Aussie lifeguards get trained to combat surf rage

By Pauline Askin

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - In Australia, home to some of the world's most beautiful beaches, they suffer from surf rage and this summer, lifeguards should be able to pacify it.

Outdoors-loving Australians flock to the beach in droves, with sun-worshippers, swimmers and surfers jockeying for a patch of sand and sea to call their own.

And as the temperatures rise and the crowds thicken, tempers sometimes fray.

"Surfers are out there to do their sport and have a good time. They get very passionate about what they do, and the swimmers are the same," John Restuccia, New South Wales Director of Life Saving, told Reuters.

"Surf rage doesn't happen very often to us as lifesavers, but dealing with conflict at any stage can be uncomfortable, so we're trying to train our leaders," he added.

Restuccia said the Silver Medallion Life Saving Course was currently on trial and would be launched nationwide this summer. The course involves informing lifeguards about their environment as well as teaching them the best way to deal with beachgoers.

"It's about how to better communicate to the public, how to better resolve issues that may happen on the beach and also how to better communicate to their patrol team," Restuccia added.

"A better-educated lifesaver on the beach becomes a better person to serve the public and that's what we are trying to do."

Australia's beaches are largely peaceful, but they have seen their share of violence.

In 2006, a Sydney surfer was banned from all city beaches after facing 29 charges relating to a campaign of intimidation he waged against fellow surfers. In one incident the surfer reportedly slapped and spat at a lifeguard.

The growing popularity of surfing has also meant more people riding waves, which sometimes leads to scuffles with other surfers and swimmers.

"The hardest job for us is keeping swimmers between the flags," said veteran lifesaver Ray North at North Cronulla Beach.

In 2005, an attack on a pair of lifeguards at Cronulla sparked riots between white Australian youths and ethnic-Lebanese Australians that damaged cars, shops and churches.

And at Maroubra, a hardcore surfer gang known as the "Bra Boys" used violence to control the beach, clashing with other gangs and the police. They gained international fame in 2007 with the release of a documentary narrated by Russell Crowe.

"Lifesavers are not at risk, let's get that quite clear," Restuccia said. "But what we're doing is trying to better educate our lifesavers to deal with things that may happen."

(Editing by Miral Fahmy and Richard Pullin)