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NPLQ

Hello, I’m doing my NPLQ assessment next week. I’m extremely nervous about the mannequin test. I can just about do the actual surface dive, but I don’t know how to pick something up without goggles. What happens if you fail?

Reply 1

JackNolan26

Original post by Maia17

Hi hope it went well! just posting a response for any further people that could come here asking the same / similar question. Ive been a lifeguard at a leisure centre for the past 6 months, with a valid NPLQ for the last 8 months.
The manaquine is part of the deep water recovery sequence. You are told to recover the 'drowned' casualty. You must get in (jump/slide/etc) and swim over to the manequin, surface dive down, pull it up to the surface, drop it again, turn over the human 'casualty', pull them to the wall, check for response or breathing, start rescue breaths until help arrives.
For this you must collect the manequin from the bottom of the pool in one go. If you surface dive down and fail to pull the manequin up you will fail this section. This must be brought to the surface on the first attempt. As for the eyes, I swim RIGHT over the manequin, and go over head first, and open my eyes once ive puled myself down half way.

Other notable mentions is the depth of the pool. You can complete a 2.0 metre (standard) or a 5.0 metre (for diving pools). This is much more difficult due to the pressure difference, meaning that you must release air as you go down. This can lead to you earspopping or nosebleeds which they warn you about before hand.

Once youive passed you NPLQ and begin work, the RLSS ensure that you complete monthly staff training (1hr poolside, 1hr dryside), and pretty much every month we've had to pull the manequin out - whichy means you get used to it pretty quick. Any further questions then feel free to comment !