Future Lifeguards In Training
Thirteen future lifeguards towed their first “victims” across Valley Mission pool on Monday as the Spokane County Parks and Recreation summer lifeguard training course began.
The students, mostly high schoolers, entered the pool at 6 p.m.
after four and a half hours of class time.
“It was long,” said Amy Agnew, 15. “But I need a summer job and I love to swim.”
The five-day course consists of the class, plus two and a half hours of swimming each evening. Students learn CPR, first aid and other life-saving techniques.
Their teacher, Kathy March, began the academic section of the course by reading articles about drownings at Newman Lake, Liberty Lake and Bear Lake from the past eight years.
“I want to get them out of the Bay Watch mentality,” she said. “It’s kind of a scare tactic.”
Her message seemed to reach her young students.
“The scariest thing about being a lifeguard is having to save lives,” said Britney Baker, 15.
But March said most of the kids are up for the challenge, though she did lose one student after the first day of class last year.
“He told me, `It’s more responsibility than I’m willing to deal with. I think I’ll go flip hamburgers,”’ she said.
March also showed the kids an overflowing bag of gear used by a lifeguard. Inside was the most important tool, the rescue tube.
The long, red foam tube is a common sight at Valley pools, but its use marks a shift in lifeguarding over the past five years.
George Moon, manager at Valley Mission Pool, who is co-teaching the course with March, explains that the rescue tube can hold the weight of numerous victims, making it easy for even the slightest person to rescue distressed swimmers.
“It used to be almost martial arts, manipulating a victim,” he said. Years ago, lifeguard training courses focused on “releases” and “escapes,” tricks the lifeguard used to loosen the grip of a frightened swimmer.
Moon still teaches those techniques but he focuses on the preventative measures a lifeguard should take to minimize rescues.
“This is lifeguarding, not life saving,” he said. “I weigh my entire life, my entire reputation on the next three minutes. I could have someone with brain damage or a death if I lose sight of the next three minutes.”
Both Moon and March believe the concentration and skills lifeguarding requires gives their students an edge as they grow older.
“Maybe we’ll have future doctors, nurses and EMTs in here,” said March. “I take great pride in that.”
But it will probably take some time. For now, kids like Andrea Dresen, 15, of Coeur d’Alene, see the benefits of lifeguarding in a different light.
“There’s always cute guys who are lifeguards,” she said.
The first lifeguarding training session ends Friday with two tests, one on material covered in the Red Cross textbook and the other on CPR skills. A second lifeguard training session begins on Aug. 14. To register, call 477-4730.