Most people believe that being a lifeguard is a simple job, that you just sit all day and chill. I thought the same thing, but actually there is a lot more to it then that.





First off, to be a lifeguard you must pay to go through a training. The training consist of learning rescue skills and first aid. You are also not guaranteed to pass the training to get your certification, and the training takes around 40hrs to complete.

The rescue techniques that you must learn consist of proper entry into the water, proper placement of hands, and how to save a victum if they are above water or submerged. These skills are basic and easy to learn. After you have mastered these skills you must take an assessment over all these skills.

Aside from saving lives there are many other skills you must know such as first aid. Being a lifeguard you deal with first aid more then saving lives. In the first aid portion of the training you must learn how to do CPR, and fix wounds. Every wound is a little bit different so you have to judge what would be the best solution to fix the problem, such as, should I wrap it up, put a band-aid on it or in serious cases create a temporary cast using nothing more then beach towels and tape. However during this portion of the training you spend about half your time learning CPR, Rescue breathing, and defibrillator techniques.

Having all this knowledge comes with a lot of responsibilities. When on the clock you must be responsible for anyone in your area or pool. This can be a big issue when you are sitting in a chair for hours at a time. A lot of the time you will catch yourself looking at everything else except the pool or your area, especially if you loose focus easily. But you must be responsible for keeping your eyes on your area at one time, it only take a few seconds for you to look away and someone is drowning. Aside from this you must limit distractions such as customers coming up and wanting to talk or asking a simple question. Or maybe even an injury comes up, In a lot of cases you must remain in your position and find another employee to fix the patient so you can remain on watch. A lifeguard is not suppose to spend anymore time then 10 seconds commuting with customers.

Having many responsibilities also comes with a lot of power. Lifeguards have a lot of power over their customers. If a customer is acting up and not following the rules you must inform them about it. If a customer does not follow your orders you have the power to remove them from the pool area or sit them out if needed. This is where you must learn when not to abuse your power. there are few days where you are upset and might abuse your power because of a shorter fuse. But you must try be fair and not abuse your power unless it is an extreme case. Because basically whatever you say goes. However the customer is suppose to always be right and this is where you and your customers will bump heads.

As you can see being a lifeguard is more then just sitting and chilling all day, It comes with a lot of training and responsibilities. But the best part at the end of the day is knowing that without you, there might have been one less person in the world.