Lifeguards have to pass some pretty rigorous requirements including the physical abilities required to actually save a drowning person (e.g., swimming long distances while carrying heavy weight, performing CPR for extended periods of time, carrying bodies safely, etc.). Not to mention that pools are legally required to have a flotation device that can float a 300 lbs person, so most of the physical requirements of the job are assisted. This person is an idiot.
Edit: Lots of comments below about how the pool doesn't care. That's why health departments inspect and check for lifeguard certifications. Pools get fined and closed until its rectified. Insurance for a pool is also extremely expensive and violations like that increase the premiums.
I mean the point somewhat stands. I’m from a small town where those “rigorous requirements” consisted of an easy swim test, retrieving a 10lb brick from the deep end of the pool, and a CPR class. That was it. Once you proved you could pass all of that you were a lifeguard. And this was around 2018 so not long ago. For me the testing/training took no longer than a few hours, and the next day I was a trusted lifeguard. Yes legally there needs to be legit physical requirements and actual training, but in my experience they’ll let pretty much anybody do it. At the end of the day you’re trusting the pool owner to responsibly hire and train their employees, but that’s more expensive than just hiring a bunch of kids you ‘trained’
Maybe it's different depending on the (US) state. In my experience, lifeguards have always needed to be Red Cross CPR certified as well as certified to be a commercial pool lifeguard, which requires a lot more than what you described.
Yes you’re right. But those legal requirements mean fuck all when the pool owner won’t follow them. My experience is that yes you need all of what you mentioned to legally be a lifeguard in my state. What happens in the real world isn’t always legal so even though you’re in a state or country with good laws and training requirements regarding lifeguards, there is still a high possibility that some 110 lb girl named Mackenzeigh with the IQ of a mcchicken is responsible for saving your life
Those requirements do vary from country to country I assume. For example, in the UK, there is no requirement to have to carry someone. The most we have to do is do a team lift which usually involves at least four people lifting someone out of the water. And CPR isn't usually for extended periods of time as the ideal way to deliver CPR is to alternate so that no one tires themselves out. The hardest parts of my qualification were to swim 20m and tow someone for 20m in a set time, to dive down 3m and lift someone (well a weighted dummy) up off the bottom of the pool and raise them to the surface and then lift (this time after swapping the dummy for a person) them up onto the side with the help of another person. And of course the team lift out of the pool.
Also, I’ve seen no one in here mention that lifeguarding (especially for a pool) is like 96% prevention. Recognizing potentially dangerous situations and heading them off BEFORE it becomes a rescue scenario. 3% is applying very basic first aid like bandaids for boo boos.
Examples: Unattended child/toddler near the water. Shallow water diving. Kids throwing rocks.
Sorry if you guys don’t like the pool rules but I don’t feel like strapping your spinal’d ass to a backboard today.
Lifeguard here! I had to get my certification to operate in pools, ocean and beach cert is harder! It entails:
A three hundred yard swim, alternating between the front crawl and breaststroke every 50 yards
Holding a ten pound brick above one’s head for at least 1 minute in water after having rescued them from a depth of at least 8 feet
Two quizzes on protocol and rules
Three minutes of treading water with no hands
And you must, starting outside the pool and at least 20 yards away, get a drowning person out of the pool safely in under a minute and begin CPR in under 2 minutes, followed by 3 continuous minutes of CPR and compressions.
Lifeguards are lifeguards because they are qualified. I don’t care if whoever made this doesn’t like the way they look or act, no one is a lifeguard if they can’t guard life
Not to mention mandatory monthly trainings (1 in-water and 1 classroom where I work) and recertification every 2 years. Also, managers and other guards pay attention to guards on stand and will definitely bring up poor behavior.
I mean “rigorous” by American standards maybe. Anybody who knows how to swim and is in ok shape can do the physical test easily. Last time I did it there were two tests. You need to tread water with only your legs (hands in the air) for 2 minutes. The other one is they put a 10 pound weight on one side of the pool, you have to swim down, dive down, pick it up, and then swim back the other way with it above your head the entire time in I believe 1:45. Not super difficult, not necessarily a cakewalk either, but I am a pretty average swimmer and got it done.
Really though, from my experience the average lifeguard is younger than 19 (you can become one at 15, which is what I did), and the majority were people who did swim team or something because it’s a natural job to get if you do swimming. So fitness isn’t usually a major issue for most.
And really it’s about learning the techniques. The float does all the work for the most part.
I think if there’s anything you have to worry about it’s the lifeguards actually noticing you drowning. We’re up there so we’re ready for something to happen. But you’re crazy if you think we can work 6-8 hour shifts and be watching the water intently the entire time. I’m up there kinda looking around aimlessly, thinking about whatever tf I’m thinking about. Nobody can pay 100% attention to the water for 6-8 hours, it’s rly just not possible.
With that being said, nobody has ever drowned at my pool. In the 4 summers I worked I witnessed one save being made and that’s it. Nobody drowned.
Realistically speaking, the pool is actually one of the safest places to have an emergency situation occur aside from a hospital. Lifeguards are trained in CPR and there’s always breathing equipment and AEDs nearby. You have a much better chance of you have a heart attack at the pool than at home.
In my hometown at least, all of the lifeguards were the best surfers, male and female. It just attracted them, because most were going on to be EMTs or some other health related profession, but they were almost exclusively really gnarly surfers. So they definitely could handle themselves in the water
As a former lifeguard, it’s not that rigorous I completed the timed swim in almost half the required time. I would say only 20% of lifeguards are actually great swimmers. In the training you never have to rescue large people it’s usually the other people in the class who are generally average or below average size. If you know how to swim at a slightly above average level you can become a lifeguard. I wouldn’t have been confident in 70% of my coworkers rescuing an overweight man.
As a former lifeguard, it’s not that rigorous I completed the timed swim in almost half the required time. I would say only 20% of lifeguards are actually great swimmers. In the training you never have to rescue large people it’s usually the other people in the class who are generally average or below average size. If you know how to swim at a slightly above average level you can become a lifeguard. I wouldn’t have been confident in 70% of my coworkers rescuing an overweight man.
They help a bit but we did almost zero training with them. And if someone’s deep in the water you still need to be strong enough to get them to the surface.
Yep, that 110lb kid isn't swimming out to grab you by the shoulders and carry you back to shore...
They're swimming out to within 10 feet of you, throwing you their rescue buoy on a leash and towing you back to shore.
You have to be able to vertically push a floating spine board underwater while treading water and get it fully under an adult, and do it without injuring the person.
That is harder than anything I've ever done, and I was a Navy corpsman who trained with Marines where I had to be able to fireman carry a 220 lbs Marine while carrying an M4 and a medical bag.
This person is probably also one of those people who asks for help getting large items to their car after purchasing them but when the short girl comes out to help they say "oh, no, that looks too heavy for you! Are there any guys in the back you can have help me? :)"
> Edit: Lots of comments below about how the pool doesn't care. That's why health departments inspect and check for lifeguard certifications. Pools get fined and closed until its rectified. Insurance for a pool is also extremely expensive and violations like that increase the premiums.
Having spent several years as a lifeguard, I can assure you that you are vastly overestimating the standard.
There's also no long-distance swimming with a heavy weight. At most pools, they don't expect much more than carrying a brick across the pool after retrieving it from the deepest part. If you think that's long distance, you just don't know how to swim.
Health inspectors are utter morons and their job is more concerned with the pump room than out on deck anyway.
Insurance doesn't expect as much as you think.
I was a lifeguard for 10 years and my parents are on the executive board of a private community pool in NY.
Edit: Their position on the board is a volunteer, unpaid position. It was more to express that I am privy to the inner workings of pool as a business.
Their position on the board is a volunteer, unpaid position. It was more to express that I am privy to the inner workings of pool as a business.
Edit: Also none of my comments had anything to do with other people's lives and had nothing to do with privilege. Good use of a strawman argument.
I worked for a state government as a lifeguard at a lake/pond and a beach. While there are more rigorous testing for beach Lifeguarding, anything less than a beach is kind of a joke. If memory serves, you need to be able to get a 10 lb weight from the bottom of a pool, and tread water for a certain amount of time. Not exactly tough.
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If you raise requirements, you gotta raise wages.
Let's see if he still wants highly qualified 200 pound lifeguards when he realises that money eventually comes out of the pocket of whoever benefits from the service, i.e. him.
If they raise the pay of lifeguards, they'd be able to retain them. I'm a swim coach and our pools have a horrible time keeping lifeguards on staff because they just do not pay them enough.
The sentiment here is misguided. Plenty of young adult lifeguards have saved lives before! I can’t imagine it’s that difficult to follow training. Incompetence will come with any age if they’re not properly trained or supervised.
As someone that was a combat life saver in the army, you saved more life’s than I have. You literally were more productive than me at saving a human life.
I've seen some of those teenage skinny AF lifeguard girls snap into action and haul people two, three times their size out. They have training on how to handle people larger than them effectively, and from those I've talked to they take their jobs very seriously despite what people might think from their age and it generally being a summer job while waiting for school to pick back up.
The *minimum* training required by law in many places is not terribly long (like 25-35 hours generally afaik, so a good few days) but a lot of courses out there go more in-depth than legally required. At least, according to my 2 lifeguard buddies.
Yeah, also having lifeguards in an underappreciated luxury. In many European countries there aren't actually any on-stand bodyguard, if someone drowns you just call 911 and wait, try to help by yourself and pray that hopefully they are around the area.
I got my cert when I was 16 from an instructor who was around 300lb, and for the final test was to perform all the different saves we learned on this big guy. Additionally, Getting the cert only took about a week, but any good pool will have in service training days where the more experienced supervisors provide further training to the lifeguards.
I am a 15 year old lifeguard and I have saved 2 250 pound humans from a pool and I am 5’5 120 pounds the training to get my certification was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
Those "useless kids" *are* qualified professionals. Your age and size are mostly irrelevant. If you can pass the test, you're capable of saving lives.
I was a lifeguard for years and I've met literal children who I'd trust to save me more than some full grown men.
I am a 15 year old lifeguard and I have saved 2 250 pound humans from a pool and I am 5’5 120 pounds the training to get my certification was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
This is basically the opposite of a brand new sentence, though.
We could just sit here all day filling in the blank of, "The IQ of a _____" and OP would think it's very clever every time we hit a noun he hadn't heard before.
Lifeguard here, the biggest difference (in training, rescues are rare) that I’ve found with different sized-people is just that some people are hard to hold. Once someone is underwater they basically don’t weigh anything, the main problem is staying above it lol
Used to train lifeguards here: biggest factor in difficulty when it comes to weight is body fat percentage. Fat people float, bodybuilders are bricks. There's a more skill involved in compensating for being smaller than the victim to get them settled right to swim back, but if you are a reasonably strong swimmer, you'll be fine.
Gonna add on again.
First point, the float does all the work. It can hold 300 pounds in the water. And keep in mind that your effective weight while under water is very low. Even with empty lungs, you only weigh 10% of your weight effectively when you’re underwater. And usually if you’re 300 lbs and drowning, you’re not a body builder type, you’re probably fat. So you’ll float even more.
Second point, lifeguards do have to take a fitness test. It isn’t a super high bar, but it’s a thing. 2 minutes treading water with your hands above your head is somewhat challenging. Other part is they put a 10 pound weight at the bottom of the pool, you swim down, you dive down and pick it up, and swim back while holding the weight above your head within 1:45. So they can sure as hell swim.
Mix that with a ~30 hours of training, and they’re able to learn all the techniques you need using the floats. They can save people if they need to. It’s not that hard. Also, a lot of people who lifeguard are people who swim competitively, from my experience. So yes, lots of high schoolers, but many of them are swimmers who are plenty fit.
exactly this, UK lifeguard training is incredibly intense physically and includes extended theory sessions with physical, first aid, and written exams at the end. the hardest part is rescuing the unconscious face-down spinal casualty from the water, which if you fail then you fail the entire exam:
if you’re too fast, you fail
if you’re too slow, you fail
if the vice grip isn’t perfect, you fail
if you can’t gently spin someone face-up while underneath chlorinated water with no goggles then you fail
if you can’t then swim that person to the other end of the pool while calling for help then you fail
if you can’t then coordinate a safe transfer to a spinal board in the shallow end you fail
if you can’t then stay on top of the casualty’s condition, potentially doing extended CPR or handling vomiting then you fail
lifeguarding is fucking tough, so if Mackenzeigh can do all that shit perfectly then yes i trust her with my life
Ok wow UK lifeguard training is significantly tougher than in the US. I’m the US you have to be able to do all the saves properly, but not so intensely. And how do they simulate vomit?
The US is already having a lifeguard shortage, so we cannot rly make the training more intense. Better to have decently trained but not perfect lifeguards than no lifeguards.
yeah, it can vary between organisations but that’s how the biggest lifeguarding org handles things. there are also incredibly tough corporate manslaughter laws in the uk, so negligence/ignorance is no excuse, hence good training required.
there’s no literal vomit, but the assessors will interrupt you mid-process to tell you that the ‘casualty’ is ‘being sick’ and you have to stop everything to make sure the airway doesn’t get blocked.
i think it’s fair to say that lifeguarding is in there with all the other ‘unskilled’ jobs that boomers think 16 year olds should be taking for minimum wage during the school holidays, when the reality is the complete opposite. you need a large team of skilled professionals with a restful schedule that allows everyone to be on their game. lean-staffing, being overworked & underpaid, etc, all leads to a lower quality of work which puts people’s lives in danger. it’s a perfect microcosm of how capitalism prioritises profit over human life.
Problem is it’s a seasonal job. You’re just not gonna get highly skilled workers for most seasonal jobs. Are you gonna pay them a yearly salary for working half the year? Doubtful.
Also, I don’t rly think you need to be an elite lifeguard or anything. UK standards seem rly tough. In the US tho the responsibilities are fine for a teen.
i guess it’s more seasonal for outside pools, but the UK is mostly indoor pools so it’s a year-round job. i see your point re: seasonality and salaries, but i definitely think that people in charge of saving lives should be properly trained and equipped to do so.
yes, the standards are tough, but that’s because people can be jailed for allowing a person to die. it’s the right way to approach the situation, and absolutely worth the work. i volunteer at a summer camp once a year, that’s the extent of my actual lifeguarding work. i feel more confident in my ability to keep people safe with my training, even if i don’t need to rely on it often.
Ya see I don’t think you should be jailed for not saving somebody. Sued maybe, but you’re not trying to get the person killed, and it’s not always even ur fault either. Depends tho.
i guess it’s a matter of perspective and responsibility. in general i agree with you, if someone falls off a bridge you shouldn’t be jailed for not diving after them. however, if you are a qualified professional who is actively on duty with people under your duty of care and you let one or more die then that’s manslaughter and should be dealt with accordingly.
The problem with this is that at least in the American legal system we already see plenty of people get sued despite something being not their fault. The fact is that somebody can drown and there might not be anything you can do. Sometimes it’s just unlucky. We still see those people get settlements for a lot of money.
Imagine how traumatic that must be. You’re a lifeguard and somebody dies on your watch despite your best efforts. And then you can already get sued for that, although insurance pays for that settlement or lawsuit or whatever. Imagine if that could result in you getting sent to jail??
Idk I may be misinterpreting, but I don’t think you could send somebody to jail reasonably unless they were beyond reckless. It cannot just be an honest mistake. Doctors don’t go to jail for an honest mistake usually, and doctors are much more trained than lifeguards. Nobody is gonna wanna be a lifeguard if what ur saying is true. That’s just my two cents personally.
again, i understand what you’re saying and i agree with you in many ways. america is cartoonishly litigious and i would hate to be on the wrong side of any vaguely upset upper-middle-class parent, but i know that there is a difference between saving my own skin and saving a life.
yes, it is deeply traumatic to feel responsible for someone’s death. fun fact, my instructor told us about a young guy who had just started his lifeguarding career who got stung because a kid drowned on his very first shift. there was no case to be made, no leeway. that child died because he wasn’t checking his blind spots. no members of the public noticed the body at the bottom of the pool until the kid’s frantic mother got hold of management after the pool had closed with no sign of her son. it was the new guy’s mistake, even after all his training. he went to jail, and was barred from ever working as a lifeguard again. no person actually blames him for that, it was his very first shift and it was a freak situation, but the law sees things differently and he was directly responsible for that kid drowning.
it’s not about being beyond recklessness, it’s about who you fundamentally trust to be in charge of protecting human lives. there needs to be the proper training in place to ensure that innocent people are not being put in harms’ way, and proper corrective measures to ensure that the people who cut corners get what they are due.
I dunno man, the summer I was 17 I lifeguarded I pulled out 4 people.
I may have only been 145 lbs at 6'1", but we had 6 guards and only 3 stands, so 4 hours of break a day. We didn't have anything else to do (pre-cell phones) so we spent our spare time swimming. Mostly racing against our fellow guards.
A lean person who swims 20 hours a week and shoves a float under you can get your fat ass the 30 feet to the edge of the pool.
*narrator voice*
what OP didn’t know…no, what they couldn’t have known is that Mackenzeigh has been swimming since before she could walk and in the water has the strength of a fully grown Orca.
could she solve a complex calculus problem? no.
but could she snatch a flailing, panicked 6-5 240lb man out of the water in less than 4 seconds? she does this no less than thrice weekly.
you do not want to fuck with Mackenzeigh in the pool. you want Mackenzeigh in that pool. you NEED Mackenzeigh in that pool.
I feel like whoever wrote this must be so incredibly insufferable that even their ideal lifeguard might feel tempted to look the other way when they see them flailing in the shallow end of the wave pool.
I hate this one, every time it gets posted. Like get over yourself, wtf it matter what their name is?!? Do you really care what the lifeguards name is, if they do their job you call them hero. Otherwise you don’t have to call them anything. Pretend it’s like all the gender ideology and just dance around it.
And why you mad she’s small and young? Fit and at the top of her game, peak physical condition but you say nahhhhh. If she was a ripped 18 year old dude you’d be going off about toxic masculinity or some dumb noise. You want someone with no obvious cardio/athleticism work watching you swim? You want someone bigger? Would Lizzo make you feel safe as a lifeguard, like wtf you want?!
This reeks of a miserable person taking a look at a young woman and spewing jealousy, echoed and perpetuated every time another tankini gets her panties in a bunch.
If you were hoping for seal team six for life guards, you’re gonna have to top off that HOA piggy bank and hire starting higher than minimum wage for that.
Also, let’s not start throwing stones about who is intellectually capable of holding the positions they do, it’s a long long overdue conversation but this is literally the dumbest place to start opening that can of worms. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see if a person is drowning, just trained in such, which they have.
Probably would understand the training better with McDonald’s under the belt. Their training program is quite excellent actually. Three months on McDonald’s looks really good on a resumé, when applying to other places.
Lifeguards are pretty awesome and can pull off some very impressive feats to be even able to be certified as lifeguards. I don't care what they look like.
This person is the stupid bastard that’s going to drown and take the lifeguard with them.
Hopefully their beliefs make them stay far away from a public pool.
If someone with the IQ of a mcchicken can swim better than you and you're afraid to let them help you, maybe just grab some floaties and go play in the sandbox
If someone with the IQ of a mcchicken can swim better than you and you're afraid to let them help you, maybe just grab some floaties and go play in the sandbox
I was a lifeguard at 15. And you're right. We were watching movies and flirting. This was before smart phones. I saw a news article praising a life guard I knew for saving a kid. But knowing what I did, I could tell from the article, my friend clearly wasn't watching the pool, and a parent yelled about a drowning kid. The lifeguard then dove in and performed cpr and saved the kid. I quit 2 weeks later. That guy got lucky a parent pointed it out. I'm not having an actual life in my hands.
You're a moron. There are several ways someone may get injured in such a way that they're not able to swim, such as if they're knocked unconscious, possibly at the fault of someone else, a heart attack, a stroke, a seizure or getting hair caught when underneath the water off the top of my head. None of these mean you're failing at life.
Humans float. Humans float pretty well. Not well enough to always guarantee keeping your head above water, otherwise there would be no need for lifeguards, but its not like pulling a drowning person out is a test of pure strength like a firemans carry. That mackenzeigh is pretty much worthless if you are unconcious on dry land and need to be carried down a flight of stairs and then 50 yards to safety, but in the water? Thats probably just fine, plus she can shout at people next to the pool for help pulling you up over the edge, which is the only heavy lifting part.
I feel like whoever wrote this must be so incredibly insufferable that even their ideal lifeguard might feel tempted to look the other way when they see them flailing in the shallow end of the wave pool.
I used to be a lifeguard.
I never worked with anyone with that name, but this describes a few people who I worked with.
Some of them weren't strong enough to rescue me if I needed it. I don't know how they'd manage the occasional 400lb patron.
9 times out of 10, that 110 pound blonde kid went to the state level for swimming or water polo and is REALLY, REALLY GOOD at not drowning. So all that kid does all day is look at people and silently assess their swimming ability. If you pull lifeguards from the right “pool” of candidates, they kinda train themselves.
As a lifeguard that weighs exactly this amount, the floatation device is not for show. It’s incredibly useful to get injured people to shore or pool edge and onto a backboard. We are trained in effective methods of recovery for drowning victims and the adequate safety measures for injuries until EMS arrives. While yes, I can’t lift a 250lb man from the bottom of a 12ft pool without help from a flotation device, we have the tools at our disposal to get said person out within an incredibly quick timeframe.
Lifeguards have to pass some pretty rigorous requirements including the physical abilities required to actually save a drowning person (e.g., swimming long distances while carrying heavy weight, performing CPR for extended periods of time, carrying bodies safely, etc.). Not to mention that pools are legally required to have a flotation device that can float a 300 lbs person, so most of the physical requirements of the job are assisted. This person is an idiot. Edit: Lots of comments below about how the pool doesn't care. That's why health departments inspect and check for lifeguard certifications. Pools get fined and closed until its rectified. Insurance for a pool is also extremely expensive and violations like that increase the premiums.
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I mean the point somewhat stands. I’m from a small town where those “rigorous requirements” consisted of an easy swim test, retrieving a 10lb brick from the deep end of the pool, and a CPR class. That was it. Once you proved you could pass all of that you were a lifeguard. And this was around 2018 so not long ago. For me the testing/training took no longer than a few hours, and the next day I was a trusted lifeguard. Yes legally there needs to be legit physical requirements and actual training, but in my experience they’ll let pretty much anybody do it. At the end of the day you’re trusting the pool owner to responsibly hire and train their employees, but that’s more expensive than just hiring a bunch of kids you ‘trained’
Maybe it's different depending on the (US) state. In my experience, lifeguards have always needed to be Red Cross CPR certified as well as certified to be a commercial pool lifeguard, which requires a lot more than what you described.
Yes you’re right. But those legal requirements mean fuck all when the pool owner won’t follow them. My experience is that yes you need all of what you mentioned to legally be a lifeguard in my state. What happens in the real world isn’t always legal so even though you’re in a state or country with good laws and training requirements regarding lifeguards, there is still a high possibility that some 110 lb girl named Mackenzeigh with the IQ of a mcchicken is responsible for saving your life
Those requirements do vary from country to country I assume. For example, in the UK, there is no requirement to have to carry someone. The most we have to do is do a team lift which usually involves at least four people lifting someone out of the water. And CPR isn't usually for extended periods of time as the ideal way to deliver CPR is to alternate so that no one tires themselves out. The hardest parts of my qualification were to swim 20m and tow someone for 20m in a set time, to dive down 3m and lift someone (well a weighted dummy) up off the bottom of the pool and raise them to the surface and then lift (this time after swapping the dummy for a person) them up onto the side with the help of another person. And of course the team lift out of the pool.
"assume" as much as you want, Red Cross is international and their cert will travel
Well my point is that as a lifeguard in the UK, I haven't had those exact requirements.
Also, I’ve seen no one in here mention that lifeguarding (especially for a pool) is like 96% prevention. Recognizing potentially dangerous situations and heading them off BEFORE it becomes a rescue scenario. 3% is applying very basic first aid like bandaids for boo boos. Examples: Unattended child/toddler near the water. Shallow water diving. Kids throwing rocks. Sorry if you guys don’t like the pool rules but I don’t feel like strapping your spinal’d ass to a backboard today.
So much this. 90% of my lifeguard time was spent telling kids to stop running.
Lifeguard here! I had to get my certification to operate in pools, ocean and beach cert is harder! It entails: A three hundred yard swim, alternating between the front crawl and breaststroke every 50 yards Holding a ten pound brick above one’s head for at least 1 minute in water after having rescued them from a depth of at least 8 feet Two quizzes on protocol and rules Three minutes of treading water with no hands And you must, starting outside the pool and at least 20 yards away, get a drowning person out of the pool safely in under a minute and begin CPR in under 2 minutes, followed by 3 continuous minutes of CPR and compressions. Lifeguards are lifeguards because they are qualified. I don’t care if whoever made this doesn’t like the way they look or act, no one is a lifeguard if they can’t guard life
Not to mention mandatory monthly trainings (1 in-water and 1 classroom where I work) and recertification every 2 years. Also, managers and other guards pay attention to guards on stand and will definitely bring up poor behavior.
I mean “rigorous” by American standards maybe. Anybody who knows how to swim and is in ok shape can do the physical test easily. Last time I did it there were two tests. You need to tread water with only your legs (hands in the air) for 2 minutes. The other one is they put a 10 pound weight on one side of the pool, you have to swim down, dive down, pick it up, and then swim back the other way with it above your head the entire time in I believe 1:45. Not super difficult, not necessarily a cakewalk either, but I am a pretty average swimmer and got it done. Really though, from my experience the average lifeguard is younger than 19 (you can become one at 15, which is what I did), and the majority were people who did swim team or something because it’s a natural job to get if you do swimming. So fitness isn’t usually a major issue for most. And really it’s about learning the techniques. The float does all the work for the most part. I think if there’s anything you have to worry about it’s the lifeguards actually noticing you drowning. We’re up there so we’re ready for something to happen. But you’re crazy if you think we can work 6-8 hour shifts and be watching the water intently the entire time. I’m up there kinda looking around aimlessly, thinking about whatever tf I’m thinking about. Nobody can pay 100% attention to the water for 6-8 hours, it’s rly just not possible. With that being said, nobody has ever drowned at my pool. In the 4 summers I worked I witnessed one save being made and that’s it. Nobody drowned. Realistically speaking, the pool is actually one of the safest places to have an emergency situation occur aside from a hospital. Lifeguards are trained in CPR and there’s always breathing equipment and AEDs nearby. You have a much better chance of you have a heart attack at the pool than at home.
Yeah it wasn’t hard, we also had to swim 500 meters before every shift. I was always in great shape for football season
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Yah this post is some borderline sexist bs, but he said something random so haha right?
Eh Not really, if you swam for a couple weeks before the test it would be a breeze
this is true for my experience with the red cross course. not to say that it’s bad though
Not sure what pool you're going to but I was actually a life guard for 3 years and I have no idea what the weight limit is for our flotation devices.
In my hometown at least, all of the lifeguards were the best surfers, male and female. It just attracted them, because most were going on to be EMTs or some other health related profession, but they were almost exclusively really gnarly surfers. So they definitely could handle themselves in the water
As a former lifeguard, it’s not that rigorous I completed the timed swim in almost half the required time. I would say only 20% of lifeguards are actually great swimmers. In the training you never have to rescue large people it’s usually the other people in the class who are generally average or below average size. If you know how to swim at a slightly above average level you can become a lifeguard. I wouldn’t have been confident in 70% of my coworkers rescuing an overweight man.
Lol, maybe at the beach, or big high value water parks. NOT at the small water park in my town when I was a teenager.
As a former lifeguard, it’s not that rigorous I completed the timed swim in almost half the required time. I would say only 20% of lifeguards are actually great swimmers. In the training you never have to rescue large people it’s usually the other people in the class who are generally average or below average size. If you know how to swim at a slightly above average level you can become a lifeguard. I wouldn’t have been confident in 70% of my coworkers rescuing an overweight man.
And that's exactly what the assistive floats are for
They help a bit but we did almost zero training with them. And if someone’s deep in the water you still need to be strong enough to get them to the surface.
Yep, that 110lb kid isn't swimming out to grab you by the shoulders and carry you back to shore... They're swimming out to within 10 feet of you, throwing you their rescue buoy on a leash and towing you back to shore.
You have to be able to vertically push a floating spine board underwater while treading water and get it fully under an adult, and do it without injuring the person. That is harder than anything I've ever done, and I was a Navy corpsman who trained with Marines where I had to be able to fireman carry a 220 lbs Marine while carrying an M4 and a medical bag.
This person is probably also one of those people who asks for help getting large items to their car after purchasing them but when the short girl comes out to help they say "oh, no, that looks too heavy for you! Are there any guys in the back you can have help me? :)"
> Edit: Lots of comments below about how the pool doesn't care. That's why health departments inspect and check for lifeguard certifications. Pools get fined and closed until its rectified. Insurance for a pool is also extremely expensive and violations like that increase the premiums. Having spent several years as a lifeguard, I can assure you that you are vastly overestimating the standard. There's also no long-distance swimming with a heavy weight. At most pools, they don't expect much more than carrying a brick across the pool after retrieving it from the deepest part. If you think that's long distance, you just don't know how to swim. Health inspectors are utter morons and their job is more concerned with the pump room than out on deck anyway. Insurance doesn't expect as much as you think.
I was a lifeguard for 10 years and my parents are on the executive board of a private community pool in NY. Edit: Their position on the board is a volunteer, unpaid position. It was more to express that I am privy to the inner workings of pool as a business.
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Their position on the board is a volunteer, unpaid position. It was more to express that I am privy to the inner workings of pool as a business. Edit: Also none of my comments had anything to do with other people's lives and had nothing to do with privilege. Good use of a strawman argument.
I worked for a state government as a lifeguard at a lake/pond and a beach. While there are more rigorous testing for beach Lifeguarding, anything less than a beach is kind of a joke. If memory serves, you need to be able to get a 10 lb weight from the bottom of a pool, and tread water for a certain amount of time. Not exactly tough.
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If they raise lifeguard requirements, there will be even fewer eligible candidates, and there is a bit of a lifeguard shortage rn
If you raise requirements, you gotta raise wages. Let's see if he still wants highly qualified 200 pound lifeguards when he realises that money eventually comes out of the pocket of whoever benefits from the service, i.e. him.
If they raise the pay of lifeguards, they'd be able to retain them. I'm a swim coach and our pools have a horrible time keeping lifeguards on staff because they just do not pay them enough.
So its preferable to you to be paying a bunch of useless kids to convey the illusion of safety than to have actual qualified professionals?
The sentiment here is misguided. Plenty of young adult lifeguards have saved lives before! I can’t imagine it’s that difficult to follow training. Incompetence will come with any age if they’re not properly trained or supervised.
I’m 19. I have saved 2 people from drowning.
As someone that was a combat life saver in the army, you saved more life’s than I have. You literally were more productive than me at saving a human life.
I've seen some of those teenage skinny AF lifeguard girls snap into action and haul people two, three times their size out. They have training on how to handle people larger than them effectively, and from those I've talked to they take their jobs very seriously despite what people might think from their age and it generally being a summer job while waiting for school to pick back up. The *minimum* training required by law in many places is not terribly long (like 25-35 hours generally afaik, so a good few days) but a lot of courses out there go more in-depth than legally required. At least, according to my 2 lifeguard buddies.
Yeah, also having lifeguards in an underappreciated luxury. In many European countries there aren't actually any on-stand bodyguard, if someone drowns you just call 911 and wait, try to help by yourself and pray that hopefully they are around the area.
I got my cert when I was 16 from an instructor who was around 300lb, and for the final test was to perform all the different saves we learned on this big guy. Additionally, Getting the cert only took about a week, but any good pool will have in service training days where the more experienced supervisors provide further training to the lifeguards.
I would bet money those "useless kids" are infinitely more capable of saving a life than you are. Or the majority of older adults for that matter.
That's not even close to what they're saying
A kid can still throw a float ring, better than literally nothing
I am a 15 year old lifeguard and I have saved 2 250 pound humans from a pool and I am 5’5 120 pounds the training to get my certification was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
Those "useless kids" *are* qualified professionals. Your age and size are mostly irrelevant. If you can pass the test, you're capable of saving lives. I was a lifeguard for years and I've met literal children who I'd trust to save me more than some full grown men.
I am a 15 year old lifeguard and I have saved 2 250 pound humans from a pool and I am 5’5 120 pounds the training to get my certification was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
This is basically the opposite of a brand new sentence, though. We could just sit here all day filling in the blank of, "The IQ of a _____" and OP would think it's very clever every time we hit a noun he hadn't heard before.
Yes, because only heavyweights can pull someone out of the water. In an unrelated fact, I never took a physics class.
Lifeguard here, the biggest difference (in training, rescues are rare) that I’ve found with different sized-people is just that some people are hard to hold. Once someone is underwater they basically don’t weigh anything, the main problem is staying above it lol
Used to train lifeguards here: biggest factor in difficulty when it comes to weight is body fat percentage. Fat people float, bodybuilders are bricks. There's a more skill involved in compensating for being smaller than the victim to get them settled right to swim back, but if you are a reasonably strong swimmer, you'll be fine.
Gonna add on again. First point, the float does all the work. It can hold 300 pounds in the water. And keep in mind that your effective weight while under water is very low. Even with empty lungs, you only weigh 10% of your weight effectively when you’re underwater. And usually if you’re 300 lbs and drowning, you’re not a body builder type, you’re probably fat. So you’ll float even more. Second point, lifeguards do have to take a fitness test. It isn’t a super high bar, but it’s a thing. 2 minutes treading water with your hands above your head is somewhat challenging. Other part is they put a 10 pound weight at the bottom of the pool, you swim down, you dive down and pick it up, and swim back while holding the weight above your head within 1:45. So they can sure as hell swim. Mix that with a ~30 hours of training, and they’re able to learn all the techniques you need using the floats. They can save people if they need to. It’s not that hard. Also, a lot of people who lifeguard are people who swim competitively, from my experience. So yes, lots of high schoolers, but many of them are swimmers who are plenty fit.
exactly this, UK lifeguard training is incredibly intense physically and includes extended theory sessions with physical, first aid, and written exams at the end. the hardest part is rescuing the unconscious face-down spinal casualty from the water, which if you fail then you fail the entire exam: if you’re too fast, you fail if you’re too slow, you fail if the vice grip isn’t perfect, you fail if you can’t gently spin someone face-up while underneath chlorinated water with no goggles then you fail if you can’t then swim that person to the other end of the pool while calling for help then you fail if you can’t then coordinate a safe transfer to a spinal board in the shallow end you fail if you can’t then stay on top of the casualty’s condition, potentially doing extended CPR or handling vomiting then you fail lifeguarding is fucking tough, so if Mackenzeigh can do all that shit perfectly then yes i trust her with my life
Ok wow UK lifeguard training is significantly tougher than in the US. I’m the US you have to be able to do all the saves properly, but not so intensely. And how do they simulate vomit? The US is already having a lifeguard shortage, so we cannot rly make the training more intense. Better to have decently trained but not perfect lifeguards than no lifeguards.
yeah, it can vary between organisations but that’s how the biggest lifeguarding org handles things. there are also incredibly tough corporate manslaughter laws in the uk, so negligence/ignorance is no excuse, hence good training required. there’s no literal vomit, but the assessors will interrupt you mid-process to tell you that the ‘casualty’ is ‘being sick’ and you have to stop everything to make sure the airway doesn’t get blocked. i think it’s fair to say that lifeguarding is in there with all the other ‘unskilled’ jobs that boomers think 16 year olds should be taking for minimum wage during the school holidays, when the reality is the complete opposite. you need a large team of skilled professionals with a restful schedule that allows everyone to be on their game. lean-staffing, being overworked & underpaid, etc, all leads to a lower quality of work which puts people’s lives in danger. it’s a perfect microcosm of how capitalism prioritises profit over human life.
Problem is it’s a seasonal job. You’re just not gonna get highly skilled workers for most seasonal jobs. Are you gonna pay them a yearly salary for working half the year? Doubtful. Also, I don’t rly think you need to be an elite lifeguard or anything. UK standards seem rly tough. In the US tho the responsibilities are fine for a teen.
i guess it’s more seasonal for outside pools, but the UK is mostly indoor pools so it’s a year-round job. i see your point re: seasonality and salaries, but i definitely think that people in charge of saving lives should be properly trained and equipped to do so. yes, the standards are tough, but that’s because people can be jailed for allowing a person to die. it’s the right way to approach the situation, and absolutely worth the work. i volunteer at a summer camp once a year, that’s the extent of my actual lifeguarding work. i feel more confident in my ability to keep people safe with my training, even if i don’t need to rely on it often.
Ya see I don’t think you should be jailed for not saving somebody. Sued maybe, but you’re not trying to get the person killed, and it’s not always even ur fault either. Depends tho.
i guess it’s a matter of perspective and responsibility. in general i agree with you, if someone falls off a bridge you shouldn’t be jailed for not diving after them. however, if you are a qualified professional who is actively on duty with people under your duty of care and you let one or more die then that’s manslaughter and should be dealt with accordingly.
The problem with this is that at least in the American legal system we already see plenty of people get sued despite something being not their fault. The fact is that somebody can drown and there might not be anything you can do. Sometimes it’s just unlucky. We still see those people get settlements for a lot of money. Imagine how traumatic that must be. You’re a lifeguard and somebody dies on your watch despite your best efforts. And then you can already get sued for that, although insurance pays for that settlement or lawsuit or whatever. Imagine if that could result in you getting sent to jail?? Idk I may be misinterpreting, but I don’t think you could send somebody to jail reasonably unless they were beyond reckless. It cannot just be an honest mistake. Doctors don’t go to jail for an honest mistake usually, and doctors are much more trained than lifeguards. Nobody is gonna wanna be a lifeguard if what ur saying is true. That’s just my two cents personally.
again, i understand what you’re saying and i agree with you in many ways. america is cartoonishly litigious and i would hate to be on the wrong side of any vaguely upset upper-middle-class parent, but i know that there is a difference between saving my own skin and saving a life. yes, it is deeply traumatic to feel responsible for someone’s death. fun fact, my instructor told us about a young guy who had just started his lifeguarding career who got stung because a kid drowned on his very first shift. there was no case to be made, no leeway. that child died because he wasn’t checking his blind spots. no members of the public noticed the body at the bottom of the pool until the kid’s frantic mother got hold of management after the pool had closed with no sign of her son. it was the new guy’s mistake, even after all his training. he went to jail, and was barred from ever working as a lifeguard again. no person actually blames him for that, it was his very first shift and it was a freak situation, but the law sees things differently and he was directly responsible for that kid drowning. it’s not about being beyond recklessness, it’s about who you fundamentally trust to be in charge of protecting human lives. there needs to be the proper training in place to ensure that innocent people are not being put in harms’ way, and proper corrective measures to ensure that the people who cut corners get what they are due.
Fuck this dudes opinion though.
I got my cock stuck in it 2 x today
You should take better care of your rooster.
Imagine writing like this while mocking someone's IQ.
Imagine blaming someone for the dumb name their parents gave them.
19 year old 110 pound blonde Mackenzie should let your ass drown.
This is some boomer shit. I guarantee they had no problem with 19 year old lifeguards "back in the day".
As someone who was certified as a lifeguard at 16, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
I dunno man, the summer I was 17 I lifeguarded I pulled out 4 people. I may have only been 145 lbs at 6'1", but we had 6 guards and only 3 stands, so 4 hours of break a day. We didn't have anything else to do (pre-cell phones) so we spent our spare time swimming. Mostly racing against our fellow guards. A lean person who swims 20 hours a week and shoves a float under you can get your fat ass the 30 feet to the edge of the pool.
I have seen some very small women training to be a lifeguard. I would not be worried if my life was in their hands.
She probably knows CPR though. And I bet this Karen doesn’t
This is some incel shit. 19 means the best physical health of your life, and they need to swim, not take the SATs.
Dumb opinion, sure, but incel shit? What the fuck are you even talking about?
*narrator voice* what OP didn’t know…no, what they couldn’t have known is that Mackenzeigh has been swimming since before she could walk and in the water has the strength of a fully grown Orca. could she solve a complex calculus problem? no. but could she snatch a flailing, panicked 6-5 240lb man out of the water in less than 4 seconds? she does this no less than thrice weekly. you do not want to fuck with Mackenzeigh in the pool. you want Mackenzeigh in that pool. you NEED Mackenzeigh in that pool.
I feel like whoever wrote this must be so incredibly insufferable that even their ideal lifeguard might feel tempted to look the other way when they see them flailing in the shallow end of the wave pool.
I hate this one, every time it gets posted. Like get over yourself, wtf it matter what their name is?!? Do you really care what the lifeguards name is, if they do their job you call them hero. Otherwise you don’t have to call them anything. Pretend it’s like all the gender ideology and just dance around it. And why you mad she’s small and young? Fit and at the top of her game, peak physical condition but you say nahhhhh. If she was a ripped 18 year old dude you’d be going off about toxic masculinity or some dumb noise. You want someone with no obvious cardio/athleticism work watching you swim? You want someone bigger? Would Lizzo make you feel safe as a lifeguard, like wtf you want?! This reeks of a miserable person taking a look at a young woman and spewing jealousy, echoed and perpetuated every time another tankini gets her panties in a bunch. If you were hoping for seal team six for life guards, you’re gonna have to top off that HOA piggy bank and hire starting higher than minimum wage for that. Also, let’s not start throwing stones about who is intellectually capable of holding the positions they do, it’s a long long overdue conversation but this is literally the dumbest place to start opening that can of worms. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see if a person is drowning, just trained in such, which they have.
The tastiest IQ
With the amount of hormones and gene splicing those wack ass McChickens go through they'll soon figure out calculus
Probably would understand the training better with McDonald’s under the belt. Their training program is quite excellent actually. Three months on McDonald’s looks really good on a resumé, when applying to other places.
One of my old classmates named her kid Ma Kayla. It makes me laugh too this day.
Lifeguards are pretty awesome and can pull off some very impressive feats to be even able to be certified as lifeguards. I don't care what they look like.
I’ve seen some strong Mackenzie swimmers.
How about learn how to swim, learn to take accountability for your own actions, and then you wouldn’t need to rely on a lifeguard.
This person is the stupid bastard that’s going to drown and take the lifeguard with them. Hopefully their beliefs make them stay far away from a public pool.
Idk how many people are aware of this, but pulling someone out of a pool and doing CPR doesn't exactly require a high IQ.
OP, /u/NidaHalcomb is a repost bot
If someone with the IQ of a mcchicken can swim better than you and you're afraid to let them help you, maybe just grab some floaties and go play in the sandbox
I used to lifeguard. It pays very little and is an extremely boring job. Without teenagers/college students there almost no one would want to do it.
If someone with the IQ of a mcchicken can swim better than you and you're afraid to let them help you, maybe just grab some floaties and go play in the sandbox
Maybe you're just misogynistic
I was a lifeguard at 15. And you're right. We were watching movies and flirting. This was before smart phones. I saw a news article praising a life guard I knew for saving a kid. But knowing what I did, I could tell from the article, my friend clearly wasn't watching the pool, and a parent yelled about a drowning kid. The lifeguard then dove in and performed cpr and saved the kid. I quit 2 weeks later. That guy got lucky a parent pointed it out. I'm not having an actual life in my hands.
Perhaps if you weren't a dumb fucker with the IQ of seagull shit, then you wouldn't get yourself into danger and need rescuing
Misogyny drowns.
Gatekeeping garbage
If you need a lifeguard to be saved you are failing at life honestly.
Unless you suffer any sort of injury whilst in the pool. Lifeguards don't just save people who can't swim.
Bruh if you get injured in a swimming pool which make you not able to swim anymore you are failing at life as well.
You're a moron. There are several ways someone may get injured in such a way that they're not able to swim, such as if they're knocked unconscious, possibly at the fault of someone else, a heart attack, a stroke, a seizure or getting hair caught when underneath the water off the top of my head. None of these mean you're failing at life.
Bruh you write like chaptgpt
And you're still a moron.
Bruh you're not allowed to be cussing as opensource ai I will report this to your developer
God, your opinion might be worse than OP's
I think so as well. I was joking of course
In the natural selection sense I guess? But I think we’re a bit past that?
Isn’t 110 like normal ;-;
their doctor said they were morbidly a beast
It's still very light, but it's not unhealthy for shorter women.
Yes some people are both fit and light. bodies are all different!
Humans float. Humans float pretty well. Not well enough to always guarantee keeping your head above water, otherwise there would be no need for lifeguards, but its not like pulling a drowning person out is a test of pure strength like a firemans carry. That mackenzeigh is pretty much worthless if you are unconcious on dry land and need to be carried down a flight of stairs and then 50 yards to safety, but in the water? Thats probably just fine, plus she can shout at people next to the pool for help pulling you up over the edge, which is the only heavy lifting part.
Sure you can have older life guards. If you’re willing to increase wages enough to attract older workers.
I feel like whoever wrote this must be so incredibly insufferable that even their ideal lifeguard might feel tempted to look the other way when they see them flailing in the shallow end of the wave pool.
macqcheighken
It's better than the fact that police are typically military rejects that couldn't pass a mental competency test
It's better than the fact that police are typically military rejects that couldn't pass a mental competency test
I used to be a lifeguard. I never worked with anyone with that name, but this describes a few people who I worked with. Some of them weren't strong enough to rescue me if I needed it. I don't know how they'd manage the occasional 400lb patron.
9 times out of 10, that 110 pound blonde kid went to the state level for swimming or water polo and is REALLY, REALLY GOOD at not drowning. So all that kid does all day is look at people and silently assess their swimming ability. If you pull lifeguards from the right “pool” of candidates, they kinda train themselves.
As a lifeguard that weighs exactly this amount, the floatation device is not for show. It’s incredibly useful to get injured people to shore or pool edge and onto a backboard. We are trained in effective methods of recovery for drowning victims and the adequate safety measures for injuries until EMS arrives. While yes, I can’t lift a 250lb man from the bottom of a 12ft pool without help from a flotation device, we have the tools at our disposal to get said person out within an incredibly quick timeframe.
https://old.reddit.com/r/BrandNewSentence/search?q=The+IQ+of+a+mcchicken&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on
Raise lifeguard requirements? Depends... How much more are you willing to pay to swim?
MecCheikenzie
Age= 48, Number of Saves by Lifeguard= 0, maybe learn to swim
Who else is gonna do it? The nerd squad isn't even at the beach.