Every IRB and every piece of patrol gear, ready before the flags go up.
Pre-patrol checks for volunteer surf clubs: inflatable rescue boats and their outboards, rescue water craft, patrol equipment and first aid, and beach vehicles. Done on each member’s own phone, at the clubhouse or on the sand. With marine switched on, each beach’s patrol against the club’s own requirement, members’ awards, the IRB and RWC log and the motors.
Why it matters
Patrols are run by volunteers
Members patrol on weekends and public holidays through the season, often a few times a month. The check has to be quick, plain and the same every time, whoever is on patrol that day.
Small craft, hard use
IRBs and rescue water craft live in salt, sand and surf. Hull pressure, valves, the kill switch, the propeller guard and the outboard need checking before every patrol, not just when something fails.
Life-saving gear has dates
Defibrillator pads, oxygen cylinders, first aid kits and outboard services all carry dates, and the gear moves between clubs, towers and patrol vehicles.
The club answers for the season
Clubs report to their state or national body and to councils that fund them. A full season of checks, faults and fixes is hard to produce from a paper logbook in the gear shed.
What Escudo Emergency does for surf life saving
IRB before every patrol
- Hull and pontoons inflated and holding, valves closed and capped, floor and keel sound
- Outboard mounted and secured, fuel connected, propeller and guard undamaged
- Kill switch stops the motor, every time. A fail takes the IRB off patrol
- Rescue tube, paddle, spare kill cord and crew helmets counted aboard
Rescue water craft
- A four-position walkaround with framed photos: bow, both sides and stern
- Engine starts and idles, kill lanyard stops it, jet intake clear, rescue sled secure
- Engine hours read at every check, and servicing tracked by them
- Warning light and horn or siren checked where fitted
Patrol gear and first aid
- Defibrillator self-test with a photo of the screen, pads and spare pads in date
- Oxygen resuscitation kit: cylinder pressure against your minimum, masks counted, suction working
- Rescue boards, rescue tubes, patrol flags, signs and radios counted against the patrol kit list
- First aid kit and spinal board checked, with expiry dates tracked
Beach vehicles
- Side-by-sides and four-wheel drives walked around with framed photos and every tyre
- Warning lights and siren checked on every template, with a photo of the lights running
- Engine hours or odometer read, and servicing due by hours, distance or date
- Recovery gear, board racks and the vehicle’s first aid kit checked
Built for volunteers
- On the member’s own phone, one item at a time, with the reason shown
- One login across the clubs a member belongs to, with a role in each
- Works on the sand with no signal, and sends when the phone is back in range
- The patrol captain sees what is ready before the flags go up
Faults to the gear shed
- A failed item sets the craft or vehicle to restricted or off patrol automatically
- Faults reported with photos and handed to the club’s gear steward as work orders
- Outboard services and defibrillator tests held in the equipment register, with their history
- A full season of checks exported for the club, the state body or the council
Patrol readiness by beach
- With marine switched on, each beach on a surf rule pack shows three lanes, craft, patrol and gear, with every reason in plain words
- The club enters how many signed on must hold each award current, from its own Lifesaving Service Agreement. Escudo Emergency sets no patrol minimum, and one person can meet several awards
- Members sign on to patrol from the phone at the beach, with or without signal. The board counts who holds each award current; the patrol captain decides who patrols
- Choose a surf pack, another rule pack, or none: surf rescue craft in sheltered waters or within 2 nm are outside the national marine safety law (Regulation 2013 s 9(2))
Awards and skills maintenance
- Surf Life Saving Australia pack: awards current to 31 December each season, or 31 July for Northern Australia clubs, a check passed after 30 June carrying to the next season, and First Aid for 3 years
- Surf Life Saving New Zealand pack: the Surf Lifeguard and IRB Driver awards for 12 months from the date done, and RWC Operator for 24 months
- Each award seeded with its prerequisites. A failed check ends currency at once, and a lapsed prerequisite lapses the award built on it
- Every result recorded with its assessor, and members see their own on My awards. Escudo Emergency never marks anyone proficient
The IRB and RWC log and the motors
- Each IRB and RWC use logged from the phone, offline: the craft, the motor fitted, who was aboard as driver, crew or trainee, and the hours
- Each person’s sea time over 12 months beside their IRB and RWC awards, as evidence for the assessor only
- Motors kept as their own records, with their own hours and services as they move between hulls. A motor with no hour meter takes its hours from the log
- The SLSA IRB 25 hp motor chart as an optional preset: 10 hours or 1 month, 50 hours or 3 months, 100 hours or 6 months, and the impeller every 12 months. Other motors take the maker’s intervals
8 starter checks
- IRB pre-patrol, with the IRB log checked and the engine ID, and IRB close-down after patrol
- Rescue water craft pre-patrol and after patrol
- IRB motor service record, patrol equipment and first aid, and the beach patrol vehicle
- Patrol opening: members signed on, flags and signs, the IRB ready, a radio check and the patrol captain’s signature
Report a fault the moment it is found.
Nobody waits for the next check or a phone call to the station. The crew who finds the problem reports it there and then, and the vehicle's status follows.
- 01Photograph it
From the vehicle screen, any time: on a job, at the hospital, on the sand. Live camera only, never the gallery.
- 02Say how serious
Critical takes it off run, major restricts it, minor is recorded. The crew decides on the spot.
- 03Everyone knows
The status changes on the board, a critical fault raises an alert for the officers in the dashboard, and the workshop has the photo, as soon as the phone has signal.
Live cameraIRB · pre-patrol check
Every item decides what a failure does to the vehicle. That is what turns a form into a readiness system.
An illustration. Your items, limits and outcomes come from your own procedures and equipment, and every template for a vehicle or vessel starts with the lights and siren checks.
The record your obligations call for
Surf clubs work to their state and national body’s patrol procedures and gear requirements. Escudo Emergency keeps the evidence that each check was done, by whom and against which version of your club’s checklist. It does not interpret those requirements for you.
Escudo Emergency is independent and is not affiliated with any surf life saving organisation.
- Every check kept against the exact template version it was completed on
- An append-only audit log of who did what, when and where, which nobody can edit, including us
- Photos taken on the live camera and stamped on the phone with time, GPS position and compass heading
- A plain evidence rating on every walkaround, so a rushed or incomplete walk stands out
- Service, test and defect history for every vehicle and item of equipment
- Check records exported as a spreadsheet for audits, insurers and investigations
- All data and photos stored in Australia, in Sydney
Also suits council and professional lifeguard services, lake and river rescue groups, and other volunteer water safety organisations.
Other services
See it with your fleet
Send us one of your check sheets. We will build it as a walkaround and show you it running on a phone, with the status and records it produces.
Or email us: info@escudoready.com