Life Guard Moments
At the ripe old age of 14 I attended the junior life saving class at the Sun Pool in Waco, Texas . I was rather large for my age and was the largest and youngest guy taking the junior life saving certificate.
The class lasted four hours a day for ten days. We practiced the breast stroke, the American crawl, the side stroke, the back stroke, threading water with our feet only, hands only and then treading water with feet and hands!
Practiced doing the life guard entry into the pool from the life guard stand and the high and low diving boards. We had diving boards at all the pools in the 60’s.
Watched films on how to save a person drowning, how to swim out to them, how to get hold of them, how to hold them when saving them, how to swim with them, how to get them out of the pool, how to give them mouth-to-mouth and CPR as needed.
Practiced saving each other in the shallow and deep ends of the pool.
Learned to use the safety ring to save people as well as how to wade into the water to save people.
There was also a section in the training on how to enforce pool rules, eject people from the pool, and bar people from the pool who would not follow the rules on a daily basis.
Also had training on how to clean the pool, run the cash register, receipt for cash, make change, store cash, deposit the daily receipts at the bank, make duty rosters for work schedules, and of course check the chlorine levels.
At the end of the training 10 of the 22 who started the training completed the training. Once the training was completed all 10 of us tested to be a junior life guard and the test was not an easy test at all.
The water safety instructor (WSI) who was at least 20 and going to College at Baylor University would swim out to the middle of the deep end, turn his back to us, then yell go.
We were to swim out to him using the training we had received, take hold of him, swim back to the side of the pool with him, and then get him out of the pool! This was not an easy test but we had to do it. The WSI was six feet tall and in very good shape, so he was not going to be easy to save or pull out if he wanted to fight.
The first five junior life savers’s had no problem swimming out to the WSI, taking hold of him, swimming back with him or in getting him out of the pool. I figured he wanted to get this over with and was not going to fight or cause any of us a problem, little did I know!
When it was my turn, I used the correct entry jump into the pool, used the breast stroke out to the victim who was treading water and facing away from me, slowed, announced my presence while treading water and was just about place the victim into the life saving hold to tow him in from the pool.
You may have already figured out that this was not going to be an easy save like the others had.
The WSI turned as I was about to grab him and leaped out of the water and came down on my head and shoulders! Yep, I was going to be the example for the remaining few on what can happen when you are trying to save someone.
As the sun disappeared from view due to the WSI’s body blocking it from my vision as I was pushed down into the water, I was trying to remember what I was supposed to do in this situation. I could hear the gasp from my fellow life savers to be as they observed what was taking place.
The WSI and I were on the express route to the bottom of the deep end of the pool which was 11 feet deep! I got a good breath of air, ducked my head and face and turned into my chest so the WSI could not get his arms under my chin and pulled my arms in close to my body so the WSI could not get a good grip on me.
We were on our way to the bottom and I could hear him laughing and that did not make me a happy camper. As the seconds seemed like hours I hada flash back from one of the films we watched on how to get out of just this sort of situation. However, I did not like the results of that save and I did not like the way this WSI was taking his frustrations out on me in order to prove a point to the class.
Decided to devise my own escape and life saving maneuver and see if what I came up with would save the victim and get me my junior life saving badge.
Waited for a moment to see if the WSI would end this water prank, but he did not seem to want to let me up so just as we touched down on the bottom of the pool I reached up under both of his arm pits and grabbed two hands full of arm pit hair, twisted it, and pulled down as hard as I could.
Did I mention I was 5’11” tall, weighed 170 pounds, ran track and played football and my stomach was in my chest in those days?
I and those from my life saving class heard the blood curdling yell from the WSI who was 11 feet under water with me. I then pulled even harder on his under arm hair when we did not move and we shot to the surface a lot faster than we descended to the bottom of the pool.
Once on the surface I had no problems getting control of the WSI using the proper side stroke and neck and shoulder hold to pull him to the side of the pull. I never let go of one hand full of arm pit hair as we were moving to the side of the pool.
The next challenge was going to be getting the WSI onto the side of the pool. At that moment I let go of the arm pit hair and the WSI stated the test was over and that I passed!
The rest of the life savers completed their test but the WSI did not try anything funny with them and they all passed all ten of us passed.
It was at the end of the day when the WSI handed out the patches that I got a surprise when I got two patches, one Junior Life Saving patch and one Senior Life Saving patch!
I ask about this and was told by the WSI they were short of life guards and I was good at using the book rules for life saving and thinking quickly in order to save lives. He wanted me to work that summer as a Senior Life Saver so he gave me both patches.
At the ripe old age of 14 I attended the junior life saving class at the Sun Pool in Waco, Texas . I was rather large for my age and was the largest and youngest guy taking the junior life saving certificate.
The class lasted four hours a day for ten days. We practiced the breast stroke, the American crawl, the side stroke, the back stroke, threading water with our feet only, hands only and then treading water with feet and hands!
Practiced doing the life guard entry into the pool from the life guard stand and the high and low diving boards. We had diving boards at all the pools in the 60’s.
Watched films on how to save a person drowning, how to swim out to them, how to get hold of them, how to hold them when saving them, how to swim with them, how to get them out of the pool, how to give them mouth-to-mouth and CPR as needed.
Practiced saving each other in the shallow and deep ends of the pool.
Learned to use the safety ring to save people as well as how to wade into the water to save people.
There was also a section in the training on how to enforce pool rules, eject people from the pool, and bar people from the pool who would not follow the rules on a daily basis.
Also had training on how to clean the pool, run the cash register, receipt for cash, make change, store cash, deposit the daily receipts at the bank, make duty rosters for work schedules, and of course check the chlorine levels.
At the end of the training 10 of the 22 who started the training completed the training. Once the training was completed all 10 of us tested to be a junior life guard and the test was not an easy test at all.
The water safety instructor (WSI) who was at least 20 and going to College at Baylor University would swim out to the middle of the deep end, turn his back to us, then yell go.
We were to swim out to him using the training we had received, take hold of him, swim back to the side of the pool with him, and then get him out of the pool! This was not an easy test but we had to do it. The WSI was six feet tall and in very good shape, so he was not going to be easy to save or pull out if he wanted to fight.
The first five junior life savers’s had no problem swimming out to the WSI, taking hold of him, swimming back with him or in getting him out of the pool. I figured he wanted to get this over with and was not going to fight or cause any of us a problem, little did I know!
When it was my turn, I used the correct entry jump into the pool, used the breast stroke out to the victim who was treading water and facing away from me, slowed, announced my presence while treading water and was just about place the victim into the life saving hold to tow him in from the pool.
You may have already figured out that this was not going to be an easy save like the others had.
The WSI turned as I was about to grab him and leaped out of the water and came down on my head and shoulders! Yep, I was going to be the example for the remaining few on what can happen when you are trying to save someone.
As the sun disappeared from view due to the WSI’s body blocking it from my vision as I was pushed down into the water, I was trying to remember what I was supposed to do in this situation. I could hear the gasp from my fellow life savers to be as they observed what was taking place.
The WSI and I were on the express route to the bottom of the deep end of the pool which was 11 feet deep! I got a good breath of air, ducked my head and face and turned into my chest so the WSI could not get his arms under my chin and pulled my arms in close to my body so the WSI could not get a good grip on me.
We were on our way to the bottom and I could hear him laughing and that did not make me a happy camper. As the seconds seemed like hours I hada flash back from one of the films we watched on how to get out of just this sort of situation. However, I did not like the results of that save and I did not like the way this WSI was taking his frustrations out on me in order to prove a point to the class.
Decided to devise my own escape and life saving maneuver and see if what I came up with would save the victim and get me my junior life saving badge.
Waited for a moment to see if the WSI would end this water prank, but he did not seem to want to let me up so just as we touched down on the bottom of the pool I reached up under both of his arm pits and grabbed two hands full of arm pit hair, twisted it, and pulled down as hard as I could.
Did I mention I was 5’11” tall, weighed 170 pounds, ran track and played football and my stomach was in my chest in those days?
I and those from my life saving class heard the blood curdling yell from the WSI who was 11 feet under water with me. I then pulled even harder on his under arm hair when we did not move and we shot to the surface a lot faster than we descended to the bottom of the pool.
Once on the surface I had no problems getting control of the WSI using the proper side stroke and neck and shoulder hold to pull him to the side of the pull. I never let go of one hand full of arm pit hair as we were moving to the side of the pool.
The next challenge was going to be getting the WSI onto the side of the pool. At that moment I let go of the arm pit hair and the WSI stated the test was over and that I passed!
The rest of the life savers completed their test but the WSI did not try anything funny with them and they all passed all ten of us passed.
It was at the end of the day when the WSI handed out the patches that I got a surprise when I got two patches, one Junior Life Saving patch and one Senior Life Saving patch!
I ask about this and was told by the WSI they were short of life guards and I was good at using the book rules for life saving and thinking quickly in order to save lives. He wanted me to work that summer as a Senior Life Saver so he gave me both patches.
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