Dusit Laguna & La Meridien

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Early start this morning - Slim woke the team pre-6am for early morning breakfast at Dusit Laguna Resort with Rotary Club. ABSLSC Team stood to sing Thai national anthem with Rotary members.

A 9.30 start saw a second day of training with staff and participants at Dusit Laguna Resort. Their participation and willingness to learn was great! The morning session was in the conference room with slideshows and educational resources which was then followed by board work and rescue techniques in the resort lagoon. Chris, Stuart and Darren demonstrated board skills in difficult surf conditions ( 4’ & hazardous ).

We finished off the day's program with awards , certificates and a stirring rendition of “Cheers Boys”.

We had two Australian women from La Meridien resort attend yesterday's training - they advised that they operate a full lifeguard training scheme at their resort. Slim, John and and Steve went to Le Meridien this morning to check it out. They employ instructors from Australia and have been doing this for about 7 years. They pay the instructor and give them free accommodation. Their beach while still a public beach can only be accessed by the public from the water so only guests of the resort use the sand and facilities. The beach is set up just like a patrolled Aussie beach with flagged areas, jet ski areas and craft areas, The lifesaver training is excellent and about 50 staff from local resorts pay for the training to level 5. The Sports/recreation manager also started a lifesaving club some time ago but since the tsunami it has fallen apart some what. We will try and assist to get the Patong lifeguards and resort personell together to resurrect the club.

This afternoon the team relaxed with a few well earned beers at Dusit Resort - Dasha, Stu and Parkesy enjoyed cocktails by the pool, then we are all heading back to Rude St. for dinner & evening entertainment.


Gail - Ken's wife departed today to return to Australia and we eagerly await the arrival of Mel and Brad later tonight.

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Comments

[Avoca Thailand Project]

Surf's Up at Avoca
Hey guys, congratualtions on what sounds like 2 days of very successful training with the Thai peolpe. Yesterday Anita published our Blog site publically and we now have a lot of people and organisations through Australian Surf Life Saving watching your trip with interest. Hopefully by now the daily Telegraph will have caught up with one of you for an article in the local papers. The sun shone brightly over our beautiful beach today and had the whole of Avoca out watching the 8 foot waves off the point with only a brave few taking the plunge to impress us all. keep up the good work team and hi to Mel and Coxy - hope your journey was trouble free. KD