Half a lifeguard: A 14-year-old's journal of the Red Cross

Day ten

Day ten: 7/29

Duration: 2 (0.8x1, 1.2x1)

For the first time, I was not happy to see the brilliant blue sky above me. I actually remembered to bring an umbrella with me since yesterday's incident, and then the clouds tauntingly disappeared for today.

We didn't have to gather beforehand as we sat under the shade of the canopy and listened to the lecture for today, given by the association founder himself. It was about facts and stuff about different waves, tides, currents, things of the sort, and what to do if you unfortunately ran into them. I came to a conclusion that there's too many to watch out for, I'll just not randomly jump into rivers and I'll be fine.

Today is also the first day of revision – we all learned everything we have to, now we have two days to prepare for the final test. The rules are simple: You get a license if you pass. There are several mistakes you need to look out for in every subject, and make one mistake out of all of them, you fail the subject. If you pass every subject, you pass the test, you fail even one of them, you pack your things right away.

Let me clarify first that this isn't the national test for lifeguarding – it's an official one, yes, but it's not the one we're preparing for. If you fail a subject, you still go on and you get a result instead of a certificate. The coach ran us through all the test subjects and made sure we can pass, if not exceed all of them. Most of the team still need to focus on a couple of subjects, namely complex ones like advanced AED+CPR, extrication from the victim, and rope throwing. The coaches' expressions were grim, but from my view, everything was satisfactory. I think most of the team can pass.

I didn't have problems with anything, so the head coach ordered me and some other people who also didn't need revising to swim routines for the rest of the lesson.

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Additional notes:

* If you're on a yacht and you're about to run into a particularly huge current, observe first and determine if the curve is facing towards you or not – Does it look like a smile or a frown? If it's a smile, it won't be powerful – try to avoid it and normally you'll get out. Even if you get caught, you won't sink – you'll just stay there until you get out or until help comes your way. If it's a frown, jump out of the boat right this instant and swim to shore like hell because you'll definitely go under. Try not to.

* If you get caught in a swirl, try to lie flat on your back and you'll be more difficult to get dragged under. If you are in the process of being dragged under, try to breathe first, and once you had your breath, hold it and go under. Remember the rip currents at sea, which you have to swim even further away from shore to swim back? The same applies as well – the force is weaker as you go down, and you'll be able to swim out more easily.

* Common misconceptions:

* The river is more dangerous than it looks. Upon a thundershower it can easily reach speeds of 80-110 km/h, last year I and my previous team had to swim in a river that was at 90 km/h with a controlled environment in which there were coaches, actual lifeguards with motorboats and an ambulance on standby. The river was only about ten meters in width, we broke the line somewhere in the middle of the river, and we ended up being washed twenty meters away or more from where we were heading towards. I nearly lost my sandals twice. I have a video on my drive, but unfortunately I can't put it here.

* It takes less water to drag you down and drown you than you'd thought. If speeds aren't taken into consideration, an average adult can easily be pulled down at knee-level waters. The river I went to was level at somewhere below my hips, half the team had to cross the river as a line, and even then we failed to do so.

* When drowning, mostly the victim doesn't yell and struggle and last up to five minutes as shown in the movies. They go under. They just go under, without any sound, without much struggling, and even if the victim's friends or parents are nearby, they won't notice. With that being said, being a lifeguard requires a lot of attention, focus and intense surveillance. I think I'll jump up to the coach's class after this one because I'm most likely going to get sued first before I make any money as a lifeguard – I'm ADHD.

** Don't even think of trying to swim the opposite direction from a river's current.

Inhales

Let's do some math, despite I know how much you hate them:

The speed of an average person swimming at full speed is 1-1.2 meters per second. A river at normal speed is 20-45 km/h. Transfer that to meters per second, and if I'm not wrong, you get up to 12.5 meters per second. ...Now, I very calmly ask you, how the f*** do you outswim something that goes against you faster than ten times your speed?