Lifesavers Kootenai County Lifeguards Train For Tougher Certification

After lifeguard Nancy Cavasar twice saw people almost drown at the Sandpoint City Beach last summer, she was faced with a tough choice: Get out, or get better.

“I decided I either have to walk away from this responsibility or I have to improve the training,” said Cavasar, who manages Honeysuckle Beach in Hayden.

She chose the latter.

Cavasar is one of about 20 lifeguards from Kootenai County who are upping the safety ante by working toward United States Lifesaving Association certification. The guards have already passed muster with the American Red Cross, but Idaho’s abundance of lakes means that many rescues will happen outdoors. Those require longer swims and can happen in fast-moving currents.

“We realized that on open water beaches, American Red Cross training was not adequate,” Cavasar said. “A pool is a controlled atmosphere. You can see the bottom.”

The USLA program is the same one used on marine beaches in California and Washington, Cavasar said.

Lifeguards spent Sunday morning in the Post Falls City Pool performing relays and lifesaving techniques. Later, they will all train outside at their respective beaches.

The program shows guards how to bring someone with a spinal injury out of the water - victims have to be grabbed by the chin and back of the skull to prevent twisting and then taken out on backboards.

It will also teach rescuers how to use “blocking” to save frantic victims who violently fight off help.

The new training can be grueling: Swimming 500 meters in under 10 minutes. Having to recover 10 pounds of weight submerged beneath 10 feet of water.

Kelly McCarthy, head lifeguard at Post Falls City Beach, said the added training will pay off. Outside, a victim may be 200 yards from a guard chair. “There aren’t pools that large,” said McCarthy, 21.

Cavasar wants lifeguards here to be professional rescuers - just like paramedics, just like police. “It’s not just getting a suntan.”

Part of the program is teaching lifeguards to work with those other rescuers and agencies. In the past, it hasn’t always been clear who is supposed to do what.

“We felt like third wheels on our own beach,” said lifeguard Christopher Taylor, 18.

During one of the near-fatal Sandpoint rescues last year, a mentally disabled man had a stroke in the water. The teenage lifeguard had training, but “he was running on adrenaline” instead of knowledge, Cavasar said.

When the 60 days of training are over, the guards should be much more prepared than now. And when the physical demands are met, they’ll be tougher, too.

“We’re dependent mostly on our physical skills,” Cavasar said. “It’s us against nature.”

Not just against the pools.

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The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Ward Sanderson Staff writer Staff writer Susan Drumheller contributed to this report.