Lifeguards are very strong people, not necessarily in the physical sense but mentality wise. I had never considered how much of a toll lifeguarding could take on your life if you are not prepared or you don't know what to expect. On my first day of training we were shown videos of children dying, foaming at the mouth, people going blue from lack of oxygen. I totally I get it, lifeguarding is serious, it's people lives in your hands, but in my mind I was only there for 3 months, if something went wrong on my watch it would effect me for life and it was only a summer job.
There are two main lifeguard training companies in the US, Red Cross which is used by Disney World and Ellis which is who we were trained by. The only real difference between these that I picked up on is Ellis is more strict, you have a very specific way of looking at the pool whereas Red Cross is more laid back. Those of us who were lifeguards received 3 days of training, if we realised it wasn't for us we could be a pool concierge but I didn't want to back out so I swallowed my fear and got on with it.
Our shifts were either from 7am till 3pm or 2:30pm till 11:30pm. The ideal shifts were morning as you could do something with your afternoons, normally when we had afternoon shifts we would hang by the pool or if we were up early enough we would head over the Universal. There were 4 lifeguards working on a normal shift as we had 3 stands and one person on deck. Two of the stands were walking where we had to scan the pool continuously for 30 minutes. The third was at the top of the slide where you would measure kids to make sure they were tall enough and make sure the child before is out of the slide so it was safe. On busy days such as 4th of July they would open up a 4th stand which was the only sitting stand.
About 3/4 times a day guards and concierges would test the PH and chlorine levels of the pools to make sure there wasn't too much of a specific chemical. If there was we would close a pool until the water balanced out. We would also test the foot washes, showers, clocks, spa timers etc. On morning shifts we would also set up cabanas for those that rented out on or for those that might rent one out during the day.
During each AM and PM shift our manager would test one of us with a Timmy doll, these dolls represent a child and are filled with water so they sink to the bottom. They would either just throw the doll over the side, slip it in somewhere we might not notice, or throw it down the slide. We would then blow one long whistle, jump in and carry the doll out of the pool. On occasion instead of the Timmy doll they would get a lifeguard that was on deck to be unconscious or pretend to drown so we would go in and do a full rescue procedure. If we missed I think 2 practice rescues within 2 weeks you would have to be a pool concierge until you can do extra training. Throughout the whole 3 months I was there I missed 2 rescues which happened to be within 2 weeks. The first I stupidly didn't clock on so that was my bad. The second was that they had a fellow lifeguard be a GID (Guest in distress) whilst a child was asking me for help as he couldn't touch the bottom of the water. My manager didn't see that however and told me I failed so once I explained the situation he scrapped it off my record.
Now this is one of the best stories to come out of lifeguarding. One day I was asked to cover an AM shift so before we started one of our managers came out to talk to us. She informed us that a guest had lost the diamond out of her wedding/engagement ring in the pool the day before and wanted us to look for it. She said one of the guards was already looking but since I started on deck she asked if I could look after he finished. My first thought was the fact I had just washed my hair so I was a bit gutted but better spending half an hour in the pool than cleaning! So as I was saying yes another guard, who I didn't particularly like, said "No i'm going to find it". Our managerthankfully said "no Laura's doing it", so I got my goggles and headed for the pool. I started at the opposite end that the previous guard had looked at and about 15 minutes in, the other guard strolls up and said "Just so you know I've been a guard longer so I'm looking as well". I was like right whatever and told her where I had already looked so she decided to go over where I had already looked because I apparently didn't look hard enough. So I just carried on and 5 minutes later I see the diamond in front of my face! I showed the other guard and I was so excited! The other guard tried to tell me it was a rhinestone and obviously not the diamond so they could get credit for the find. So I went and showed our manager and she was dumbstruck, she never actually thought we'd find it so she took it upstairs to the hotel concierge. I went back to work and never thought anything of it, I never expected a tip or anything I was just happy I found the damn thing. About 30 minutes later I got radioed saying the husband wants to thank me. I head down to the pool gate and the husband hands me an envelope. After he left my manager was like OPEN THE ENVELOPE OH MY GOD! Now this envelope was THICK and I start counting all the notes. By the end there was $500! WHAT! I was ECSTATIC I messaged my roommates I was telling everyone. Then I started getting the vibes off people that they were pissed. My other supervisor wouldn't even look me in the eye and started telling people that I didn't deserve it because I was only a temp, the actual lifeguards deserved it more etc. I started getting paranoid that it was going to get stolen out of my bag so I got my roommate to take care of it but by the end of my shift I didn't care because I had an extra $500 in my purse! So I splurged on a trip to Discovery Cove with my roommate.
Now this was the day that messed me up. During my whole summer I never had to rescue a guest and never had to jump in for a guest. The day after our leaving party I was working an AM and I was at top of slide. I then heard a loud whistle and the first thing you do is radio so your manager and other guards can run towards the stand blowing the whistle. I then heard extra whistles so I had to shut the slide as fast as I could and run to the stand. I got to the bottom of the stairs and I froze. One of the girls was pulling a little boy out of the water on a stretcher and he was blue, and I mean BLUE. So I snapped out of it put my gloves on, grabbed the trauma bag and cleared the deck of all guests. I then helped with rescue breathing and this boy was choking on food and I have never seen a person look that close to death. At this time security ran to the scene and then they take over until an ambulance arrives. Whilst all this was going on I was keeping the boys older brother calm as he was crying about his brother dying so I was just telling him he's okay which by then he was, he was conscious and breathing. The ambulance crew arrived and wheeled him out to the ambulance. The boy is perfectly okay but it was a life changing situation. I still have nightmares about seeing his tiny body lying motionless and his blue mouth and I just can't breathe. If you can take anything from this story please appreciate the lifeguards at the pools you visit, they know what they are doing and they are completely under appreciated.
When people say their summer changed their lives, I never understood this until my summer in Orlando. Now don't get me wrong it was difficult, towards the end I was dying to come home but the minute I got home I would burst into tears because I wanted to go back so bad. Not necessarily for the job, I don't think I'm mentally strong enough or confident enough to be a lifeguard again but just the experiences I came away with changed my life.
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