I have worked in the field of recreation and in particular aquatics for my entire working life. When it got time to picking out a job at the ripe age of 15 I had my choice between working in a warehouse or as a lifeguard. These were the two highest paying jobs at the time where I lived, which was in Yokosuka, Japan, and money was all I was motivated by at first. I ended up choosing to go with the lifeguarding, and took my first course at the Green Beach outdoor pool in freezing water. Once certifed, I worked as a lifeguard at the Officers Club and Green Beach pools. Having just turned 16, I was one of the "newbies", so learned the fine art of scrubbing scum lines, vacuuming the pool, and mopping up locker rooms, which was all a shock to me. I thought I was just going to sit there and get a tan! There was some actual lifeguarding involved as well, but I never made a rescue while there. I did learn that it was very hard to enforce rules with your friends and even harder with the school thugs!
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From Japan I moved to Illinois and quickly took up the same profession. Working at an indoor pool, an outdoor pool and two beaches on the lake front for the next five years I learned so much more. I learned about how tight knit a staff can become. There was the inter-staff dating, drama, and bonding that happens that was all new to me. I was thinking I was just going to be showing up for a job, but it quickly turned out to be my life even after I was off the clock. My co-workers were my friends on and off duty. While working, I started making my first rescues of non-swimming adults, drunken sailors, left alone kids, and the like. I became an Aquatic Instructor and Head Lifeguard there, and they were the best years of my lifeguarding experience.
After Illinois, I kept up with the tradition of working around pools by lifeguarding at three pools in Hawaii. One of them (the Sub base pool) was the one that I learned how to swim in as a little keiki! I was homeless in Hawaii for ten days (long story), and believe me, working at a pool has its advantages...there were showers, a nice soft First Aid cot to sleep on, and shelter. I was able to get away with staying over night a few times without being caught, but eventually I had to move back into my car after my boss caught me. He did actually help however by finding me a bedroom to rent from a friend of his...thanks for that Tommy!
When Hawaii got too expensive to live there, and I felt I wanted to be back on the mainland, I moved to Virginia and again took up the red shorts and whistle lifeguarding at an indoor pool. That was back in 1991, and to this day I still work for the same agency. Somewhere along the way I rose through the ranks of Head Guard, Pool Manager, Aquatic Programmer, and Aquatics Supervisor. I still get in the guard stand every so often, but it's only when a lifeguard is late or calls out. I met my fiance at one of the pools...she was a customer and I was the typical lifeguard asking for a phone number. Now I oversee an Olympic sized year round swimming pool with a staff of about 20 guards and 25 swim instructors. The job is very cool. I love not being stuck behind a desk my full shift. I can walk around, check on things, and talk to staff and public. My job is also VERY supportive of my volunteer search and rescue work. They allow me to leave for searches (10 days in New Orleans after Katrina with short notice and countless 1-2 day searches in and around the Virginia area) and to adjust my schedule for trainings and conferences. They even allow me to bring my dog to work on occasion.
My job also lets me put on Dog Swim days where I let the public bring in their dogs for a swim while the pool is draining for maintenence and cleaning every other year. And Hero and Sirius love swimming in the pool!
The staff is great. The guards keep me young. The drama they bring takes me back to the drama we had when I was sixteen years old...and makes me smile. I don't get upset because I used to get away with much more, caused much more, and was way worse than any of them ever are or they could ever hope to get away with. There is much more accountability nowdays. More oversight, and more strictness....which the importance of the job needs. So I try to allow them fun so long as people are safe in the water that they watch. Keeping people alive is top of the list...they have the single most important job in the facility...no one else has anyones lives in their hands as they do at this moment. But I want them to feel that this job was one of their funest, coolest jobs they had when starting out in the work force.
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