Open Water Safety Course Oslo 16-18 October 2026

The Open waters safety course is a three-day course that starts at Friday 16th October with a walking dinner at the teaching facility of the Norwegian Lifesaving Society. After the dinner, three keynote speakers will prime the students with the fundamentals of safety theories and models in the context of high-risk environments, road and open water safety. After the evening session, the participants will have a refreshing 30-minutes‘ walk to the Radison Blu Park hotel.

On the next day, Saturday, there will be seven interactive lectures on the various components and models of open water safety implementation along with three workshops on open water safety, two of them at the beach in front of the teaching facility. Lunch will be at the teaching facility while the day will end with a dinner at the Radison Blu Park hotel after which the participants can enjoy each other company, explore Oslo, or both.

On Sunday, the day will start with a role play reflecting open water safety situations in various real-life situations, as well as interactive lectures that should help the students to implement what they have learned during the course. The course will end early afternoon with an evaluation and lunch at the teaching facility.

Meet the speakers

Meet the specialists contributing their expertise to the Open Water Safety Course in Oslo.

Jop Groeneweg

Delft University of Technology

Jop Groeneweg studied cognitive psychology at Leiden University, The Netherlands. His PhD research focused on identifying systemic factors that contribute to incidents. He is a professor of Safety in Healthcare at Delft University of Technology. He is also affiliated with Leiden University and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Research as a human factors specialist and serves as an associate board member of the Dutch Safety Board. His research focuses on quantifying and modelling factors that contribute to sound risk management within organisations and on how these factors relate to organisational learning capacity and the prevention of incidents like drowning.

Peter Dawes

Royal National Lifeboat Institution

Peter Dawes is the general manager of lifeguard operations for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in the United Kingdom, offering over 50 years of global water safety and rescue expertise. His career began in Australia, where he held senior leadership roles with Surf Life Saving Queensland before relocating to the UK to help establish and scale the RNLI’s national beach lifeguard service. A pioneer in drowning prevention. He has had a transformative role in public coastal safety across both hemispheres, including standardising rescue operations and water safety education. His lifelong dedication to saving lives at sea was formally honoured in 2025 with the prestigious IMRF Vladimir Maksimov Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jan Johansen

Norwegian Road Safety Council

Jan Johansen is a senior executive with extensive experience in leadership, organisational development and road safety. He currently serves as director of the Norwegian Road Safety Council, where he is responsible for strategic development, public policy and cooperation with national and international stakeholders. Throughout the past 25 years, he has worked at the intersection of traffic safety, public administration and societal development. He has a particular interest in evidence-based road safety, safe system approaches and the development of effective partnerships across sectors.

Roger Sweeney

Water Safety Ireland

Roger Sweeney is deputy CEO – head of marketing, communications and education at Water Safety Ireland. With over 25 years’ experience in drowning prevention, he leads national communications, public awareness and education initiatives designed to influence attitudes and encourage safer behaviour around water. His work focuses on turning drowning prevention research and evidence into clear, relevant and memorable public communication, using national campaigns, media engagement and education to help people better understand and manage risk around water. He has contributed to international collaboration on drowning prevention and has a particular interest in how effective communication, advocacy and positive behaviour-change campaigns can help build a stronger culture of water safety.

Ronald Stoffer

Royal Dutch Lifeguard Association

Ronald Stoffer has master’s degrees in criminal law and Crisis and Public Order Management. He has served as police-officer in The Hague since 1984 and is currently chief super intendant as well as deputy chief of the Joint Dispatch Centre of The Hague for police, fire-brigade and ambulances. He was deployed as gold commander during the NATO summit, an imminent dyke breach, and during annual New Year’s Eve’s scenes. He has served as honorary board member in the Royal Dutch Lifeguard Association since 2019 and general commander of the National Flood Rescue Fleet that was activated during the 2021 floodings in the province of Limburg. For more than 30 years he enjoys the sea and the beach as a lifeguard instructor.

Marc Audeoud

Swiss Lifesaving Society

Marc Audeoud has a technical and IT background and is subsequently trained as an airline pilot, gaining extensive experience in safety management and risk assessment. Several years of practical exposure to maritime environments while living at sea, has shaped his holistic approach to safety, risk, and human factors. Within the Swiss Lifesaving Society, he serves as a rescue specialist, ILSE risk assessor, member of the education and training team, and member of the managing director team. He supports open water safety initiatives through expertise, consulting, and education development.

Martin Hoogslag

ILSE Rescue Commission

Martin Hoogslag is a senior advisor at the Dutch Institute for Safety at Bathing Areas, national duty officer for Royal Dutch Lifeguard Association, and team leader of the National Flood Rescue Fleet. With more than 25 years of experience in beach lifesaving, water safety, and emergency response, he is actively involved in operational leadership, lifeguard education, and drowning prevention. He serves as chair of the ILSE Rescue Commission and is an ILSE senior tutor risk assessor. His work combines practical lifeguarding experience, risk management, research, and international collaboration to improve safety in aquatic environments across Europe.

Henry James Evans

Foundation for Environmental Education

Henry James Evans holds a PhD in sustainability education from the University of Copenhagen and has managed education programmes in botanical gardens, expedition cruise ships and environmental non-governmental organisations. He works at the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) in Copenhagen, coordinating the Blue Flag programme. The Blue Flag promotes education for sustainable development alongside environmental management, accessibility and safety and currently operates across 52 countries and 5,274 certified beaches, marinas and tourism boats. FEE collaborates with international organisations, including ILS, ensuring research and practitioner expertise informs Blue Flag criteria and best practices.

John Heine Mogensen

North Zealand Coastal Lifeguard Service

John Heine Mogensen is a biologist, educator, and head lifeguard of the North Zealand Coastal Lifeguard Service in Denmark. A former Danish national team swimmer, he has dedicated his career to swimming, lifesaving, and water safety education. For more than three decades, he has worked as a coach, teacher, and lifesaving leader, combining scientific expertise with practical experience in drowning prevention. Since 2007, he has led the development and training of lifeguards along the North Zealand coast, helping to improve safety for thousands of beach visitors each year. John is honorary member of the Danish Swimming Federation and is recognized for his lifelong commitment to promoting water competence, lifesaving, and public safety

Ian Hutchings

Royal Life Saving Society UK

Ian Hutchings has served as a police officer for 30 years while also active as a dedicated lifesaving specialist with a passion for lifesaving instruction, water safety, and elite athlete development. He has over 50 years of experience with the Royal Lifesaving Society UK. His lifesaving career started at the age of 14 as instructor and community educator, teaching children water safety, rescue, resuscitation, and first aid. For over 40 years he was a successful competitor and athlete in various disciplines. As head manager/coach for the Great Britain Youth Lifesaving Team he has coached athletes at all competitive levels and has been active as event official since 2000. He has been an international referee of European and World Championships as well as educator of international officials since 2011.

Nuala Moore

The Lifesaving Foundation, Ireland

Nuala Moore is an Irish extreme open-water swimmer, ice swimmer and professional scuba diver for more than three decades. She was listed in the top 50 of the most adventurous women in the World Open Water Swimming 2015, 2017 and 2019. She has ten years of experience organising triathlon and open-water swimming events and served for four years as the North Channel secretary, developing standards and procedures for channel and ice swimming. In 2018, Nuala established Ocean Rescue Recovery Remote Emergency Care, bringing medical, rescue and open-water expertise together. Her experience combines the participant, event-organiser and safety perspectives, with a particular focus on preparation, risk, human factors and decision-making in challenging environments. Nuala is the chair of The Lifesaving Foundation in Ireland.

Egil Galaaen Gjølme

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Egil Galaaen Gjølme is professor (dosent) in physical education and sport at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He holds a master’s degree in health sciences and has extensive experience in swimming, lifesaving, outdoor education and water safety. He is Head Instructor with the Norwegian Lifesaving Society, an expert member of the ILSE, and co-developer of the Water Competence educational model and digital learning resource. His work focuses particularly on open-water education, risk assessment, lifesaving and water competence.

Ute Vogt

German Life Saving Association (DLRG)

Ute Vogt is a lawyer with extensive political experiences as city councillor (Wiesloch, Rhein-Neckar-Kreis), member of the Bundestag (Pforzheim and Stuttgart) and Landtag (Baden-Württemberg). During her political work, she had many different functions, including SPD chairman of the state Baden-Württemberg and deputy party leader of the SPD in the federal level. She was chairwoman of the Home Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag, secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior and group leader of the SPD in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament. She returned to the Bundestag as vice-chair of the SPD parliamentary group and most recently became their domestic political spokeswoman. From 2005-2021 she was vice-president of the DLRG, and from 2021 onwards, after termination of the political mandate, is the president of the DLRG.

The full programme is shown below

Course open water safety 16th – 18th October 2026 – Programme