Bronze Medallion Test

Ini lifebuoy, bukan lifeguard.

*lame joke*

A blog reader asked me what exactly are the tests to get the Bronze Medallion certificate. So then, here goes. A blog post specially for that purpose. This was based on my own Bronze Medallion experience as I still haven't received the pictures of the test which was held last Saturday.

Okay, let's start with training.

I trained for 3 weeks, 8th to 26th June 2009. 5 times a week, 8 am to 5 pm. This was during my 4th semester break, that was why I can pulun habis-habisan for training.

I trained with SMART. No, SMART doesn't stand for SMART Reader Kids (Like most of my friend thinks)... Heh. SMART actually stands for Special Malaysia Rescue Team. They are the ones who go to those earthquake missions and things like that. Remember the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide? Yup, they helped around there too. I even saw a friend of mine on the news! *Proud*

Training with those abang-abang bomba, abang-abang polis, and abang-abang askar, the training was yes, of course, army style. And for army style... You need...

Bricks.

Yes, BRICKS as in batu-bata. This is before it's wrapped.

(Batu-bata yang mak kamu letak bawah pasu bunga tu...)

Every morning, we had to run five to six rounds around the pool with the bricks held on our hand! Super duper heavy I tell you... I only managed to hold one brick at first. Later on I managed to held two bricks and even could ran while helding them up high.

Go Mighty Tiah!

Yes, yes, yes... Mighty Tiah and by the end of three weeks... Mighty Tiah is a Dayang Senandung. Dayang Senandung, in case you didn't know, is a classic Malay movie about this dark skinned woman.

Well basically, to get yourself a Bronze Medallion Certificate you have to:

1. Swim 50 meters and chin-tow 50 meters below 3 mins 15 seconds (For ladies). *My time was 2 mins 30 secs using breaststroke...*
2. Swim 50 meters and rope-towing 50 meters (No time limit).
3. Rope throwing more than 20 meters (More or less) below 1 minute.
4. Cross-chest towing 25 meters with clothes on. *Trust me, I did tried on a variety of clothes during training. Including my old kebaya! Ahaha!*
5. Combine rescue.

There were a bit difference between my test and their test.

Okay, so combine rescue. The depth was the same, though. 2 meters.

Mine: Swim swim swim and then dive down until brick A and then swim underwater until brick B. Pick up brick B, and water tread until the tester said enough. Then, you and the victim together have to put the brick back down nicely. After that, you tow the victim to the side, give breathing and then pull the victim up. Settle.

Theirs: Swim swim swim and then dive down until brick A, held up high brick A, count until three and then you just throw the brick down. Swim until the victim which was waiting at the arrow and then tow the victim to the side. The only difference is you don't have to swim underwater and the brick, you don't have to place it back nicely. Settle. 

*Honestly, I was a bit jealous 'cos you see, I had a hard time going down there and swimming underwater... Dengki. Heh.*

And for ILS, International Lifesaver, you need to add more which are:

1. Swim 100 meter below 1 min 40 seconds.
2. Swim 300 meter below 9 minutes. (breaststroke, 8 mins 30 secs)
3. Swim underwater more than 25 meters. (The only female who PASS!)

Cross-chest towing with clothes on.

They had to swim with their uniforms! Memang sangat sangat berat okay! While me, on the other hand... A very very skimpy blouse.

Chin-tow

First, we tow them by using chin-tow. When the victim struggled (My victim was very nice, she only struggled a bit. See? Not much splash. Heh.), we have to squeeze their nose a bit so that they became a bit weak so we can tow them by cross-chest. Another hand was used to lock the other hand from moving. 

There was this one time where I became the victim and the lifeguard was this one guy. When I shouted "Abang... Tolong!", he actually swim much faster! Ahahahahah... Talking about motivation.

Katak dalam air... Honestly, I was actually thinking "Nak mati pun matila, janji lepas".

 This was the last test I have to pass to get myself ILS.

I've never even reached 25 meters during training. But during the test I did! And it was more than 25 meters! But 30 meters only-lah... Eheh. Mum cried when she saw me. Mr. Salman gave me a pat on the shoulder. Eheh eheh. Ehehee...

So finally that was the end of it. Everyone passed the Bronze Medallion test. 14 SMART guys and 1 girl got themselves ILS. *Ahem* I was the only girl who got ILS. *Ahem ahem*

Too bad there wasn't any certificate giving ceremony... Okay, there was one, but I couldn't join in as you know these guys... Too much protocols and bla bla bla... Even taking pictures in a group was also a bit difficult to do. 

All in all, I really had a great experience knowing these guys and I had to admit I did spoil their 'serious', 'stone cold' attitude by being giggly and oh so happy during training. Like my trainer said, 'Budak yang banyak gelak pulak dapat ILS'. Eheh... Hidup mesti ceria, I tell you.

Though I really did cried on the very first day. Yes, I cried at the end of the very first day of training. Yala... It's really really tiring okay! Swim laps laps and laps. What I hated the most was the whistle sound. 

Preet...! You go swim. Preet...! Then you go up. Preet...! Then you go dive in. Yes, my trainers were those commanders with big tough bodies and they really love blowing their whistles.

During the very first briefing they actually said us women can finish training earlier than the men. But when I excused myself, I wasn't allowed to. So, more laps. Yesss.... More laps until I got really fed up that I actually shouted "BAB*-lah!" to that commander. Yes, to the commander. Komander okay... Bayangkan komander garang berbadan besar sasa.

Of course I got scolded back "Fizikal je kuat, mental lemah".

The next day, next next day, next next next day, there's no turning back. Eheh...

End of training. Jadi lifeguard sudah!