be understood for that session. That gives us a challenge with:
Social distancing
Airborne particles with shouting
Last year we placed safety briefings on the website for the session on the Thursday or Friday and required that everyone read the briefing in advance of attending.
We’ll carry on with that process until social distancing rules have been relaxed.
Change:
Please read the safety briefing on the website before attending training. EDIT: Now in person on the beach.
PPE
The beach crew will continue to wear PPE whilst we are near swimmers on the beach. Our PPE consists of:
Face covering
Apron
Gloves
We have plenty of hand sanitiser and cleansing wipes. Please feel free to help yourself to the hand sanitiser.
We change our gloves after each process. For example, when we prepare feeds, we sanitise the bottles before we start, fill with feed and sanitise again. We hand feeds out with fresh sanitised gloves.
Everything we touch is sanitised, often multiple times.
We will continue to use PPE as long as the government guidelines suggest and we’ll then review and decide when we think it is no longer required.
Change:
No change for you, this is our approach to minimising risk to you from us.
Vaseline / Suncream application - now possible
Both of these require both contact and for someone to be within 2m of you. This isn’t possible until 17th May at the earliest. We’ll review again at that point.
Change:
Please ensure you apply suncream before arriving. If you don’t have a member of the household who can help you, a sponge on a stick is a good workaround. EDIT - we can now support if needed, please minimise if possible.
Many people don’t require vaseline for short swims and if you feel you need it, I’d suggest bringing a glove to apply it to yourself and avoid grease on your goggles (makes it tricky to see and can cause them to leak. EDIT- we can now apply vaseline.
Handling your crocs
Unless you’re one of those special & rare people who can walk on pebbles, a pair of crocs can save a lot of pain. The challenge is that it involves us handling them.
To avoid contact risk (you to us or us to you), we will place all crocs into a trug that has disinfectant in it. We will still handle these with fresh gloves.
You can still throw your footwear from the water to the beach and have it thrown back to you whilst you’re in the water. In fact, last year it became a bit of a challenge to see who could get their crocs into the trug from the water!!
Change:
Ensure your footwear is ok to be left in water with disinfectant in (crocs and the like were fine last year, trainers would be a problem!)
Feeding
Here we have two challenges:
Contact risk
Proximity
Our approach will depend upon how many people are training. Where the numbers are small enough to allow feeding from the kayak, we can feed you from a numbered bottle which we will sanitise between feeds. Where numbers are larger we will use disposable cups. Beach crew will wear face coverings and gloves during feeding.
We may use a blended approach at times as the experience of feeding in deep water is useful.
Please respect social distancing at feeds and wait if necessary, feed quickly and get out of the way so that others can feed.
There’ll be no solids.
Change:
Feeding will be from sanitised bottles or disposable cups
Please maintain social distancing at feed times
No treats
On the beach
The swim zone in the harbour is large. The beach is small. Our biggest challenges are on the beach.
When we’re doing longer swims the amount of time spent on the beach is limited. In the early weeks everyone will be doing double dips and warming up between swims.
The beach is a public beach and there may be other users.
We do come into the category of organised sports and therefore are permitted to operate. The challenge is between swims and after training where there can be more of a social element.
Please can I request that you are mindful of maximum group sizes permitted and don’t congregate in groups that contravene this number. If the beach is crowded, please find alternative space on the promenade or grassy area over the road. I’d like to give priority to anyone who struggles with the cold on the beach.
Please be mindful of other beach users and local residents.
Changes:
Be mindful of social distancing when on the beach
Please ensure that any groups are within the legal limits between swims and after training
Please give priority to those who struggle with the cold on the beach so that the beach crew can observe and support them
Find alternative space if necessary when not in the water
Payment for shop items
To minimise contact risk, the beach is cashless. Contactless payment methods are preferred. Feel free to order in advance to avoid the need to pay for anything on the beach.
Changes:
Cashless beach - contactless payment is preferred
Certificate signing
We’re still happy to sign your qualifying certificates. To minimise contact risk we will use our own pens and request that you do the same.
Changes:
Bring a pen to fill out your qualifying certificates / forms and we’ll use our pens to sign
That’s it for now. As the lockdown relaxes we will continue to review these adaptations and remove the more onerous requirements at the point that it makes most sense.
If you have any queries on these area or in any other areas where you have concerns, please get in touch.