Silver Medallion Inflatable Rescue Boat Driver

What is the IRBD?

The IRB Driver (IRBD) course provides participants with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively drive and manage an Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB) in surf rescue operations

Pre-requisites:

Be a financial member of an SLS club

The minimum age requirement is at least 17 years of age on the date of final assessment

Must hold and have a proficient Bronze Medallion & IRB Crew

Must hold a state Boat License logged on Surfguard

Boat License

It is a requirement for all candidates to hold a State or Territory boat license prior to the commencement of ANY IRB Driver training. You Boat License number needs to be logged into Surfguard prior to any training. You can add your boat license number to your personal details by following this navigation: 

Login to Members Area > Memberships > Update Personal Details

Enrolment Process:

Step 1:

Talk to your Chief Instructor. Our SLSSA club member education is run by volunteers which means that we depend on our trainer availability to run courses for members. Please reach out to your club Chief Instructor to confirm that an IRBD course is running with availability. If there is not an IRBD course available at your local club, your Chief Instructor can work with you to establish when a course will be available or find a course running nearby.

Step 2:

Make sure you have the time to commit. You can expect your IRB Driver training to take approximately 8-10 weeks depending on the squad and trainer availability. The IRB Driver is a Silver Medallion and has extra layers of responsibility and specialised training. IRB Driver training requires candidates to train in a variety of surf conditions that increase in complexity. This requires travel and early morning sessions typically over consecutive weekends. The IRB Driver is a lengthy training course and you will need to make sure you are able to commit before commencement. 

IRB Driver trainings a predominately practical based and quite physical. You will need to talk to your Chief Instructor and trainers about any limiting injuries or conditions before your training. SLSSA is and Registered Training Organisation, which means that the training and assessment is competency based. Your trainers and Chief Instructor will work with you on your practical ability before endorsing you for an assessment. Due to the nature of competency based training, training times may differ squad to squad. 

Step 3:

Organise your membership. IRBD's must be financial members of their SLS club to undergo their IRBD training and assessment. Each club has different requirements for their membership. You need to make contact with your club to establish fees, pay membership, and provide a WWCC (if required). 

Membership fees are paid through the SLS Members Area. If you do not have a members area account, you will need to set one up at: SLS Members Area 

Step 4:

Enrol into IRBD. You will need to enrol yourself into the IRBD course through aXcelerate. 

Enrolment Link: IRBD Enrolment 

Scroll through the list to find your SLS club and click enrol. If you do not have an aXcelerate global account, you will need to create one. *Important: your aXcelerate details are NOT the same as your SLS Members area details - these are 2 different systems. 

You will need a Unique Student Identifier (USI) to enrol into your Bronze Medallion. If you do not have one, you can create one easily at: https://www.usi.gov.au/
If you have a USI but can't find it, you can use the above link to find your USI. 

Step 5:

Complete Online IRBD questions. Part of your IRBD assessment is a series of online questions that need to be completed before your final assessment. Your trainer/chief instructor will prompt you when to complete these questions. Your IRBD questions are found within aXcelerate. When you enrolled into the IRBD course in the previous step, you would have received an email with instructions on completing these questions. You need to log into your aXcelerate student portal to access your IRBC questions. 

aXcelerate Learner Portal