They're The Best At Guarding the Water!
Maggie Wilcox (left) and Chrystal Ritson (right) assist “victim” Arika Brown during the 2009 Lifeguard Fitness Challenge Saturday at the Great Bridge/Hickory YMCA.
With a score of 88 points, Team 10 took the top spot out of 13 squads at the event. Twelve branches from Virginia and North Carolina competed.
At the Great Bridge/Hickory YMCA pool Saturday afternoon, the lifeguards were hard at work.
Some paddled up and down the lanes, dragging floating devices behind them. Others saved victim after victim from the midst of the waters. Still others, faced with those suffering from spinal cord injuries, carefully worked together to stabilize the swimmers before even leaving the pool.
Fortunately, all of it was staged. But events like the annual Lifeguard Fitness Challenge kept the area's lifesavers ready for those moments that it's time to spring into unscripted action.
"Five or six years ago, the local aquatic directors got together and decided to hold the challenge," explained Senior Aquatics Director Brendan O'Donnell. "We use it as a training tool, but also for fun. These guys get the opportunity to show their skills in a team environment."
Competitors from 12 Y's from Virginia and North Carolina were divided into 13 teams for the event.
"We split them up," O'Donnell said. "A Taylor Bend (Chesapeake) person might be working with a Mount Trashmore person. We call this our 'in-service,' because they're training all together."
One event found blindfolded lifeguards searching a shallow pool for small weighted balls, as their teammates talked them through it. Another event tested competitors on setting up an oxygen machine and strapping it to a victim. A makeshift Jeopardy game quizzed contestants on such subjects as what to do if caught in a current (swim diagonally towards shore), early warning signs of potential drowning victims (waving hands, lack of buoyancy), and how to approach someone with a potential spinal injury (avoid making waves). Teams scored a maximum of 12 points in each event.
"I thought it would be cool to be a lifeguard," said Grassfield student James Goldade, in his first year of overseeing the waters of the Great Bridge Y, "because I always look at lifeguards at the pool and I'm like, 'Wow, they have authority!' I wondered what (the Challenge) was, and it sounded like a lot of fun. It was pretty cool. If I need to do this (for real), I'll be ready for it."
In the more action-based events, relay participants "rescued" victims from the middle of the pool, using a floatation device to haul them in. Other "victims" pretended to have head or spine injuries, forcing competitors to improvise the use of backboards and neck guards (known as "shocks" in lifeguard jargon) to prepare for the real thing.
"I took this as a refresher course from when I first learned this stuff," said Grassfield High student Nick Calvano. "It refreshed us on how to do backboarding better. I knew how to do it, but not in the order we had to. Knowing how to do it, it makes me more confident in my job and helps me not to hesitate when I have to do this in real life."
The other relay forced swimmers to navigate the length of the pool, fully clothed, with a floater attached to them - just as would be the case in realism.
"The clothes relay was challenging," said Grassfield's Miranda Russell. "It takes your breath away because you have so much weight on you. It feels like 100 pounds - another one of me."
As the event wound down, the top scorers were announced. Team 10, a makeshift squad of lifeguards from different branches, took the top spot with 88 points, and brought home some gold medals.
"We had a lot of people that knew their stuff," said member Chris Foy, representing the Greenbrier Y. "In the backboarding, we had a victim that floated like a noodle, and our secondary guy really knew his stuff, so we just nailed it. I practiced a couple of weeks leading up to it, so we were ready for it."
Teammates Shari Spohn, a recent Western Branch grad, played a drowner in the relay.
"We got to interact with the other Y's and further our lifesaving skills," said the Taylor Bend lifeguard. "We worked hard with teamwork. We talked to each other and got to know each other. "It didn't matter if we won or not, but winning was fun."
