Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Sport and art

This is a quick line drawing of a Canadian international lifesaving sport competitor in a beach race events. I love the lines and movement sketches of athletes provide. With the Olympic Games coming up in a couple of weeks, its prime sketching time, sitting watching the competitors in various sports and trying to capture the motion.

The work I do deals with both humanitarian and sport aspects of non profit work. The sport is lifesaving. Lifesaving sport is sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee and is unique because it is the only sport in which skills are learned for humanitarian purposes and only then applied to competition.

Lifesaving sport is divided into six different disciplines including; pool events, ocean events, Simulated Emergency Response Competition (SERC), Stillwater boat competition, surf boat competition and the inflatable rescue boat (IRB) competition. With this type of diversity it is easy to understand why this sport has been deemed the most demanding multi-discipline sport in the world.

This week - July 19 - 27, 2008 - is National Drowning Prevention Week in Canada. The week is designed to draw attention to the drowning problem across the country and to encourage Canadians to stay safe in, on and around water.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an interesting post!
I had no idea about Lifesaving being recognized by the Olympic committee. I have seen some surf boat races. That is truly some challenging sport!

(I will be right there next to you, watching. I love to see the Olympics)

Jeanette Jobson said...

Yes, lifesaving sport has grown a lot over the last few years and it is a demanding discipline. A bit like Ironman competitions.

I'm not a sports fan, but I use events like the Olympics to sketch shapes during repetitive motion sports.