The Bulgarian Red Cross – Water Life Saving Service was established in 1964 and the organisation became member of FIS in 1966 and participated in international events.

The main fields of activity of the Bulgarian Red Cross – Water Life Saving Service is the education of lifesavers/guards, the training and the retraining of lifesaving and medical personnel; the aquatic accident prevention in its widest sense and the improving of the swimming skills among the Bulgarian population.

Bulgaria has a 1.000 km coastline along the Black Sea and the River Danube, additional over 4.000 artificial lakes invite all kinds of water sports activities.

Complementary to this, over 4 million tourists spend their holidays at the Bulgarian coastlines. Since it inception, the BRC-WLSS has organised the following main events :

• 1970 : World Championships, a scientific congress and a General Assembly of FIS (Varna).
• 1973 : Foundation of the Central Water Safety Training School in Sozopol.
• 1981 : World Championships, a scientific congress and a General Assembly of FIS (Sofia).
• 1987 : First organisation of International Courses for FIS Member Federations in Sozopol.

Since its establishment, the water Life Saving Service has trained about 25.000 persons as life guards who saved the life of over 50.000 persons.