European award for Clarecastle lifesaver

Clarecastle man Oisín McGrath has been selected European Lifesaver of the Year by French lifesaving magazine Coureurs d’Ecume. Currently hopping around on a broken leg, Oisín is the first Irish winner of this prestigious award, which was operated on an email voting system. The 31-year-old Clare man received more than 450 votes from Ireland alone.
Oisín, who is a pilot with the Air Corps, has been lifeguarding since 17 and has competed at national, European and world level for Ireland. He won three gold and a silver from the World Masters Lifesaving competitions held in Egypt in 2010 while his performance at the European Championships in Alicante this year contributed to placing Irish lifesavers sixth in Europe.
“There were six males and six females nominated by the magazine based on results from the European Lifesaving Championships this year,” Oisín explained.
“I started competing back in 1997 and I’ve been on the Irish team since 2001. I’ve been taking part in international competitions every year since then. We had a fairly good Europeans this year. Of 14 medals won by Ireland, 11 of them were won by Clare athletes,” he added.
In his day job, Oisín pilots the Garda helicopter, which he says can sometimes be as adrenaline-fuelled as his lifeguarding hobby. Ideally though, he isn’t keen to avail of his life-saving skills while piloting the helicopter. 
“Hopefully not,” he laughed. “They’ve been used in the past from time to time in training but not on official work,” Oisín added.
He finds that the skills required at work and while competing complement each other. “Very much so,” he said. “You wouldn’t get nervous and the experience of competing helps you to keep cool under pressure.”
He is grateful to his employers for supporting his lifesaving career. “I get great leeway from work. They let me off for competitions and training camps and all sorts of things. We train all summer in the White Strand and Spanish Point. There could be 100 kids there during the summer and then the senior trainers would be training in the evening or sometimes twice a day, all summer,” he said.
His broken leg is not conducive to either piloting or life saving at the moment. He broke it two weeks ago while surfing in the US. Still, winning a European life-saving award this week has dulled the pain somewhat.