City of Canterbury Bankstown to host lessons on Float to Survive techniques

Bruce ‘Hoppo’ Hopkins, star of the TV show Bondi Rescue and President of the Australian Pool and Ocean Lifeguard Association, is to run a series of sessions at the Birrong Leisure and Aquatic Centre in inner western Sydney teaching residents how to float as a key skill for survival in the water.

Hopkins, the co-founder of the not-for-profit, Surf Educators International, is an advocate of the ‘Float to Survive’ concept - a water safety initiative that aims to reduce the number of unnecessary deaths caused by drownings in Australia each year by encouraging floating, which minimises drowning risks by conserving energy and placing a person in a better position to breathe.

In partnership with the City of Canterbury Bankstown, Hopkins will be running to run a series of sessions for residents, starting from Sunday 25th September.

Passionate about water safety and emphasises that floating can be the key to survival in the water, Hopkins explains “if you don’t know how to float and how simple it can be, you tend to battle against the water. Floating gives you time to think, rather than panicking and becoming exhausted. If you can relax and float, then you can wait calmly to be rescued.”

Delighted to be hosting the program, Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor, Khal Asfour states “this program is particularly important to Canterbury-Bankstown, where so many new members of the community arrive with no experience of living around water.

“In Australia, water is everywhere and every summer we see the horrific headlines about lives lost. I don’t want to see any more of those headlines, so I urge our non-swimmers to take advantage of this opportunity and learn how to float

The program is open to adults and children (aged six and up), with sessions at 9am, 10.15am or 11.30am.

The cost is $20 per person and places are limited. 

The City of Canterbury Bankstown has also recently advised that the redevelopment of its Canterbury Leisure and Aquatic Centre into a state of the art facility will see it close in early 2023 for a redevelopment expected to take around two years.

Click here for more information on the City of Canterbury Bankstown's Float to Survive sessions at the Birrong Leisure and Aquatic Centre.

Image: Bruce ‘Hoppo’ Hopkins (third from left) with local swimmers at the Birrong Leisure and Aquatic Centre. Credit: City of Canterbury Bankstown.