BONDI Rescue star Trent "Maxi" Maxwell and Birkdale business partner Leigh Mason have taken their Live Learn Survive water safety program online while unable to visit schools.
The coronavirus pandemic wiped out a year's worth of in-class workshops, including a trip to the UK, but Mr Maxwell and Ms Mason have worked quickly to launch an online quiz program for children around the world.
They have already reached hundreds of kids from across 10 countries, adding to the thousands that Mr Maxwell had spoken to at workshops in the previous 18 months.
The lifeguard and firefighter was in the Redlands this week shooting promotional material for the quiz program which the pair hope will help them gain greater exposure overseas.
"We had a full program for the year and then COVID hit," Ms Mason said.
"We started doing online quizzes and it has been amazing. We have had kids come online from all over the world.
"What we have done is evolve the quiz so it meets curriculum standards. That means we can now offer a learning experience to schools.
"Because we now do it digitally, we can take it far and wide."
The business secured a council grant worth about $4500 which Ms Mason said had helped with the digital marketing campaign.
"The idea is we have videos that tell the story of the quiz that we can use to send out to schools anywhere in the world," she said.
"That will allow us to ride out COVID because even with children going back to school, the reality of letting external visitors in anytime soon is highly unlikely."
Mr Maxwell penned a series of books titled Maxi the Lifeguard in 2018 with the assistance of co-author David Lawrence.
He and Ms Mason met while working together on swimwear label Sunrise at Bondi but started the social enterprise after realising more needed to be done to improve water safety awareness among children.
"I am still a full-time firefighter, still working on the beach on my days off and travel around doing Live Learn Survive on my other days off," Mr Maxwell said.
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