Lead Me Where

I had lifeguard class yesterday. If you have never had the joy and privilege of taking part in a lifeguard class, let me summarize it for you: in a pool for hours on end; splitting your time between pretending to drown so that a random stranger/classmate can pretend to save you and then pretending to save your partner/random stranger/classmate; being strapped to a wooden board so your classmates (who you are getting to know rather well by now) can practice working with spinal injuries; and ingesting a healthy dose of chlorine.

Last nights’ lifeguard refresher course contained all the important aspects and finer points of lifeguarding, but in a more condensed manner, since we already learned all the material a couple of years ago. The three hours that we spent in the pool were a rather fast-paced march through lifeguard skills, starting with how to jump in while gripping a fading red tube to your chest and still keep your head above water, and finishing with how to save a victim with a spine injury who is floating face up on the surface and who requires more than two rescuers because he needs to be velcro-strapped to a huge wooden board so that his head does not pop off.

I cannot deny that I was dreading last night’s class. From the moment I enrolled myself in the class a handful of weeks ago, I wrote off April 26th as a day of dread and drudgery. No, you’re right; it’s really not that bad. The instructor, who I have known for years, teaches very well, and the people in the class are nice. But it is lifeguard class, nonetheless.

For the first part of yesterday’s class, I was paired with a male. Thankfully, I managed to escape that situation before we had done much more than escapes and simple grab-someone-around-the-arms-and-swim-them-to-safety drills.

I had been anticipating that Saving the instructor would be the hardest challenge we faced. Posing as an active drowning victim, the instructor flails about wildly, grabbing onto anything he can get his hands on, and kicking his feet. The concept is very simple: get a hold on the instructor, drag him back to the wall, and you pass.

As a fifteen year old, the first time I took this class, I somehow managed to get a grip on him and get him all the way back to the wall on my first attempt. Yesterday, either I was weaker than the first time, or the instructor had seriously upped his game since last time. My first time out, I was able to dodge his flailing limbs, but was unable to both maintain a grip on him AND drag him to the side of the pool.

A bit later, having (finally) completed the Save the Instructor test, we moved on to Passive Submerged rescues. Once again, quite simple: passive victim under the water. Lifeguard sinks to the bottom, wraps one arm firmly around victim’s chest, and then pulls him/herself and victim up to the surface with the help of the red lifeguard tube. Sounds relatively straight-forward, but I and my extremely patient victim were at it for a good twenty minutes, my victim floating motionless as I floundered around, trying to pull us both up with only the tube as a help, and keep a firm grip on her at the same time.

It was an exercise in breath-holding, water-swallowing, coordination, and patience (on the victim’s) part. But eventually I figured it out and we all returned to our happy lives.

Looking back on it, it was a little fun, I guess. But, no matter how fun lifeguard class is, I am glad that it only comes around once every couple of years.

~Natalia