48 Fun Facts About Lifeguard

An AED, the device lifeguards are trained to use, treats cardiac arrest by delivering what?

An electric shock can stop a chaotic heart rhythm so that a normal beat has the chance to restart; the machine reads the rhythm itself and talks the user through each step.

In lifeguard doctrine, how is a unit's effectiveness best measured?

Effectiveness is measured by the absence or reduction of drownings, not by rescues made; the drowning-chain model stresses prevention through education, warnings, denied access, supervision and survival training.

Which long-repeated poolside rule do health experts now dismiss as a myth?

Wait an hour after eating to swim is the myth: digestion does draw some blood to the gut, but not enough to stop arm and leg muscles working, and the worst likely result is a minor cramp.

Which lifeguard water entry is the slowest, used when a spinal injury is suspected?

The slide-in is the slowest of the four standard entries: the guard eases in from the edge instead of jumping, so the water around an injured neck or spine is disturbed as little as possible.

Lifeguards are taught that a person who is actually drowning usually sounds like what?

Almost nothing: in the instinctive drowning response the body puts breathing ahead of speech, so there is no shout and no wave, and the person may slip under within 20 to 60 seconds.

Under the international beach flag system, swimmers should stay between flags of which two colours?

Red and yellow flags mark the stretch the lifeguards are watching, hence the Australian slogan 'swim between the flags'; surfboards and kayaks have to stay outside them.

The 10/20 rule gives pool lifeguards 10 seconds to spot trouble and 20 to do what?

Reach the swimmer: the rule, devised by the consultants Jeff Ellis and Associates, means a guard must be able to scan the whole zone in 10 seconds and is posted no more than 20 seconds from any point in it.

Which James Bond actor worked as a milkman, a coffin polisher and a swimming-pool lifeguard before he found fame?

Sean Connery took the lifeguard job, and polished coffins, back home in Edinburgh after the Royal Navy discharged him early with a stomach ulcer.

Which city's beach patrol, the oldest in the United States, was founded in the 1890s?

The beach patrol of Atlantic City, New Jersey, formed in the early 1890s, is the oldest continuously operating beach patrol in the United States.

The California State Lifeguards are unusual in also performing what kind of duties?

California State Lifeguards perform law enforcement duties: permanent state lifeguards are sworn State Park Peace Officers within California State Parks, with arrest powers alongside their rescue work.

Sydney's first surf clubs formed after a ban on what was lifted?

Daytime bathing in the sea had been against the law; once it was allowed, inexperienced swimmers got into trouble in the rips, drownings rose, and volunteers began patrolling the beaches.

Bondi and Bronte dispute the title of first surf club with which other club, across the harbour on Sydney's northern beaches?

Manly had organised lifesavers on its beach as early as 1899, yet in 2005 a panel of Surf Life Saving Australia historians ruled that Bondi's surf bathers were the first to form a club.

Which country's DLRG, founded after a pier collapse on its Baltic coast in 1912, is the world's largest volunteer lifesaving organisation?

Germany's DLRG was founded in Leipzig in 1913, the year after a pier at Binz on the island of Rügen gave way under a crowd waiting for a steamer and people drowned.

Which giant dog breed, with webbed paws and a water-resistant coat, is famed for hauling drowning people ashore?

The Newfoundland began as a fishermen's working dog, pulling in nets and hauling carts, and its build, double coat and webbed paws make it a natural at water rescue.

In Brazil, most lifeguards are members of which service?

The state fire departments employ most of Brazil's lifeguards, which gives them military status: each state's firefighter corps is a reserve force of the Brazilian Army.

Resusci Anne, the CPR training manikin, has the face of an unknown woman said to have drowned in which river?

The Seine gave her the name L'Inconnue; toymaker Åsmund Laerdal put her face on his CPR manikin because he thought trainees would take more readily to a woman's face.

Which Indian state appointed the private firm Drishti Marine to guard its beaches in 2008?

Goa's government brought in Drishti Marine, whose lifesavers now watch dozens of beach stretches there; the firm has since been hired to guard six of Mumbai's beaches as well.

What is the inflatable flotation device with snap hooks that Pete Peterson developed in 1935 called?

The rescue tube, first made as the inflatable 'Peterson tube' in 1935, has snap hooks so it can be clipped around a victim; the rigid rescue can is the other classic float.

In which direction should a swimmer caught in a rip current head to escape?

Swim parallel to the shore: a rip is a narrow channel of water flowing seaward, so moving sideways out of it and then back to the beach at an angle beats fighting it head-on.

For adults, what chest-compression-to-breath ratio is taught in CPR?

Adult CPR runs at 30 to 2, thirty chest compressions and then two rescue breaths; for someone pulled from the water, rescuers are taught to give rescue breaths before the first compressions.

Which Bee Gees hit is used to teach the right tempo for CPR chest compressions?

Stayin' Alive runs at about 103 beats a minute, inside the 100 to 120 compressions a minute that guidelines call for; the BMJ said the song doubles as a metronome.

What oar-driven craft, once the standard beach rescue vessel, is still raced at Australian surf lifesaving carnivals?

The surf boat was built to punch out through breaking waves from the beach; inflatable boats and jet skis have taken over real rescues, but crews still race the old craft.

Which surf lifesaving race combines swim, board, ski and run legs in one event?

The Ironman shot Grant Kenny to stardom in 1980, when at 16 he won the Australian junior and senior titles back to back at the same championships.

Which network cancelled Baywatch after one season, before syndication made it a worldwide hit?

NBC dropped Baywatch in 1990 after one season; David Hasselhoff and fellow producers put up their own money to revive it for syndication, and it went on to claim more than a billion viewers.

At which Los Angeles County beach was most of Baywatch filmed?

Will Rogers State Beach was the show's main location; it is named for the cowboy actor and humorist Will Rogers, whose widow Betty gave the family's oceanfront land to the state.

David Hasselhoff's Baywatch character, the head lifeguard, is named what?

Mitch Buchannon, played by David Hasselhoff, was the lieutenant in charge of the Baywatch lifeguards; the other names belong to fellow guards on the show.

After a 1999 move of setting and cast, Baywatch was retitled with which state's name?

Baywatch: Hawaii was the second choice: the producers first shot a pilot in Australia and announced Baywatch: Down Under, but residents of Sydney's Avalon Beach objected and the plan was dropped.

Which Olympic swimmer rescued eight men from a capsized boat at Newport Beach in 1925?

Duke Kahanamoku made trip after trip on his surfboard to a fishing boat that had capsized in heavy surf in June 1925; the publicity led lifeguards across America to adopt boards as rescue gear.

In The Sandlot, which boy fakes drowning at the pool to steal a kiss from lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn?

Squints goes under on purpose so that Wendy will give him mouth-to-mouth, which gets the whole team thrown out of the pool; the film's epilogue has the two of them married with nine children.

The RNLI was founded in 1824 with a name describing its purpose as the preservation of life from what?

Shipwreck was the word in its founding name: Sir William Hillary, who had seen ship after ship lost off the Isle of Man, appealed to the nation for a lifeboat service, and royal patronage soon followed.

Which charity, founded in 1891, awards Britain's main lifeguard qualification?

The Royal Life Saving Society began as the Swimmers' Life Saving Society, set up by the swimming champion William Henry in response to the number of people drowning each year; Edward VII made it 'Royal' in 1904.

What does USLA, the body for American open-water lifeguards, stand for?

USLA is the United States Lifesaving Association; it began in 1956 as a group of Los Angeles-area lifeguard agencies formed to send a team to a contest in Australia held alongside that year's Olympics.

Competitive lifesaving is a regular sport at which international multi-sport event?

The World Games exist for sports outside the Olympic programme, and lifesaving has been one of them since London hosted in 1985, with pool races such as the manikin carry and surf races on boards.

Which Michael Jackson hit borrows its refrain about Annie being OK from the words trainees say to a CPR manikin?

Smooth Criminal's chorus echoes first-aid class, where trainees check the manikin Resusci Anne by asking whether she is OK before they start CPR.

What do lifeguards call the technique of immobilising a suspected spinal-injury victim's head and neck?

In-line stabilization holds the head in line with the body, in the water or out of it, so that no further movement can worsen a head, neck or spinal injury.

Which lifesaving sport, likened to musical chairs, has rivals sprint from lying face down to grab batons stuck in the sand?

Beach flags always has fewer batons than runners, so each 20-metre dash knocks someone out until one is left; it began as sprint and reflex training for lifesavers.

Which Hawaiian big-wave surfer was Waimea Bay's first lifeguard, credited with over 500 rescues?

Eddie Aikau became Waimea Bay's first official lifeguard in 1968 and was credited with more than 500 rescues; he was lost at sea in 1978 trying to save the Hokule'a's crew.

Which country's short North Sea coast is guarded each summer largely by students under the IKWV?

Belgium's coastal towns all joined the IKWV, a coordinating body, to keep their lifeguard services uniform; the guards are mostly students hired for a month in July or August.

In one pool whistle code, two short blasts are used to get whose attention?

Fellow lifeguards' attention is what two short blasts ask for in a code some pools use, in which a single short blast hails a swimmer and three mean a guard is starting the emergency plan; pools set their own variants.

Doing what just before an underwater swim can cause a swimmer to black out without warning?

Hyperventilating flushes out carbon dioxide, the gas that triggers the urge to breathe, so a breath-holding swimmer can run short of oxygen and pass out before feeling any need for air.

One European rescue-swimmer badge, the Rettungsschwimmer Silber, includes a timed 300 m swim wearing what?

Clothes are worn for the 300 m swim, and at the end of it the candidate has to take them off while still in the water.

The Reddingsbrigade is the volunteer lifeguard association of which country?

Reddingsbrigade Nederland links the Netherlands' volunteer lifeguard brigades; with so much inland water they guard lakes and city swimming spots as well as the coast, and keep a national rescue fleet.

In Australian surf lifesaving, what are the children being trained by volunteer patrols called?

Nippers are the juniors of Australia's surf clubs, from about five years old, who learn beach safety and surf skills for fun; at thirteen they can earn the certificate that lets them join the patrols.

Which award is the minimum requirement for employment at most swimming pools in Singapore?

The Singapore Life Saving Society's Bronze Medallion is the standard pool lifeguard award; candidates work through Lifesaving 1, 2 and 3 first, and Australia's surf clubs use a same-named award for patrolling members.

The US Life-Saving Service, whose surfmen rowed out to stricken ships, merged with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 to form what?

The US Coast Guard inherited the service's shore stations and its surfmen, crews ranked by number under a keeper and drilled constantly in boat and beach rescues.

What must lifeguard candidates typically retrieve from the pool floor in prerequisite tests?

A weighted brick tests strength as well as fitness: in Canada's National Lifeguard exam, candidates swim 15 metres, dive for a 20-pound weight and carry it 5 metres, all inside 40 seconds.

In the lifeguard rescue hierarchy, which option is meant to be the last resort?

Swimming straight to the casualty is the last resort: the hierarchy runs reach, throw, wade, row, then swim with an aid, each step keeping the rescuer from becoming a second casualty.

Which lifeguard category covers a victim floating face-down or submerged?

A passive drowning person is motionless, floating face-down or submerged, and needs an immediate emergency rescue, whereas a distressed swimmer is usually just helped to the side.