Monthly Archives: January 2019

YOU CAN FAKE IT TILL YOU BREAK IT

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You can fake it till you break it.

Then you have to fix it.

Did you set aside a budget incentive for future damages or loss?

If not, do it now!

DO IT

We do not learn from lessons learned.

We continually repeat the same behaviors that got us into trouble to start with.

Its not hard to ignore the warning signs, signals and to generally evade.

In fact is may actually be a part of our humanity.. therefore even more important to pay attention and be worried if you are too comfortable.

Go back in recent and distant time and look at the program hurdles.

Are they back on the track right now and do you need to conduct some clearing?

SUCCESS

Yeah, its a pain in the ass to review.

Yeah, its time.

Yeah, its not sexy and there is not action that feeds our need...yeah. YUP!

But do it, just go and do it. Do it now.

Achieve success by denying the lessons learned but ignored.

If you budget means anything to you, respect what is happening with the program and manage it.

Get your gloves on and go to work!

Only good things lie ahead!

__________

Posted 1.19.2019

Have any questions? Join the Rescue Water Craft Association
and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!
Join the Rescue Water Craft Association

Content Creator: Shawn Alladio cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

IF YOU ARE RESENTFUL FIND A SOLUTION

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If you are resentful, find a solution.

If you recognize your program has problems, you have to take action.

You have to do something.

We know about 'see something-say something', well that applies to public safety and water safety as well.

DO IT

You need to take action to positive advice. That is the offensive play.

Defense is holding progress hostage.

If you throw out an excuse you are on the defense.

Have some confidence and start doing research to make changes.

Don't forget for some of you, its not just a paycheck, its a sworn oath of service towards others.

You should make an oath with yourself about taking care of your safety and others.

SUCCESS

The pressure you put on yourself will help you realize you are a solution and that your job is not a lifestyle, its a calling, a way of being.

This is where you experience joy, happiness and satisfaction with you life. It will show in everything you touch!

Happiness in work is managing the success of it.

You are the person.

We can't wait to hear what great changes you have been able to influence.

You matter most!

__________

Posted 1.19.2019

Have any questions? Join the Rescue Water Craft Association
and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!
Join the Rescue Water Craft Association

Content Creator: Shawn Alladio cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

SAVE NOW PAY LATER

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You can save now but you sure will pay later!

When an agency representative says they cannot afford training or the right equipment, they need to shut their program down and reevaluate their present reality.

It's time to get honest and shoot straight from the hip.

There is no way to cry about not having a program functional.

But you can close a program that is not functional and will cause damage, such as a mishap.

BLACK HOLE

The Black Hole of wrong is an excuse.

What do I mean by that? If you have equipment you cannot maintain financially, you don't have a program.

If you cannot afford to pay for training that will stop an accident from occurring, prevent the injury or death of personnel, you better have a good insurance policy and be ready to ruin reptuation.

You can pay up front and do it right.

Or you can pay with silent ignorance that is going to ruin everything the program justified on paper but could not produce.

MANAGE PROBLEMS

If you decide by committee rule to close a program down, you have my respect.
If you decide by committee rule to discover opportunities to manage your program and restructure it, you have my respect.

Don't go ahead blindly. Break it down!

1. Equipment costs
2. PPE costs
3. Training Costs per member
4. Maintenance costs
5. Accident investigation costs
6. Injury costs
7. Replacement costs
8. Recurring training costs
9. Dispose of equipment costs
10. Administration costs
11. Annual evaluation costs of program
12. Mission deployment costs and loss
12. What else did we miss?

Your program is no different than how we run a business. If we open up the door and cut costs, something will go away for that decision. Which of the 12 items are you willing to remove?

Okay.. what will you get in exchange for that removal?

Don't forget to add in the storage fees you would pay for gear, buildings are not cheap. Add electricity, fuel and vehicles and trailers.

Don't forget tires, maintenance and checkups.

Keep going... you are starting to get the picture!

Save now or pay later... having a maritime boat unit is costly.

It is NOT a tool in the toolbox! Stop saying that crap~ It's a marine unit with many pieces that are interwoven for it to be provided. Its hundreds of tools united in one forward motion.

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Posted 1.19.2019

Have any questions? Join the Rescue Water Craft Association
and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!
Join the Rescue Water Craft Association

Content Creator: Shawn Alladio cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

YOUR BEST 30 YEARS

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Your best 30 years in the Rescue Water Craft community started with K38!

We know this from the success stories, the witness but most importantly the results for public service.

ANNIVERSARY

CELEBRATING YOU

You are probably seeing yourself in some of the images from training and disaster work or special events.

We appreciate all those brave souls who have partnered with us, put their trust in our standards and care enough about
their reputation to work hard and train smart.

You matter most!

__________

Posted 1.19.2019

Have any questions? Join the Rescue Water Craft Association
and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!
Join the Rescue Water Craft Association

Content Creator: Shawn Alladio cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

READY?

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Ready? Three Questions we all need to ask ourselves before we splash our Rescue Water Craft!

1. Is your Rescue Water Craft Ready?

2. Is your Crew Personal Protective Equipment Ready?

3. Does your Crew have the proper training experience to fulfill the mission safely?

KITTED

REPEAT

By asking ourselves these three questions we can determine if we are 'ready to go' or 'no go'.

Having a maritime asset such as a Rescue Water Craft requires your safety plan to be a determination of mission success.

Sit down now and plot our these three questions and get together with your team.

Discuss where your program is and if you can response adequately.

Are your personnel able to have appropriate tools and personal protection?

Do you know how long it takes to launch? Put those three together and do a dry run, time it!

GO!

__________

Posted 1.16.2019

Have any questions? Join the Rescue Water Craft Association
and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!
Join the Rescue Water Craft Association

Content Creator: Shawn Alladio cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

TIME IS VALUE

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Time is value, and how we spend it is priceless. Let's take a look at your program motivation.

What are your top 4 standards in which you measure your Rescue Water Craft program foundation upon?

Here are a few of mine I would like to share for your consideration and review:

1. Recurring Education
2. Goals
3. Time
4. Results

CRITIQUE

In training my role is not to be anyone's friend. In fact my role is the obverse.

I am there to scrutinize behavioral choices that result in operational movements.

Scrutiny at this level helps guide the student Coxswain closer to their maritime goals of manning the helm and becoming competent at boat handling skills.

Review the training goals again:

1. Knowledge base
2. Leadership, management and critically honest assessments
3. Research and study
4. Action

REPEAT

To encourage a team member is to make them strong.

When that happens the team gains.

Lead them so they can win.

Then you know you really care for them. Monitor all the safety elements and its a double win for both you and your team members.

You have to push them to their limits to learn. Otherwise they will never attain the necessary and vital capabilities to conduct safe and sure behaviors in natural settings that are unpredictable and dangerous.

This cannot be negotiated. When the RWC community stops, slows down, discards and excuses the need to drive hard and train with purpose, a mishap is being invited and I sure will.

That’s how you lose the game. To win the game, skills are honed and taken seriously.

Don't get too comfortable, keep reaching for the next learning level!

__________

Posted 1.16.2019

Have any questions? Join the Rescue Water Craft Association
and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!
Join the Rescue Water Craft Association

Content Creator: Shawn Alladio cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

TIME IS MOTIVATION

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Time should motivate you because you cannot get it back once spent.

Time is essential. The Time is NOW!

Your actions have positive meaning.

You have invested a lot of time into your Rescue Water Craft program or you are about to venture on that journey.

Regardless, use your time wisely. Its the same as a rescue mission.

Time is critical to the end result.

Training our nations elite Coxswains requires a dedicated focus on time management and moving the group as one mobile and vicarious asset of good. Time cannot be wasted on ineffective operations that can cost them their life or that of a teammate. The stakes are high and the 'time is now'.

TICK TOCK

Progress is forward movement, its essentially timely management of advantages and staying off the disadvantages.

This means the clock is ticking!

In a rescue we only have mere 'seconds and feet'.

A second of movement at different speeds can be 20 or 60 feet of forward attempts, regress or success and celebration.

Isn't it unnerving to realize that a second in time can mean the difference between life or death or a near miss?

How many times in your career have you shrugged off that near second reality? Its quite humbling to realize that our lives
can come down to moving our range of motion 1" or 1 foot to the left or right and that decisions is life or death!

For me every action is measurable, its an accounting of being in the right place, at the right time and prepared for it.

IDEAS

Ideas of service oriented movements promote effective time management. It seems nobody has enough time and everything is wanted yesterday. This means our time management needs to be effective and not misshapen.

More capability of all our actions is expected to deliver with less, so the finite adaptation of the progression of time use is critical to all of us.

Processes are engaged, equipment addressed, gear purchased all for the goal of future 'time'. For that call out, that rescue or that daily patrol.

Preserve your time management by focusing on the realities of program need, maintaining effective records and keep the team on point with authentic practices that can yield them timely results in their rescue response.

__________

Posted 1.13.2019

Have any questions? Join the Rescue Water Craft Association
and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!
Join the Rescue Water Craft Association

Content Creator: Shawn Alladio cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

POSITIVE IS POWER

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Positive is power and it begins with you.  Respect your ways and you respect your life and those around you.

K38 is your biggest cheerleader! We know what it takes to do the hard work, take the hard hits, and endure the critics.

Positivity cannot be smashed even by the most ardent deniers.

That is what makes you so great! Otherwise you would not be taking your precious time to read this validation you so greatly deserve.

Thank you for caring about your career and the reputation of those around you.

Work, attitude and commitment over the long haul will bring you there.

Maintain your positive attitude, it has served you well up until this point and it will not disappoint your future.

Positive actions create solutions.

Positive attitude creates a calm atmosphere under pressure when a disruption will create additional chaos.

Nobody wants to be around a negative personality, they are distractions from forward progress and need to be deflected.

Even if you are surrounded by doubters and naysers who bully and chide your dedication and focus, don’t assume their problems as your own. Smile back at yourself and carry on.

No matter what comes your way, you are the power of the greater good for the long term results.

The more positive you remain over the endurance of your career, the more benefits others receive. Your actions matter most, more than negativity, it crushes the disaster of that realm with the ‘can do’ attitude of getting things done, doing them right and avoiding collisions or mishaps.

We need more people like you to maintain that watch!

_______________________

Posted 1.13.2019

Have any questions? Join the Rescue Water Craft Association
and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!
Join the Rescue Water Craft Association

Content Creator: Shawn Alladio cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

USE IT

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It's now what you know, is how you use what you know when its time to launch your Rescue Water Craft.

You may know what your operational goals are but are you capable of executing them under pressure?

Its easy to do a drill, repeat a drill, say 'good job' and close the day.

When it suddenly gets real, knowledge is only an extension of actions addressed under duress.

That's where the chaff is separated from the stalk.

It requires a lot of repetitive corrections with the unknown. Team work is essential because your teammates can remind you where you are dropping off and how to stay in forward motion. Always work with the elements at hand, not in opposition.

SECONDS AND FEET

What can you do to get ready?

I have a simple formula that will help you.

Count.

Starting counting in 'SECONDS AND FEET'.

This is how we measure our training performance of our Coxswains.

It's not about time, its about forward movement.

Are they smooth?

Is the Coxswain maintaining a level boat?

Are the keeping the Rescue Water Craft stable by using proper balance techniques?

Is the Coxswain and the Crew steady? Are they working together or opposing each others vital actions?

Be Consistent in Behaviors and Constantly Asses, Critique and Correct.

KEEP THINKING

KEEP THINKING and KEEP MOVING!

Both of these behaviors reveal the mind of the Coxswain, their determinations and the exposure of their accountable actions.

You can evaluate these behaviors in a step by step method of risk.

1. Are they maintaining a watch?
2. Do they use effective helm management?
3. Is their throttle modulation accurate and safe?
4. Are they making a safe contact approach with the survivors in the water?
5. Did they secure their stop appropriately?

If you answered a hearty 'no' to any of these, you have some good work ahead of you!

The good news is you just modernized your program!

We thank you and your survivors will be eternally grateful for your safe management and professionalism.

Remember: A moment for safety will save a lifetime of regret.

____________________

Posted 1.13.2019

Have any questions? Join the Rescue Water Craft Association
and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!
Join the Rescue Water Craft Association

Content Creator: Shawn Alladio cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

LEARN

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The Value of Training is the admission of the necessity for improvement. Training is also a vital extension of preventative maintenance.

If something isn’t quite working out as expected, address it.

This applies to the physical actions of Coxswains as much as it does to the tools they need to administer their program success.

If you have a team mentality that will do things the way they have always been done, maybe its time to inspect that closely. Everything in our world is moving forward, but water rescue has been stagnant in product development or new training updates and that is not good!

Admit where you or your program is wrong or flawed. Don't skirt it, don't ignore it and don't give it an excuse or delay. Fix it, and fix it strong and sure so that you do not suffer a casualty or loss. (or worse).

Making admissions in the errors of program or equipment use is lifesaving, its your life and your teammates. It starts with the most simplest of your tools.

Learning is about review. Its about sustainability and performance measures.

1. Itemize the needs
2. Deduct the problems
3. Fulfill the Solutions
4. Evaluate the results.

You cannot learn until you start taking some corrective actions. Its not just on the water where things go wrong, its starts with the program and long before you head to the boat ramp to launch.

You can start with something as simple as your engine cut off switch and lanyard.

Are you sure you are using the correct engine cut off switch for your Rescue Water Craft?

INSPECT

You need a minimum of 6 engine cut of switches or 'kill switches' as some refer to them.

The generic slang is simply using the word 'lanyard' to shorten the sentence structure.

It is a lot to say 'grab your engine cut off switch lanyard', but that is the correct term.

So, go get them right now. I'll wait for you...................

REPLACE

Broken, cracked or damaged, its time to replace like this engine cut off switch

Welcome back!

How many do you have in front of you? One of three?

Here is a solid suggestion for you.

1. Emergency use for the RWC (in case of emergency only)
2. 1 for the Coxswain
3. 1 for the Crew Member
4. 1 on board for replacement in case of loss or damage underway.
5. Additional 2 spares back at the marine unit location to replace the damaged ones.

Okay, you you need at least 6 engine cut off switches honestly.

Well if you don't have replacements you may have to take your Rescue Water Craft out of service until new ones arrive. That could takes weeks on order during the peak season.

How do you inspect them?

Just like any other sensitive equipment:

1. Breaks, fractures, splits or cracks
2. Lanyard frayed or worn
3. Long term age (yeah replace old gear)
4. Make sure you are using the correct key to begin with!

Engine Cut Off Switches should be specific to the Make, Year and Production model of the Rescue Water Craft you use.

Inspect after every single use.
Inspect annually.

Remember, this is part of your minimum Rescue Water Craft carriage requirements and the single most important accessory you can have while underway.

Now that you have the engine cut off switch done, go do the line and inspect every other item in your Marine Unit RWC Shed!

You are off to a good start!
__________

Posted 1.13.2019

Have any questions? Join the Rescue Water Craft Association
and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!
Join the Rescue Water Craft Association

Content Creator: Shawn Alladio cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.