Bathing to the max!

The town of Neuhofen has the only fully accessible bathing waters in Rhineland-Palatinate where bathers like Johannes Kaliga can enjoy floating in a lake for the first time, assisted by a floating beach wheelchair.

The thermometer reads 28 degrees. The sky is speckled with just a few friendly clouds. Johannes Kaliga looks satisfied. He has just literally taken the plunge. The teenager is bathing in a lake for the first time in his life. Fully relaxed, Johannes floats on the clear water, on the gentle waves of the Neuhofen Schlicht lake—thanks to a floating beach wheelchair.

The Neuhofen local branch of the German Life Saving Association (DLRG) supervises operations at the Badeweiher Steinerne Brücke and the almost 20-metre-deep Schlicht bathing lakes from mid-May to mid-September, Saturdays from 1 p.m. and Sundays and public holidays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. They do so on a voluntary basis. And in their station, the lifeguards also guard something of a small treasure: a floating beach wheelchair, donated by the district administration in 2022 on the initiative of the district disability officer in charge, Thomas Jakubowski. Wheelchair users like Johannes can lend it free of charge.

“A second beach wheelchair was added a little later,” says Stefan Bentz, chairman of the DLRG Neuhofen local branch, after Sebastian Knobloch, a young man from Cologne, had cycled from Ahaus to the North Cape to collect funds for beach wheelchairs because his friend Michi uses a wheelchair. “It is since then that both lakes in Neuhofen have been equipped with one,” says Stefan proudly. And with an eye to other communities, he adds: “The floating wheelchairs are quite flexible thanks to their rubber tyres” so that it is not always necessary to have a ramp leading into the water.

At first glance, these wheelchairs look like sun loungers with buoys. On this summer afternoon, the water is 23 degrees Celsius—much to Johannes’ delight. DLRG volunteer Stefan is swimming right next to him and looks just as satisfied as his bathing guest. “Moments like this make the effort so worthwhile,” he says. And you believe him immediately. The municipality, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the European Union invested around 1.2 million euros in the expansion of the Neuhofen bathing lakes, creating the only fully accessible floating jetties in Germany at a bathing lake and upgrading the sanitary facilities to make them fully accessible.

The water quality here is excellent

_{Stefan Bentz}

The DLRG is not only on duty at the swimming lakes in Neuhofen and in summer, but throughout the year at various locations in the region. They engage in swimming instruction, swift water rescue, diving, paramedics services or in boat missions. The DLRG also train people of different age groups and teach them swimming, snorkelling, diving, first aid, radio communication, the use of rescue, sonar and location devices, and even underwater drones, as well as how to behave in dangerous situations in standing and moving waters. “That’s exactly our job,” says Stefan almost modestly, who joined the lifeguards in Saarland at the age of five and has remained loyal to them to this day. In his “ordinary” life, he is a police officer, however, close to the water again. He is the head of the Rheinpfalz police headquarters office and coordinates the training and refresher training of swimming instructors for the police force throughout Rhineland-Palatinate, in addition to his main duties.

On this afternoon, the water in the Schlicht lake is crystal clear, with swarms of countless small fish visible down to the sandy bottom, as is usually the case. “The water quality here is excellent,” says Stefan, even though the huge floating solar power plant owned by a gravel plant floating on the water has recently changed the view on the water. The bathing area with its sandy beach is still idyllically located. It is a beautiful spot surrounded by tall trees and is easily accessible thanks to its proximity to the B9 motorway.

Johannes lives in Weinheim. And he knows for sure that this won’t remain the only trip here. He’s not just testing the floating beach wheelchair because he likes new things. “I also want to help make things like this better known,” says the teenager with dark curls, who has been in a wheelchair since birth due to spasticity. He also wants to promote this type of wheelchair at the Stephen-Hawking-Schule school for children and youngsters with and without physical impairments in Neckargemünd, which he attended. Floating calmly on the water is new for Johannes. He is more used to racing across the field with his team from the Torpedo Ladenburg club, a fast-paced group of power chair hockey players in wheelchairs. It’s not unlikely that they too will soon need a relaxing cool-down! And they will get it—thanks to the commitment of the Neuhofen local branch of the German Life Saving Association, the DLRG.

https://neuhofen.dlrg.de