Rescue Regatta

 

The aim: disaster/accident preparedness and response awareness,
skill- building workshop, and have fun practising them during the race. This is partly a personal advocacy project - Philippines is a country challenged by many natural calamities and being aware and prepared about possible threats is something that each and every family and individuals should be concerned about. Well-prepared families make a strong community, well-prepared communities make a strong and resilient country. 


 




A course on Primary Care was conducted by Natnat of EMRS - this included CPR, O2 administration and the lecture highlighted the importance of Defibrillator use.

  

A practise of CPR on a dummy victim is a must. Here, volunteers from
Busuanga test their CPR skills.

 


Participants learned the basics of inflatable boat use including capsize and recovery. Here,
participants (in water) took turns capsizing the boat.  Mon led this exercise - thanks.

 


A small pool near the lake was used to practise rescue swims/ towing skills.  Sinag and Mia led the session.

  


Meanwhile, a group of 4 bikers were still on their way to the Regatta venue.  A good lunch at Tagaytay was hard to miss.



After a dinner of endless pancit, rationed chicken tinola and never-ending Sisig-na-Astig, the day's workshop was ended by a talk on Disaster Preparedness c/o Jom Daclan, focusing on earthquake which is the greatest calamity threat for Metro Manilans. I recall "Drop, Cover, and Hold".  And don't forget to quake-proof your homes!

 

Early morning Sunday - A boat race using Dinghies. Here, teams getting ready for the race. It was hard to predict how the race would go, we have not properly tested the boats' performance in an open-water setting. The race was the test :)



Soon the boat race fired off!  The boats were designed for flat-water, urban flooding rescue use - so using them in an open water race (Taal lake being huge) added to the thrill and challenge.




The race included a rescue challenge - swim to the victim and tow the victim back
to the boat. The unexpected challenge was the presence of lush "seaweeds" thriving in the near-shore area.

 


Gloomy weather and light wind were minor challenges - teams pushed themselves to get to the top spot.

 


Foldable boat was used in the race with surprising performance. Team Tiklop struggled at first, got to 3rd on the 2nd loop (of 3 loops) and eventually managed to overtake the boat in front of them to win 2nd overall.

 


With consistent and organized rowing - this team from UPM batch2010-11 prevailed and won 1st place. They were leading from the start.

 


The WINNERS!  Thanks to R.O.X., La Galag, Ulalammm for their prizes.  Other prizes were awarded to the "victims" for braving the 'seaweeds' and for good acting, for the 'best come-back' performance (old-timers suddenly racing with good results), and best towing.

  

Post-race!  Thanks to the co-organizers/facilitators for helping me out (Natnat, Sinag, Mon, Mia, Jom, Erika, Regi and UPM SAR), and to all sponsors and partners (R.O.X., EMRS, Revicon, Ulalammm, UP Mountaineers, Smart, LaGalag; and Primer/CORE for lending a boat). Some photos 'borrowed' from Erwin/Jom/Raech/Paul - thank you.