Bondi Rescue Viking Edition: Aussies on Danish patrol

West Australian

2 days ago

There aren't any lurking sharks or powerful rips to contend with on Denmark's Zealand island.
Yet Australian lifeguard Sebastian Walker-Staalkjaer reckons it's taken a while to get used to another occupational hazard - random naked swimmers.
The 27-year-old from Victoria's Portsea Surf Lifesaving Club is one of six Aussie lifeguards who have been patrolling Danish beaches northwest of Copenhagen since late June as part of an exchange program with North Zealand Lifesaving Service.
The group has been deployed to swimming spots along a 70-kilometre stretch of coastline known as the Danish Riviera, where sleepy fishing villages are inundated with holidaymakers.
"Because you can see Sweden from here ... you just don't get the wind that pushes the swell for kilometres and kilometres and kilometres to build the big swell we get in Australia," Mr Walker-Staalkjaer explained as AAP joined him on patrol at Lynæs sea bathing club.
"So even though they do have rips here, they just don't have the power behind them."
Mid-interview, a naked Danish couple wandered down to the water.
"This is one thing I'm surprised about," he said laughing. "In Australia, we don't have naked swimmers."
Mr Walker-Staalkjaer used a rubber duck thermometer to measure the water temperature, a crisp 19 degrees.
"The Danes love their water temperature," he said. "I guarantee you, I have six different guys come up to me, telling me I'm off by a degree."
The exchange program started three years ago after John Mogensen from North Zealand Lifesaving Service met Natalie Hood, former president at Portsea Surf Lifesaving Club, at an international lifesaving meeting.
The pair lamented how difficult it was to fill patrol shifts during summer, Mr Mogensen said.
"It's about boosting manpower but also giving an experience to my lifeguards ... they make friends abroad," he told AAP.
The participants receive travel subsidies, free accommodation and access to bikes to get to their paid or volunteer patrol shifts, depending on working holiday visa eligibility.
Mr Mogensen, who is director of lifesaving, noted the Australians injected more fun and social life into his service.
Inspired by Australia's Nippers program, he revived a Danish junior development program.
The exchange also expanded after former Australian ambassador to Denmark, Kerin Ayyalaraju, introduced Mr Mogensen to a surf lifesaving contact in Sydney, resulting in NSW lifesavers coming to Denmark.
For Mr Walker-Staalkjaer, who has a Danish father and Australian mother, it's an opportunity to connect with his paternal roots, practise his language skills and catch up with extended family.
"Just writing Australian lifeguard up on the board, you get so many people coming up, excited, saying 'Oh wow, you've come all the way over from Australia'," he said.
"You have a lot of people bringing up (Australian-born Danish Queen) Mary... most have a connection because they have been travelling there or their kids went to study or took a gap year."
Mr Walker-Staalkjaer hasn't performed any major rescues in Denmark. It's mostly been first aid, jellyfish stings and swimmers standing on poisonous spiky weever fish.
Doing solo patrols has also been a novelty, whereas back home, he is usually on duty with a team of 10.
"You need a different style of guarding here. You have to keep yourself very alert. Whereas, in Australia, things kind of come at you," he said.
"It's a slower pace in a good way."
Later this year, a handful of Danish lifeguards are set to travel Down Under to escape Denmark's brutal winter.
Mr Walker-Staalkjaer then hopes to be back in Denmark next year.
"It's great hopping from summer to summer," he said.