Members of a lifeguard training club at a Falmouth beach have been sharing coastal safety advice on their beach patrols.

Gyllyngvase SLSC have been advising the public on how to be safe in the surf around Gyllyngvase beach during the Easter holidays.

The scheme is intended to fill the gap during the periods in which RNLI lifeguards are off duty.

Alongside its beach patrols, Gyllyngvase SLSC train the lifeguards of tomorrow as well as serving the community through education, sports and skills development.

Alice Lord, who is vice-chair of the Gyllyngvase SLSC committee said: "We started off doing patrols last summer when the RNLI couldn't be on the beach because of Covid.

"We hadn't done beach patrols before but got experience doing it, then decide we could continue doing it in Easter and October when the lifeguards aren't on duty.

"So we just have volunteers down there who are qualified lifeguards, who've done their lifeguard award through the club, and they set up on the beach and give advice to people about going in the water, conditions, and general safety really.

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"It's about helping prevent accidents on the beach at the moment.

"Gyllyngvase is really quite safe, it's not generally very busy, but sometimes when there's waves you can get quite a nasty shore dump.

"We're just chatting to people about conditions and saying 'it might be safer if you swam at low tide, maybe later,' and people are taking that advice and choosing not to go in a hurt themselves in the shore dump and going a bit later when its a bit safer.

"We're just doing it for the holidays, so the last day is in two days time on Sunday.

"We might do some evenings as well, we haven't quite decided yet, it would depend how busy the beach is and how busy everyone else is as the RNLI finish at 6pm.

"It's essentially a wraparound service.

"Because the club is so active at Gylly anyway it makes sense for us to train and provide a patrol service at the same time as the two can be combined.

"We started last summer, we hadn't done it before as a club, so it's a bit of an experiment last summer and I think we'll continue to do it going forward."

If you're interested in finding out more about Gyllyngvase Surf Life Saving Club, you can visit their website at: gyllysurf.org.uk.