Our lifesavers rescue thousands every Summer, but not everyone can be saved. That’s why the RNLI has launched its biggestever campaign – and why a father in mourning has bravely spoken about why everybody should Respect the Water 'Speaking at my son's memorial ceremony is that hardest thing I've ever had to do,' says Phil Bindon, trudging across a damp beach, flanked by his two daughters and the mother of his only son. 'If I can do that, I can do this.' The sand gets wetter as he approaches the water's edge at Polzeath, Cornwall. Phil casts his eyes to the right, where grassy headland looms over dark rocks. It’s the last place that his son Mike was seen alive. ‘I’ve never had such a sinking feeling’ Later, Phil will visit Rock Lifeboat Station for the first time. The volunteers there worked with the crews at Padstow and Port Isaac to search for Mike after he was swept from a rock by a freak wave while angling. Along with a Coastguard helicopter, the lifeboat crews scoured the sea for hours on 22 January 2014. But Mike was never found.

Phil sits on a rock and takes a deep breath as a video camera trains on his face and a clapperboard snaps. He’s here to support Respect the Water, the RNLI’s biggest-ever safety campaign. It’s designed to raise awareness of the sea’s dangers among those most likely to succumb: men aged 16–39. ‘Mike was a 23-year-old lad,’ says Phil. ‘He was just full of life – he probably wouldn’t have thought it was a risk, getting washed out to sea. I have lost parents … but nobody expects to lose a child. I‘ve never had such a sinking feeling.’ Mike was one of 168 coastal fatalities in 2015 (source: WAID). More than half of those lost don't expect to even get wet – they get caught out doing seemingly safe things like walking along the coast or fishing from rocks. So the RNLI’s focus this year is to highlight the risks of unexpectedly falling or slipping into the water – and reminding people how dangerous the sea can be. ‘A potentially fatal combination’ ‘The sea can be so unpredictable,’ says Rock Lifeboat Helm Paul Hancock, one of the volunteers who spent hours searching for Mike. He and his fellow crew members have launched to many people who have fallen foul of the sea’s turbulence, tides and temperature. ‘It takes a very small wave to wash someone off rocks. Plus they forget it’s not a lake – it’s under the influence of the tides, which can catch people out. People also underestimate the temperature of the water and how energy sapping it can be. All these things combine to make a potentially fatal combination.’ This Summer more people than ever will hear about those dangers, thanks to the Respect the Water campaign. It’s all part of the RNLI’s aim to halve coastal drowning by 2024 – something that can’t be achieved through rescue alone. That’s a fact that Phil Bindon knows only too well. ‘They resumed the search the next day and it was very hard as a parent to know that he was out there and there was nothing you could do to get him back,’ recalls Phil. ‘And to this day we have still never got him back, which makes it hard for us as a family to get some sort of closure. I don’t want anyone going through what we have.’
Words: Rory Stamp
Photos: RNLI/Nathan Williams