Designing a future

Anna Jacobsen grew up on the NSW north coast, at a nice spot called Lennox Head, and went to Alstonville High School, which she loved.

“I was a very creative student,” says Anna, 22. “In Year 12, I did drama and arts and humanities-based subjects.”

Her art talent and skills were good enough to score a place in NSW’s coveted ARTEXPRESS.

Anna was also an active member of the Lennox Head Astonville Surf Lifesaving Club, which she reckons helped her in various ways throughout her life.

“You learn about teamwork, and how to be a good communicator. It’s also about responsibility and giving something back to the community.

“It was fun and bonding. You have the responsibility to patrol the beach but you do it with friends and it’s fun.”

Anna also says that mentioning volunteering and/or surf lifesaving on CVs and job applications can help enormously.

Meanwhile, on top of school and volunteering, Anna was trying to sort out what she would do after finishing Year 12.

“I decided I needed more than just fine arts. I attended uni open days and spoke with students and anyone I could. I spent a lot of time looking at the internet too.”

She started looking closely at industrial design. It’s creative but has a framework and parameters she thought would help her focus her creative energies. And she was right. She located a good-looking course across the border at the Queensland University of Technology, and moved up.

Was leaving home for uni a shock to the system?

“It was a pretty dramatic move. The responsibility was a shock – I did feel that change from high school to uni. I guess the helping hand wasn’t there.”

But her time-management skills learned through being busy with lifesaving and other things put her in great shape to make the adjustment.

And she found the QUT program excellent. After the three-year degree, she took on a graduate diploma which included six months of product research and development before six months of designing a product.

“It’s all about understanding a key issue in society – where a product can assist others – and then designing that product.”

During this time she also picked up an internship at an industrial design firm, which has helped put the last pieces into place.

It’s culminated in Anna designing ResQ – a selffitting neck brace to help prevent spinal injuries when rescuing people from the surf. Anna says that unlike traditional neck braces, her design could be fitted to accident victims before they were brought to shore and could be used by a rescuer without extra specialist training.

“Surf lifesavers have a lot of equipment to assist patients out of the water, but there is currently no equipment for moving a patient in the water,” she says.

“If a spinal injury is suspected, often the lifesaver must wait in the wash zone until more help arrives. This wash zone can agitate the patient’s injuries and result in further injury.

“Also, injuries can happen as the person is being transported out of the water.”

ResQ is a neck brace that fits around a modified lifesavers’ tube, the yellow floatation device commonly used to float people in the surf.

“The neck brace consists of two rings, which individually clip around the neck of the patient and can be adjusted to suit a wide variety of beachgoers.

“Joining these two rings together is an inflatable bladder which is activated by pulling a toggle at the back of the brace, which inflates to support the neck, similar to the support of inflatable life vests.”

She reckons the inflating bladder can take away the need for the rescuer to have the specialised training required for the use of existing neck braces. She says the modified tube and neck brace may even be able to be produced more cheaply than equipment currently used by lifesavers.

The device still requires medical testing, which could be undertaken with commercial support.

“There are 52 spinal injuries each month on Queensland beaches, and 80 per cent of spinal injuries involve the neck.”

Change your life this summer…

Surf lifesaving is about satisfaction, having fun, being physically fit, learning teamwork and aquatic safety skills, competing in surf sports, and helping make surfing and swimming safer for the community. Surf lifesaving can offer you a range of opportunities which will promote:

• healthy lifestyles

• sense of pride

• sense of responsibility and purpose

• positive social relationships.

Who can join?

Membership is open to anybody, regardless of age, race, religion or sex. There is a place for everyone in surf lifesaving. If you are unable to perform the duties of an active surf lifesaver, then perhaps assistance in the administration, communications or fundraising areas is for you.

Other stuff

There is heaps of things you can do whether you’re an ‘active’ lifesaver or not. For example, by gaining basic awards in radio operations, you can assist with patrol observation and communication duties without having to perform waterbased rescues.

If you are less than 15 years of age you can obtain a Surf Rescue Certificate. Probationary surf lifesavers can achieve this award from the age of 13.

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