Safety PlanToronto Island Lake Swim

August 18th, 2013

EVENT SYNOPSIS

The Toronto Island Lake Swim is an open water swim race event located in Lake Ontario on Wards Island in Toronto Ontario. The event will take place on Sunday, August 18th on Wards Island. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness for clean fresh water lakes.

The Toronto Island Lake Swim is partnered with the Lake Ontario Water Keeper charity. A portion of of the event proceeds will go to the Waterkeeper charity. Their tagline is "working for a swimmable, drinkable, fishable world".

The Toronto Island Lake Swim consists of two events: a 1.5k swim and a 3.8km swim.

Roles

• 1 Chief Safety Officer - accountable for executing safety plan

• 1 Chief Registrar - accountable for registration and overall starting swimmer count

• 6 Lifeguards - observe swimmers in water and respond to swimmers in distress

• 1 Police boat - keeps course free of unauthorized boat traffic, overall course observation Course boats - placed along course route, swimmer observation, respond to swimmers in distress

• On Course Swimmer counters - 6 counters will be placed along course route, count swimmers as they pass

• Start/Finish Swimmer Counter – 2 accountable for verifying the number of swimmers that start and finish the swim

• On shore safety officers – 2 observe swim in progress

• 1 EMS – respond to any swimmers in distress

Core Safety Team: 12 w/ 8 Counters for 20 on the team.

Course considerations

• There is a short course 1.5km and a long course 3.8 km

• The course starts at Ward’s Island Beach and continues west along

the shore line

• Water depth on the course is 3-20 feet (from north to south)

• Course route will be marked with buoys every 100 metres with large

buoys at the turn-around point (750 m, and 1.9k).

Communications

• All safety team members (12) are required to carry a hand held radio

and/or cell phone

• Communication between safety team will be coordinated by the

chief Safety officer Jon Haywood

• Communication between safety teams and police and EMS will be

coordinated by the Chief Safety Officer Jon Haywood

• We will also be producing a training video that explains how our

safety plan will work. Swimmers who register will be sent a video to

watch explaining how the entire safety aspect will work and operate

so that the day of the event they are all well educated. We will also

brief them again on race day.

Swimmer Safety Considerations

• All swimmers will be required to register & sign the waiver

• Short course swimmers will be required to wear individually numbered, bright pink swim caps

• Long course swimmers will be required to wear individually numbered, bright yellow swim caps

• Swimmers will be encouraged to swim parallel to the shoreline and if they are feeling uncomfortable for any reason, they should take off their cap and waive it in the air to get the attention of a lifeguard.

• All short course swimmers must complete the course in 1 hours, or they will be forced to abandon the swim and removed from the water

• All long course swimmers must complete the course in 3 hours, or they will be forced to abandon the swim and removed from the water

• Swimmers that need to stop for any reason will be instructed to stay where they are (swim out of the way of swimmers), take their cap off, and wave it in the air. This will catch the attention of the lifeguards who will arrive in their boat to assist.

• Swimmers will be notified of the current the day of the event.

• The event will be cancelled if the water is under 16/61 degrees, or if there is significant waves.

• Event organizers will be screening registrants based on previous swimming experience on a best effort basis.

Swimmer Tracking

• The Chief Registrar will advise the Chief Safety Official as to the total registered swimmers for each course at the start of the swim

• Swimmer counters will be provided with a detailed count sheet accounting for all registered swimmers. They will be asked to count the number of swimmer that pass by each check-point on a best efforts basis.

• The Start/Finish counter will count all swimmers starting and finishing the swim and will coordinate with other safety officials to ensure all swimmers are accounted for.

RACE COURSE

There will be two races that will start and finish on Wards Island beach. There will be a 1.5 KM race and a 3.8 KM race.

CountersBuoys

X Large Turn-around markerEMSLifeguard (In a boat and moving)Police (In a boat moving)

Thanks!

Contact info

Jon Haywood - Jon.Haywood@capitalone.com - 416-371-2311

Bill Poole - billpoole1970@gmail.com - 416.577.4962

Steve Hulford – steve@filemobile.com - 416-435-4361