Three Real-World Aquatic Emergencies

Preparing for common scenarios that are rarely included in training

By Chris Thurber

In Camp Waterfront Management ($24.95 on Amazon), author Cathy Scheder emphasizes the distinction between lifeguards’ certifications and their competence. Scheder, who also holds a doctorate in educational leadership and serves on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, was one of the first aquatic professionals to advocate for rigorous on-site lifeguard training and skills verification. Only when lifeguards practice their skills in the settings and under the conditions where they will be working can they gain the proficiency and confidence necessary to scan properly, rescue skillfully, and prevent drownings.

© Can Stock Photo / skopal

Getting Ready

With humility tinged with fear, I accepted a promotion to Waterfront Director at YMCA Camp Belknap in the spring of 1989. Following a 10-day course at Springfield College, I arrived at camp that summer to co-lead the in-service aquatic training. Only then, in my supervisory position, did I fully appreciate the magnitude of a lifeguard’s responsibilities. Only then did I see the importance of both on-site training and in-service training. And only then did I understand that certification was necessary—but universally insufficient—for me to feel certain my team and I were ready.

But ready for what? In a standard lifeguarding course, students practice straightforward scenarios they have first read about, then watch a video, and finally listen to live instruction. Outside the confines of such a structured and repetitive course, novel scenarios emerge daily, some of which have a once-in-a-blue-moon, sneaky riskiness that takes undertrained and inexperienced lifeguards by surprise. By sharing three examples of such insidious hazards, I hope to raise awareness about these elements of aquatic safety and provide a meaningful update to pre-season and in-service lifeguard trainings.

Example 1: Unusual Contexts

Lifeguards typically learn how to backboard bathers with suspected spinal injuries—in shallow water, where lifeguards can stand, as well as in deep water, where rapid victim extrication is the priority. Both scenarios take plenty of practice before lifeguards can consistently turn a face-down victim over (or bring a submerged victim to the surface) and bring that person out of the water on a backboard, all the while maintaining inline stabilization.

To level-up lifeguards’ skills, start with in situ practice and skills verification during staff-training week. Then, conduct a weekly practice in all types of conditions. Practice backboarding on rainy days. Practice on windy days. Practice with just two rescuers. Practice with two victims and just one board. Practice with tiny campers and large campers. If you don’t want lifeguards to respond to a real spinal injury with plaintive you-go-in-first stares, then practice, practice, practice. Oh, and if you don’t currently add at least $150 to each staff member’s contract for holding an up-to-date lifeguard cert (with valid CPR, of course), please start doing so this summer. 

To further protect the lives of campers and staff members, think outside the box. Inside the box, we know that spinal injuries in aquatic settings are most commonly caused by diving in shallow water. Thankfully, NO DIVING signs and attentive lifeguarding prevent most of these injuries in the first place. Moreover, guards practice mostly in shallow water, in part because shallow water is the usual context. But what about unusual contexts? No organization can foresee all possible emergencies, but all camps are well-served to think outside the box. Consider how procedures might change at activities where a spinal injury is unlikely but possible.

For example, many camps offer water-skiing and tubing in an aquatic program; others offer large inflatable play structures. Because a spinal injury may be sustained in these activities, lifeguards should practice deep-water extrication in these contexts. For example, how does a team extricate a water-skier who wipes out, bobs to the surface in a daze, and complains about having no feeling in the legs? How does a team backboard a camper with a suspected spinal injury caused by a friend jumping off an inflatable structure? (Keep in mind that kids are still jumping into the water around you, so build a solution for that into the emergency-action plan.) Each camp waterfront will have slightly different procedures, of course, but they all have the same need for planning and practice in unusual contexts.

Example 2: Unexpected Swims

Most people who watched me run after our 15-passenger vans, with my arms loaded with Type III lifejackets, must have thought I was crazy. What’s the waterfront director doing in the camp parking lot, especially since the vans were headed to Mt. Chocorua, not a sailing regatta? Who needs PFDs (personal flotation devices) for a hike? The answer: All those campers planning to take a dip in Chocorua Lake after descending from Mt. Chocorua’s 1,060-meter summit.

Regardless of campers’ swimming abilities, an off-site swim at an unguarded waterfront, without boundary lines, without known bottom conditions, requires staff members leading the hike be certified and trained lifeguards, and anyone going into water above 18 inches wears a lifejacket. Or, as the tripping staff say at Belknap: “Above the knees requires PFDs.”

Other policies, such as “No diving in shallow water,” “Everyone swims with a buddy,” and “Lifeguards must carry rescue tubes.” should also be in effect, of course. Starting this summer, update all trip leaders’ pre-event checklists to include the question: “Will we be swimming as part of this excursion?” and plan accordingly.

© Can Stock Photo / RainerPlendl

Example 3: Unreliable Policies

Many of the camps I visit each summer to conduct staff-training workshops have thoughtfully designed and attentively guarded the waterfronts. On pools and lakes and rivers and tidal bays, most lifeguards follow industry best practices for swimming, small crafts, lessons, and other aquatic activities.

Except for when staff members themselves use the waterfront. That can be a different—and subtly risky—story.

Tragically, staff members have been injured or drowned on camp waterfronts when they fail to follow the same rules they enforce for campers:

• No running on the dock or deck

• No standing in small crafts

• No diving in shallow water

• No swimming before sunrise or after sunset

• Always wearing a lifejacket in any type of watercraft

• Always swimming with a buddy (no singles, no triples)

• Swimming only in designated areas.

Yes, boat drivers will get funny tan lines if they wear life jackets. But, as the Coast Guard PFD slogan says, “It won’t work if you don’t wear it.” Not wearing a life jacket on a boat is like not wearing a seat belt in a car “because it’s uncomfortable” or “because I’m a good driver.” Yet, every summer I have opportunities to query adult staff members about their choosing not to don a PFD on motorized watercraft. 

For now, set aside the poor example that this rule-breaking sets for campers. Simply consider the response I typically get: “My life jacket’s here in this compartment” (points to transom). Now, consider how it might sound if I asked the van driver why he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and he replied, “My seatbelt’s here against the door.” Right. You would no sooner have time to buckle your seatbelt in the seconds before a head-on collision than you would to put on a life jacket in the seconds before you hit a rogue wave and were tossed out of a boat.

Rise To Excellence

Integrating unusual contexts into training, planning for unexpected swims, and correcting unreliable policies will make a camp’s waterfront safer for all participants. Lifeguard certifications are like drivers’ licenses. They confirm a person is able to competently perform a finite number of modest skills and correctly answer some basic questions, under controlled conditions, on the day of the test. 

Now ask yourself this question: If that same, newly minted lifeguard were guarding your child’s life, would you feel comfortable leaving the pool, dock, or beach to run errands for an hour? Of course not. Only after on-site training, skills verification, and regular practice would you even consider putting your child’s life into a team’s hands. And although most of your aquatic staff members don’t have a child of their own, you can help lifeguards rise to a new standard of excellence by having them consider every camper to be their child.

Christopher Thurber, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and faculty member at Phillips Exeter Academy. He created Prep4Camp.com, the only evidence-based homesickness prevention program, and co-authored the best-selling Summer Camp Handbook with Dr. Jon Malinowski. His newest book, The Unlikely Art of Parental Pressure, coaches caregivers on healthy ways to set children on their unique path to success. Learn more about the work that Chris does with schools and camps on DrChrisThurber.com.