Knowing how to swim could save your life

As the festive season slowly approaches, many South Africans are gearing up to spend time with their families and friends, with some planning to cool down and escape the summer heat with swimming on their itineraries. 

While this sounds like a lot of fun, professional swimming instructor and lifeguard Sibusiso Xulu said people should remember how dangerous water can be if one is not equipped with the basic skills of swimming. 

Xulu, who runs his own swimming school through the Protea Glen Aquatics company, cautions those who cannot swim to be careful of the possibility of drowning. 

“Even after so many years as a lifesaver, I still find it terrifying when drowning takes place. I always tell people that knowing how to swim is a lifetime skill because that way, you can save your own life as well as someone else’s.  

“And we always try to educate children about water safety. Knowing how to swim does not just end there. You can even earn a stable income because there are a lot of careers to follow on the path. You can become an instructor, a professional swimmer, a lifeguard or saver, underwater welder and scuba diver. Even for airlines, we train those who want to become air hostesses because it has a minimum requirement,” said Xulu.

For the then six-year-old Xulu, the basic skill began at a municipal pool located opposite his childhood home in Senaoane, Soweto, where he would wake up in the morning, cross the street and go take a dive in the nearest pool, and he took it from there. 

“My mother was like my swimming coach at the time. Swimming was the only thing I enjoyed doing when I was young. I would go spend the whole day and come back home and sleep.

“As I grew older, myself and a couple of other guys decided to form a group called uShaka Aquatics, where we gave free swimming lessons to children and people around Benoni, east of Johannesburg. We decided to involve Eastern Gauteng Aquatics,” said the 28-year-old Xulu. 

In 2014, Xulu saw an opportunity to turn his skill into a career. He was approached by Aquatics Gauteng to come on board to visit schools and teach pupils about water safety, both in theory and practice.  

“I fell in love with it even more. I also saw a business opportunity and decided to open my own business called Protea Glen Aquatics and started charging last year. We run a school initiative called the Water Safety Programme, where we go around schools and teach them about water safety for free. We start phase one in class and move on to phase two, where we take them to swimming pools. 

“I always tell people that being a lifeguard is like being a doctor. You must know how to do CPR and use a first aid kit; survival skills and you must be able to tell the signs when one is about to drown,” he said. 

ratsatsik@sowetan.co.za