Summer safety campaign

Throughout the summer, the RNLI runs a beach safety campaign, offering top beach safety tips and encouraging you to choose a lifeguarded beach – particularly if you’re planning to go into the water. Obviously you want to enjoy your trips to the beach, and by following the RNLI’s advice, we hope you can have a great time at the seaside and stay safe as well.

Last year RNLI lifeguards were patrolling more than 150 of the UK’s busiest beaches. They responded to 16,662 incidents, helped 18,775 people and saved 107 lives – a clear indication that you should be safer if you choose to visit a lifeguard beach this summer.

As part of the summer campaign, the charity’s key beach safety information will be displayed on bus-stop posters, service station panels, bus backs, and mobile advans in locations around the UK. It will also be communicated through other media including magazines, newspapers, internet, radio and television.

 
The charity’s top five beach safety tips are:

• Swim at a lifeguarded beach, between the red and yellow flags

• Never use inflatables in strong winds or rough seas 

• Check tide times before you go 

• If you get into trouble, stick your hand in the air and shout for help 

• If you see someone else in trouble, tell a lifeguard. If you can’t see a lifeguard, call 999 or 112 and ask for the Coastguard. 

 
Choosing a lifeguarded beach means you can enjoy your day safe in the knowledge that highly-trained, professional lifesavers are there to look out for you. You may not need them, but it’s good to know they’re there, just in case. Between the red and yellow flags is the safest place to swim (or bodyboard) as it’s the area they monitor most closely.

Lifeguards also proactively give advice to beach users about how to stay safe. Most of their work is preventative – offering helpful information about how to safely enjoy the beach, to try and prevent incidents from happening in the first place.

For help finding an RNLI lifeguarded beach please use the beach finder feature here, or alternatively you can visit goodbeachguide.co.uk. The website is run the Marine Conservation Society and is an excellent way to search the UK's beaches using criteria such as location, water quality and lifeguards.

For further information about how to be safe at the beach, you can download the RNLI's two free guides, which are packed full of useful information, fun games and details of how to enter the annual sandcastle competition!

On the beach - guide to beach safety

In the surf - guide to surf sport safety

The RNLI works closely with the Marine Conservation Society, which runs www.goodbeachguide.co.uk. Use this site to find a lifeguarded beach near you.