‘I heard people saying “He’s not breathing”’

The ripple effect – thanks to Poole's 2022 RNLI Lifeguard of the Year, Sandbanks' gain is also Senegal's.

Poole lifeguard Idi Ndiaye is so much at home in the water that his nickname is ‘The Waterman’. Idi, a former military firefighter, ambulance driver and rescue diver, is from Dakar in Senegal – a place where drowning is all too common.

While working as a lifeguard on the beaches there, he once saved three boys at once from a riptide – an act performed without any lifesaving equipment. It led to a place on the RNLI’s Future Leaders course. In this episode, Idi talks about how this in turn led him to set up Swim Safe Senegal, the country’s first lifesaving training association.