I Tried Lifeguard Academy

In this challenge accepted episode I go to the

lifeguard

academy

and at the end of this video I will perform a rescue with a live victim and you will want to watch it to the end because I will be saving my fiancé Garrett when I think about

lifeguard

ing I think about humans at their best physical performance without any prior training. I'm going to see if I can take on the San Diego lifeguard challenge. Accepted. My name is Maureen Hodges. I am the Marine Safety Captain for the City of San Diego Fire Department. rescue lifeguard division we respond to many emergencies water emergencies cliff rescues boat emergencies those are all life or death situations and there is a standard for our lifeguards and not all of them meet it, that is the reality my name is sergeant rick strobel, I have been a lifeguard for over 25 years as Michelle begins her day off at ocean qualifying, there will be three events starting with the swim off the shores of La Jolla, followed by the one mile run, one mile swim from Mission Beach to South Mission Beach and then back. to Mission Beach and finishing with a 500-meter swim at lifeguard headquarters, they have to do all three events in a row in a very short period of time.

A lot of people have very solid swimming experience, whether it's on swim teams or water polo, but when you get into the ocean there's a different dynamic you have slowed waves you have cold water you have wind you have currents and when I heard that Michelle wanted to do the qualifying for the ocean, I was thinking to myself, well good luck but I doubt she's going to do well on the first event so we're here for the first event and I've never felt so unprepared and last night I had all these nightmares about sharks eating me , which sounds really ridiculous, but when you watch See the Water it looks really intimidating.

The thought of the depths of the ocean gives me a lot of anxiety. I think about the week of the titanic shark. We get some juvenile great white sharks from time to time, but we're not going to tell you that right away. You're going to run up to the dock about a half mile, enter the water on the north side of the dock, and then I'll get as close to the dock as I can and use the rip. current to take me out once you get to the end of the pier you want to make a nice wide turn and then start heading towards the beach the time to complete this event is 16 minutes keep in mind there could be manta rays manta rays make mistakes in the ocean but welcome, yes some people have been hit by manta rays during this event, if you stand on top of them, feel something soft, jump as high as you can, if you leave your foot on them they will raise their tail, hopefully. she won't be ready to run, she can run pretty decent half mile races and the runners have an advantage in this event, we are taking off at the front and I feel pretty good, like my heart rate is definitely high and I'm sorry, but I can keep going the rhythm when we reach the water.

I see everyone doing these beautiful dolphin dives to get through the waves, so I

tried

doing that and it wasn't that fancy, it was more like doing a bunch. of pancakes on the waves, even just going around the dock is so difficult that I swam, swam, swam and then I had to pause and breathe and swim to swim and I had to pause and breathe while getting out. I feel like I'm getting nowhere and suddenly I saw this figure jump out of the water and it was a seal. I definitely screamed and had to recover, so I lost some time there, so now our lifeguards have gone around the dock where they swam.

Back at the beach, Michelle circled the pier, so she has seven minutes to complete this event. On the way back, she was doing backstrokes to try to get some rest and the lifeguard on the board told me, "Hey, you're going backwards." and I actually turned around and started heading back to the ocean, it's very obvious to me, I don't know how to navigate the ocean, here we go, she made it to the beach, we're in 15 minutes, so she has to be a world away . sprinter record to achieve it michelle finish strong okay very good finish strong good job michelle okay 17.58 one thing we left out michelle sometimes there are great white sharks in this area but we didn't, we didn't want to scare you but they are juveniles, they are juvenile white sharks , they feed on rays and sand sharks, they are not the biggest sharks, god that was so hard and that was the first event, all the other lifeguards were so good at navigating the The ocean was going in a straight line and doing exactly what that they needed to fight the waves and I didn't fight the waves.

I was shy and I want to have more courage. She will move on to the next one. The mile run. Swim one mile from the mission. beach to south mission beach then swim back this will really test your stamina the time to do in this event is 36 minutes i hope they arrive in about 25 minutes maybe less that's like a friends episode yeah it's what they do You think about when you're swimming, have a good song in your head, okay, I'm always like I'm straight, like where am I on the beach? What you don't want to do is get in the water and look up, am I there yet? because you're going to get discouraged, it's going to hurt no matter what it is, just how quickly you want to get this over with, it's okay I can do it ready, we started running, my heart rate went up quite a bit, but it felt good, I was able to keep a good pace here we are at the turning point michelle is a little behind less than a minute she has done a great job and here she goes let's see how she enters the water making her way through that lime she needs to use that dolphin technique like our other lifeguards did there , she's diving under the waves and there she goes, she's getting into a rhythm, that grueling swim starts, tons of freezing waves and I felt alone, even though there were people around me, I felt completely alone and a little scared.

I'm going to go out and give some moral support. See you at Mission Beach. The problem for me was not the action of swimming, but being able to hold my breath for several strokes at a time without feeling anxiety. Your most efficient stroke is freestyle, but if you're trying to survive, you'll switch from a little breaststroke to a little backstroke, we'll do that. She is tough. It is not easy to swim in violent open water. Michelle is doing very well. she only has about a football field's length left to swim she's giving it everything she's got and that's really all we can ask for she's doing an amazing job halfway there all the other lifeguards got back in the water and swam with me we started We all finish together for anyone who is doing everything they can to achieve this, we will give them a little more encouragement by finishing the event alongside them.

I felt very supported and it was an incredible feeling to help me get to the end, come on Michelle. bring it strong, stay strong, what was my official time? uh 42-53 42-53 amazing. Remember that the time to win was 36 minutes, but without any type of training to achieve great work. Thank you very much for staying with me, okay? It's not over yet, you have one, the 500 meter swim is the minimum standard set by the United States Lifesaving Association, it is what we use as a benchmark to try to become a lifeguard and number two that all lifeguards in full time they must comply.

That performance standard every six months, the time to beat it is 10 minutes and based on what we've seen so far, we think you can pass it. Do you stay focused if you give everything you've got and keep your head down like everyone else? Events try to swim as straight as possible, we think you can do well, okay competitors ready, she's switching to a side stroke keeping her momentum. We're just two minutes away from doing it. Okay, good job, Michelle. try to keep your head down for our first swimmers to reach the buoy right now they are rounding it in less than three minutes it is a phenomenal moment come on michelle keep your head down you are doing very well even in this shorter event with much more calm water, it was so hard you have to keep your head down and trust that you're going in the right direction, good job, good job, straighten up, straighten up, look up, look up, look up, look up, okay , okay, so this is what happens when you start to get tired, you start to get a little disoriented from being so far away in the number of events that she has already done and in order to be given this effort, she must be exhausted, her fellow competitors They are done, they have returned to join her as a lifeguard, you have to Let's be strong individually, but work as a team, they will return to support her.

Okay, Michelle, we're almost done, this is it. Push, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, sprint, one, two, three, wow, what a great effort, okay, good job 11. minutes and 34 seconds you don't have to be the best swimmer to start with, we will help you train a coach and guide you and make you a good swimmer. What we need is people with heart, with the desire and passion to do this. job and she certainly has it and she's proving it right now I don't like betting against people but I didn't think you were going to complete the first event and you surprised me you didn't make our time but you finished. and then coming here and finishing it is very impressive, so congratulations, thank you, you are animals, oh my goodness, and it only gets harder in the winter, the waves are big and the water is cold and whatever the conditions are, we have what to go to rescue people people count on us to do that is what separates us from everyone else is our ability to perform in surfing in southern california in the early 1900s developers were trying to get people to come to the These beach developers realized that people drowning on the beach was not going to bring people to the beach, so they went to Hawaii and met with George Freith.

George Freit was a great Hawaiian swimmer and passed through several lifeguard agencies. Redondo Beach Santa Monica Long Beach and here in the city of San Diego and was really responsible for helping to start marine lifeguarding in southern California my name is john ball I have been a lifeguard for 35 years there is definitely a lifeguard stereotype of which is just a summer job just being on the beach, picking up girls, the Baywatch stereotype had its heyday when I started being a lifeguard in the early 2000s, they disappeared for a while and then they did the new version of the movie and I think most of us roll with the punches.

We do it and we laugh, but it dilutes our level of professionalism, I think because we're not acting, we're really saving lives, we're not having a good time on the beach, we're too attentive. We're too anxious, we're watching people recreate, oh, that doesn't look good, oh, I have to go now, when you're in that tower, you're the most important person on that beach, so we'll try to be as preventative as possible. possible, we don't want big rescues, we want to prevent them from happening if we can, so Ocean Beach is very dynamic, we have docks, we have three jetties right next to the jetty, there will always be a rip current, so "We're going to sweep from the inside out." outside and you're looking for shoulders so that if someone is standing they're not drowning.

Look at the people swimming when they're out there. Are they jumping over the waves? Don't they want to reach their head under the water? or trying to get in is going to get my attention, can you get in on your own? Do you need my help? Those are the questions you're going through in your head, so you have to read the body language of people from hundreds of feet away. pretty easy when you practice your scan it should take 30 seconds after practicing it more and more in most cases the lifeguards see how things are developing and are already responding before people really go into a state of panic sometimes it happens very quickly maybe they are starting to submerge and cling to the water going up the ladder and that's when your adrenaline will really start to rise unfortunately we don't save everyone the national average set by the united states lifesaving association estimates that a person will drown for every 18 million visitors to a patrolled beach here in the city of san diego we beat it regularly we give them the best chance and I'm going to give it everything I have the ocean is dangerous it is Until you have personal responsibility and know your limits, people don't see It is dangerous and we do it because we have to put ourselves in those situations to help the people who put themselves in them.

It's very, very humiliating, one of the scenarios that Michelle will face. being placed is responding to a boat in distress going at high speed Michelle will have to slide her wetsuit to get to this boat, hook it up and hopefully arrive in time to prevent this boat from veering into the surf line, so how would this happen in the real world when we get a call a boat is in trouble we are dead in the water how fast are we going 40 miles per hour soWill I have to wear a wetsuit in an open boat? While we're going 40 miles an hour, yeah, that's right, I've changed at a red light before, yeah, well, like my full outfit, it's kind of similar, so when we get to the broken down boat, what I usually do is take the line one full turn. around the toe post the captain says I'm in neutral go ahead and take your wraps around the horns when I do this wrap it's up and away this hand here out and away so if I were to pull it'll pull the line out . from my hand instead of like this the line pulls from my hand and is absorbed by it which would count as a success for me 10 or 15 minutes maximum from when I leave the dock here in this world time is everything lifeguard from san diego coffee what's your location I'm outside the south mission I can see a tower 10 nearby, check out that anchor if you have one and put on a life jacket.

Three years ago I was on a night rescue with my partner, these guys went out fishing and they got all their lobster traps out before it got dark, well the tide was high. When they came in, they couldn't see the waves coming. The first wave changed the boat. The boat driver only struggled during service for about 10 to 20 seconds before submerging the other four passengers. They didn't even have time to put on their life jackets. so they were holding on to chairs and stuff like that, okay keep your engines straight for me, are we going to say that the crashing waves created so much fog that we couldn't see?

I heard the victim scream, it was the worst scream I ever heard and I could see him right above the wave, just a flash of something. I got him close, but we were right on the crest of the waves and I could hear him suck and they hit us and I was holding on. He didn't want to let go when we got up, the citizens came out like waist-deep water helping me and I was like just grab the victim, take him inside, then I went out again for the second victim and that's when I arrived. It really worked, the next thing I remember I was on the street vomiting and trying to breathe, tell me when you're done, okay, here we go, there was water in my lungs, so I spent two days in the hospital and we see that never. abandonment attitude in our recruits and we don't let people avoid it, it could happen to you like it happened to me, where it's the calling of your career and you just need to say a funny phrase that we would like to use is abandon the burrito no matter what Whatever you're doing, drop the burrito and go.

That mentality could very well be the difference between whether that person lives or dies under our uniform, even the chief uniform, we all wear red shorts. In fact, I was driving by the port and there was a person who fell off the dock. Luckily, the police were present, but I was stripping while they threw a life preserver to the guy. It can happen at any time. Our area of ​​responsibility includes coastal cliffs. from 30 to 40 feet high to 500 to 600 feet and it is not uncommon for people to fall and get seriously injured. The scenario is that there is an unconscious or immobile person at the base of the cliff, so Michelle will be connected to the system. and then our rescue platform 44 will lower her above who is she? this is our rescue doll we'll call him brad what's brad's backstory though i feel like we need to know what happened yeah so brad slipped here and fell down the rocks he was just walking he was just walking and he saw something in the water and he looked and he slipped, so he looked and he saw a sea lion slip and then a friend called for help, okay, what happens now?

Oh my god, I feel like this. exposed I feel naked I feel naked in the sky oh we're so high everything will be fine brad holy smokes looking down and knowing that gravity won't be your friend in that situation is definitely something our guards have to overcome oh my god Me I'm moving to pull a copy of Brad, oh my god, I can't believe people actually fall. This, my goodness, it's going to be okay, Brad, oh no, the buckles are still made. Well, I'll be right back, Brad on a cliff rescue. On stage we see some pretty gnarly injuries, some of them have fallen from great heights, then you add in the crowd, the family, the friends who were with the victim the whole time trying to make sure everyone is safe and properly connected to the system, come on, come on. oh, that's been in and out a few times, you can do this, maneuver the patient on a stretcher that's basically floating in the air, it's very difficult, these huge waves crash against the rocks and I looked at all the knots and I forgot about everything . stay with me, brad, there are so many damn knots, how many ways can you tie a urinal.

I had to slow down and think, okay, this knot goes here and then it goes over there and then there's this rope and then there's this buckle and I can't imagine doing that with a distressed patient ready, okay, everything will be okay. , brad, oh my gosh, I mean, yeah, depending on how busy it is, we can do anywhere from 40 to 60, maybe even more cliff rescues in a given year, you know, we get a lot. people make fun of us, oh hello Baywatch, we laugh at it because the joke is on those people, they don't really know what the job is about.

We were sent as a water rescue team for Hurricane Katrina. We saw people who lost everything. We saw a Unfortunately, we had a lot of deaths, we had to go rescue people who were on top of the rooftops asking for help. I had little kids at the time and one thing that struck me the most was that I was going to these houses and condos to do these searches. I opened a door in that room that looked like a kid's room, I would see, you know, his favorite toys, all his pictures, I thought, man, those kids are never going to come back to this, they just had to leave and everything disappeared, you know, that was very shocking, but I also think we lean on each other a little more when you have a team of people that you've worked with for 20 25 years, you have a trust built with that team, you put your life in their hands and in the hands of others. them, in yours and in me.

I know that gave me a lot of confidence, definitely as a lifeguard you trust your team a lot. Michelle's final performance here with us is going to present the scenario as it affects three different types of rescues that our seasonals commonly perform during the summer. lifeguard, the first one is a crew member of one of our rescue craft commonly known as a jet ski, then she will be using a rescue board and then the third one will be a rescue using swim fins and a rescue buoy. Put the jet ski on a normal summer day when it's very busy and our seasonal tower guards are doing a lot of rescues and warnings and in case a rip current really opens up and we have to take out several people, you You will be the crew. person here on the rescue sled hold on here with one hand and then with another hand on each side, okay, that will allow you to prepare to go forward and backward and side to side as well and you will want to put that victim, one hand up here, vice versa , okay, you're going to put your arms under their armpit area and just hold them so that I'm under them, they're under you there, okay, who am I rescuing?

You are going to rescue Garrett. Today we're going to put Garrett in a rip current. He is going to be as critical as possible of current conditions. Once you understand it, you will ride a rip current. You know how to swim? I'm not the worst. swimmer but I'm not the strongest swimmer either our victims in the water struggling the rescue boats are arriving michelle is helping the victim onto the sled they are catching a small wave right now you want to calm the victim show them where to hold on Now they will bring them back to the beach.

Another great tool we have in all of our patrol vehicles is a rescue board. He has a lot of speed. Once you move, you can reach your victim. much faster than if you could swim, it's not just your head out of the water, you can get on your knees and then you'll be three four feet above the waves to see your victim. The most important thing is that he is very heavy. something to carry and then you'll have the wind blowing it one way or another so it's awkward to run with yeah oh my goodness you'll get to a smaller wave and you'll be able to stand on the bottom lift this up a little bit to get over it. the wave and then just jump on it, you're just paddling like you would a surfboard, have the victim put them on and not tip the board, you want to try not to do that, okay, Michelle is doing a great job, she's using the technique. to get over the waves she's getting out faster she's almost got to the victim at this point she's got one more swell to negotiate oh good job man drowning is real hard work guys now I gotta get out there and do it again.

Lifeguards are trained from the beginning. day at the

academy

you don't go anywhere without your cannon fins you carry them in the truck with you you carry them in a patrol car with you you take them to your station you want to go at least probably up to your waist you go to turn around briefly put on your fins it's more easy when you're backwards why it's easier when you're backwards because the wave will come back towards you and just run over your back instead of looking forward where they hit your face trying to get the pins on you as you get to your victim, pass them, you can get them to latch on once you're out of the rip current you notice you're not getting any further away then you can swim with your victim in a lot of The rescues we do are intense and that never changes throughout your career .

The fins, it's just you swimming across the ocean and that person who needs help is drowning, perhaps preparing to take what he believes will be her last breath. You have to do it. catch them before they sink for the last time cook she is swimming as fast as she can but the victim is still going backwards trying to keep her head up negotiating the waves as they come she is using the rip currents that take out the victim to try To get to them fast, the classic cannon fin rescue was definitely the most intense and most real, especially when I was watching Garrett, someone I loved very much, it really raised the stakes for me and took it to a new level, so Michelle and her victim.

Now they are trying to negotiate their way back to the beach sometimes their victims are so exhausted they have no energy they can't even help them so it is dead weight and in very strong rip currents it is extremely demanding on the lifeguards. getting tired finally it took you up to three minutes to go out and do the rescue when using the rescue board, it took you about a minute and a half once you got on the rescue boat, that same rescue took about 30 seconds, that shows the progress that We have managed to train equipment and personnel over the years by not having any experience.

You've really learned this, thank you so much to the San Diego lifeguards for allowing me to tag along for a bit of your academy. week, if you are interested in joining the San Diego Lifeguards or learning more about it, be sure to visit san diego.gov. Be a lifesaver. I also have it linked below. We are very grateful for our time here this week and I have. Much more respect for everything lifeguards do. If you're new here, be sure to subscribe, give us a like, and comment below on what you want to see next. Thank you very much for watching, bye.