By Miles Masterson
Last weekend, Cape Town hosted its first Big Wave Risk Assessment Group (BWRAG) Safety Summit at the Chapman’s Peak Hotel in Hout Bay. The Safety Summit was presented by BWRAG instructors, 2003 Red Bull Big Wave Africa winner Greg Long, and fellow Californians – and highly experienced professional first responders – Kaipo Kelly and Jon Hoover.
BWRAG is an organisation inspired by big wave surfers Kohl Christensen, Daniel Couto, and others, who were motivated to change the approach towards risk management in big surf following the drowning of fellow big wave charger Sion Milosky at Mavericks in Northern California in 2011.
This grassroots movement grew into annual summits in Hawaii attended by big wave surfers from all around the world. Formally founded in 2014, since then, BWRAG has focused on educating surfers and water users of all persuasions in comprehensive training on high-surf risk management, covering detailed scenario analysis, breath-hold techniques, CPR/AED certification, open-ocean first-responder techniques, and hands-on equipment education.
Over the years, they have hosted Safety Summits in places like Hawaii, California, Puerto Rico, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Ireland, Peru and Chile. Cape Town big wave surfer, lifeguard, and founder of Sentinel Ocean Alliance (SOA) in Hout Bay, Frank Solomon, approached BWRAG some years ago to host the event in South Africa, but for one reason or another, it never happened – until now.
“It was hard to align, but then once I joined the Patagonia team, and Greg was on Patagonia, and then BWRAG got funded by them, the stars all kind of aligned to make something happen this year,” said Frank, who is reluctant to take all the credit. “There were a lot of people involved, and so many people that made it happen.”
Proceedings kicked off with the Big Waves, Big Beer, Big Comedy Auction at Jack Black’s Brewery on Thursday, May 14, presented by Gone. Outdoors’ Grant Gleghorn and his team at Patagonia Cape Town. Hosted by no-holds-barred comedian Nik Rabinowitz and featuring a panel discussion with Frank Solomon, Greg Long (visibly stoked to be back in Cape Town after more than a decade), Mike Schlebach, and Matt Bromley, the entertaining event featured an auction of surfboards and various other offerings, raising tens of thousands of rands for SOA and Protect the West Coast.
The Safety Summit itself commenced on Saturday, May 16, at Chapman’s Peak Hotel, not far from premier Cape big wave spots, Dungeons and Sunset. More than 50 surfers and other watermen and women signed up, including Frank, Matt, Mike, Mickey Duffus, James Taylor, and a host of other local big wave surfers, groms, and a group of adaptive surfers from the Roxy Davis Foundation.
Jon Hoover, a retired search and rescue boat captain who now resides in Hawaii and has been working as an instructor with BWRAG for the past decade, opened the summit with a session entitled Ocean Risk Management. Through a process known as Identify Assess Control Implement Supervise, he explained how only by being prepared for all eventualities in the ocean realm can one equip oneself to deal with them properly.
A good degree of paranoia can be applied here, joked Jon. But in all seriousness, thinking long and hard about what can go wrong in any given situation can help you start to figure out how to deal with it effectively. Through a series of photos portraying scenarios like a kid surfing in shorebreak in front of a tourist on a bodyboard, or a surfer jumping off a high cliff at a surf spot, Jon asked the audience to pick out what could potentially go wrong in each situation.
Without going into too much detail, knowledge preparation and communication are all vital components of ocean risk management, and the session was definitely eye-opening for everyone there, including even the most experienced big wave surfers, such as Matt Bromley.
“I was stunned by how unprepared risk-wise that we were, going into our big wave sessions,” said Matt. “We’ve trained and know CPR and have skis on standby, but if something really bad happens to one of us so far out at sea, we pretty much just hope for the best. This course helped me to see risk in a new way and how we can identify and mitigate it.”
The first day rounded out with a practical session on First Aid and Medical Interventions, in which attendees learned how to deal with all sorts of emergencies, as well as an introduction to all the different kinds of safety equipment that can be used in ocean rescue.
“We learnt hands-on how to pack a wound with a severed artery or use a surfboard leash as a tourniquet,” said Matt. “It was so practical, and we got to go through the actions with the instructors.”
Day two commenced with an exercise called Emergency Action Planning and Spot Analysis. Four groups analysed Hout Bay Beach, Long Beach, Dungeons, and Bayview in Hermanus to identify the main risks and potential ways to manage them at each spot and then present them to everybody.
In-depth discussions around the more obvious risks and others very few or nobody had considered – for example the subject of rabid seals emerged as an issue at most Cape Town spots, as did the distance of all these breaks from hospitals, so mitigation methods around what to do while waiting for an ambulance, assigned a designated car key holder in group sessions, watching out for your buddies during a surf and more came out of the conversation.
Other ideas like setting up WhatsApp groups for surfers sessioning big wave spots, signing up to the NSRI app, or downloading local neighbourhood watch apps, inputting the numbers of local first responders such as community patrols and other key individuals, to be prepared to reach out for help in case of any emergency, also emerged.
Again, concepts of a dose of healthy paranoia, preparation, communication, and looking out for others were central to the conversation. Jon also recommended a post-session breakdown of the session, what went wrong, what didn’t, etc., to keep ocean safety top of mind and be better prepared next time.
The morning closed with an enlightening breath-training course by Greg Long. After lunch, everyone headed down to the beach for a practical session hosted by Kaipo, Jon, and Greg, centred around real-world rescue scenarios, followed by a closing ceremony.
To a man, woman, and child, everyone who attended the Cape Town BWRAG Safety Summit learned a great deal more about ocean rescue and risk management than they probably thought possible. No doubt, the event was a resounding success, and hopefully it won’t be the last.
“It is so good just to know that the other guys out there, when you are surfing Dungeons, know what to do if something happens to you. I think for the longest time we have just been winging it,” said Frank afterwards. “I’m just super grateful to have had this epic event and to learn all that knowledge, and hopefully we can pass some of it on to those who weren’t able to attend.”
For more info on BWRAG, go to https://www.bwrag.com/
ALL IMAGES ©Van Gysen