Yesterday was my first day on the job. I wasn't scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, but it was cold and rain, so they closed both days early. Yesterday was ninety degrees and sunny. So I showed up for my shift, and all of the shift leaders who were supposed to be done were still there working, It was a zoo. I got sent to the ramp that leads to the lazy river to make sure that everyone going into it was following the rules, and there are a lot of rules. There were two lifeguards at the end of the ramp trying to ride herd in the water. After a little more than an hour of that they sent a lifeguard to relieve me at the top of the ramp. Then I had to go give deep water tests to twelve and under. All in all we gave over two hundred deep water tests yesterday. We had three lanes at one end of one of the pools. They had to swim half way across, tread water for thirty seconds, then swim back. They had to swim, not flail. I did that for almost two hours. At one point there was a kid about ten years old, and he was standing in line with his mother. That wasn't unusual, for a parent to stand in line with a kid. He was in the middle lane. I told them to go, and as soon as that kid let go of the side of the pool, he went straight to the bottom. I have to admit that I've never seen anyone sink that fast. I remember jumping in the pool and thinking, "holy cow, this kid can't swim a lick." So I grabbed him by the arm, pulled him up and lifted him up to his mother. I told her to wait, as I had two other kids heading across the pool. I jumped out, ran to the mid point of the pool and they were already treading water, I counted it off to the count of twenty or twenty-five as they had been there a while before I got there, and then sent them back. By that time mom and the kid had left. I really wanted to get that kid enrolled in swimming lessons, and i'm kind of disappointed that they took off. I wouldn't recognize the kid again, unless he was sinking. On the other side of the coin, I had a six year old pass the deep water test. He struggled a little, but he did it fair and square. I told his dad that I would pass him, but only if the dad would swim with him if he went into the deep end. I don't know why I did that, there were other kids who worked just as hard to pass it, but that kid looked so small out there. The dad said that he would. So that was my first day. I have in-service lifeguard training at ten this morning, then back on shift at twelve-thirty. I'm already tired.
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Oh yeah, if you're the Deck Boss, the communications thing? That's your job now.