Tony Wells

Training Coordinator & Course Instructor Location: Christchurch

I first got involved in SAR in the early 1990’s when working for the Dept. of Conservation (DOC) on the West Coast of the South Island.  I have spent all of my life working in the outdoors including as a high country musterer, a number of years for the Dept of Conservation and 10 years as a contract Outdoor Instructor.

I consider myself fortunate to have ridden the initial wave of “modern” training in Tracking, Search Methods etc. throughout the mid nineties.  I guess I was part of a number that thought “there had to be a better way…”

As the Training Coordinator for SARINZ I am responsible for liasing with all groups wanting training, over-seeing all of the bookings, allocation of instructors, training budgets as well as coordinating all of the travel and logistics for all SARINZ training events.

I am involved operationally as a volunteer with LandSAR. I really enjoy getting out in the wilderness and applying the skills that I normally teach to others.  By being in the field I also get to talk to field people, understand their difficulties, their frustrations and wants and needs as well as enjoy in their successes.  This enables me to better understand the training requirements and listen to what the people in the field would like to have and to try and meet those needs – providing an important link between those at the coal face and those that often make the decisions.  Without either the field teams or the management team working to their full potential we are not doing everything we can “in the best interests of the subject”.

Working as an Instructor for SARINZ since early 2003 enables me to get around the country and catch-up with what is going on, both in training and operationally. I instruct on nearly all of the Search related courses, however is no secret that I have a preference for all aspects of tracking – particularly the more advanced interpretation skills of being able to deduce the likely physical and/or psychological state of the subject based on the sign they leave.  By following a line of sign we can also gain an understanding as to where and when the subject likely became aware they were “lost” and also the steps that they have taken since, thus allowing us to ‘best guess’ the intentions of the subject and where they may now be.

It’s gratifying to hear how former course participants have applied the skills and knowledge they have learnt on a course, saving time, saving money and often saving someone’s life.  That’s the best part – “helping others save lives”.

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