I was a lifeguard for a water park during the summer of 2019 and will never take a job as a lifeguard again. I took the job after having been on my school’s swim team for the past two years after being injured in wrestling the year before. I was a strong swimmer and had been trained in multiple lifesaving procedures. I was trained in foreign body airway obstruction (FBAO), assisted respiration (AR), cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and the Heimlich maneuver. We had specific whistle blows to signal when we would be entering the water for a rescue, when we needed a supervisor to come over, and when we just needed to get the attention of guests.
We would be tested three times throughout the season at random with a fake drowning to ensure we were all alert and would be able to successfully save a life if the need arose. The tests would either be one of the supervisors disguised as a guest and pretending to drown or a special doll that resembled a child. The first time I was tested I was not sure what was going on, then wondered if one of the other lifeguards surrounding me would go get the person, then jumped in for the rescue. Taking too long made me fail but it was a learning experience.
I had the opportunity to redeem myself two weeks later when the doll came down the current. I blew my whistle three times to alert that I was jumping in for a rescue, jumped in, grabbed the doll, and kept it afloat until we reached a safe area to get out. I passed easily and even accidentally passed someone else’s test when I spotted the doll before it could reach its designated tester, but no harm was done, and the other lifeguard got his shot to pass. I did not have my third test as planned due to the ownership of the company changing during the middle of the summer.
When the company changed ownership, many things changed. All the best supervisors either were let go or quit because specific people were let go or received payment cuts. As the summer continued many of the other lifeguards quit because specific supervisors had left while others left because the pay was not worth the amount of work in the heat and extra-long hours. Shifts on post grew longer with fewer lifeguards available and lunch breaks started to be pushed back later into the afternoon.
There were days when I did not eat lunch until three in the afternoon and other lifeguards would still be waiting for their lunch breaks. I ate as fast as I could some days in hopes of speeding up the lunch rotation since only one lifeguard per section could be sent to lunch at a time with how few lifeguards we had. Our lunch was free, at least, but our supervisors had to give us tokens to signify we were on lunch for the lunch people to give us our lunches. Although the changes were not ideal the job was manageable for the most part; although, I did start dreaming about when the summer would end, and I could return to school.
The biggest issue I had with lifeguarding and is the reason I will never be a lifeguard again is that when we were understaffed at the end of the season, already dealing with late lunches and excessively long shifts on post while being forced to bob our heads to the point of whiplash while scanning the water to prove we were scanning the water, every guest decided to ignore the lifeguards and do everything in their power to drown.
One such example was four weeks before the end of the season. I was on post in section one in the late afternoon with the sun beating down. I only had two more hours left in my shift for the day and had been on shift at my post for the past thirty minutes at least. I was scanning the water of the lazy river when I spotted a little girl laying on top of a tube. I blew my whistle at her and told her to flip over to sit in it properly. We had signs everywhere in the park showing how to sit in the tubes properly, yet we still found people like her who refused to listen.
She ignored me and I watched her drift into the current at the end of the slide which jet water down into the lazy river. The current shot her further down the lazy river and she faceplanted directly into a concrete wall. I blew my three whistles and dove in, reaching her in record time. I helped her up as her father came over and told me to keep my hands off her. If told to keep hands off, we were legally required to do so unless the guest lost consciousness. I stayed close as the father walked his daughter out of the river toward the three supervisors waiting nearby.
I was sent back to my post, taking back over from the lifeguard who covered my post when I dove in, as the supervisors checked over the girl. She ended up laying down for a few minutes before getting back up and running off. This was not the only incident of guests getting hurt from not listening to me or any of the other lifeguards, but it was the one that made me decide never to be a lifeguard again. Since that summer if I see someone drowning, I will dive in to rescue but I will never again be a lifeguard.