The Joys of Drowning Teenagers

*Erin 

There comes a point in life when all sane 15/16 yr old kids decide that they are going to need a job. Preferably one where they won't have to be stuck flipping burgers at the local Mickey D's or some other fine establishment. So what's the next logical choice? Oh that's right. That would be lifeguarding. Spend your time working at a pool and getting paid to get a killer tan.


Little do they know, that whilst in training to get said above job....the trainers will have to endure such things as this. 
Let me tell you about a couple of my kids from my last lifeguarding class that got over yesterday. These things happened the week before last. 


Terms you will need to know.
Ken- Co-instructor. More of a shadower so that I can show him the ropes.
Passive submerged save-unconscious victim 6-12 ft under water. The rescuer has to go under water, bring up the victim, then shove the rescue tube in between him and the victim, and bring him to safety. 
Emergency Moves-moves you only do in an emergency. A shock, I know. i.e. two man carry, pack strap, walking assist.
I'm A Star-where you crouch down and then rapidly jump up into a jumping jack/star shape while yelling loudly, "I'm a star!!"
AF-the american fork pool where we have to go to do deep water saves during the school year.
LGI-Lifeguard Instructor

First off, there's Nathan. He's awesome. He was actually in my home ward before his family moved. And he took me to Sr. Prom. That was the best dance I've ever been to btw. Because neither of us were worried if the other liked us or if certain things were expected during the whole thing. We were just really good friends that happened to be going to Prom together. Moral of this story, it was awesome. I digress. I'm just really happy that he's in the class and doing well. And is more mature than the majority of the class. 

Second. Andrew. This kid is 15 and he's a riot. He does and says the dumbest, funniest things. So on Thursday, we had to go over to AF to start deep water stuff. And he gets put on a team to demonstrate the complete passive submerged save and ends up being the victim. And I guess when the 1st rescuer shoved the tube in between them his back got all scraped up or something cuz AF's tubes are crap. Along with their whole pool. But we will stop there. So picture this, if you will. The class of 12 is against the wall after the save. Ken and I are away from the wall by about 2 yards treading water about to give instructions about what to do next. Next thing we know, Andrew is coming out into no man's land and looks at me and says, "Is my back red?" And, instead of doing the normal person thing and turning around so I can take a look at his back, he goes face down in the water and tries to hunch his back towards the surface so the we can see it better or something. Well, it didn't work the first time and he ran out of breath. So after flopping around for a bit, he comes to the surface, gulps in a big breath of air, and promptly goes face down in the water AGAIN to try and hunch his back in a different way so that we could see it. After doing that a second time, he comes to the surface and eagerly looks at me, expecting an answer. But, lo and behold, I've just been stunned into silence. And am trying to choke back rolls of laughter. So all I can do is give Ken and incredulous "WTF" look, and look at Andrew and say, "nnoooo, nooot red....." and try to move on as quickly as possible.

And then yesterday, we were doing this gigantic relay race with emergency moves out in front of the Legacy center. So we got through the first relay race and then I had them play Red Rover to try and even out the teams and switch them up. So Andrews team calls a girl on over, and the girl runs right for Andrew cuz he's kinda the wimpy kid. So she runs right for him and easily breaks through. And immediately, Andrew drops onto his knees and starts wailing, "OOOWWWW MY HAND!!!! AHHHH THAT HURT SO BAD!!! THAT'S WHY THEY BANNED THIS GAME WHEN I WAS IN SECOND GRADE!!!" And the girl that was holding his hand looks at him and says, "Dude, you're such a wimp. Get off the ground." <--That girls name is Rachel. And she's awesome. 

Third. Cody. So we were doing our CPR day yesterday. And we were doing conscious choking infants. And it's Cody's turn to try to save my baby. So he gets consent and everything and gets the baby in place to do back blows. And after the first one, the head screws off and he drops that baby's body on the ground and ends up holding the head. He stops, looks at me in horror....at which point I about start rolling on the floor in laughter. I mean, come on, how can you NOT laugh at that. Then after that I proceed to reassure him and tell him that when I was taking my LGI class, when we were challenging CPR the first day, I went to do the same thing he did...but the head wasn't put on right and the head goes bouncing down the hall. So Cody was already laughing really hard from the head coming off, and then started laughing even harder because of my story. In the midst of his laughter, he must have lost control of his ability to swallow because all of a sudden...a HUGE drop of spit comes out of his mouth and lands on the baby. At which point, I lost total control of my class and my ability to breathe for a couple minutes cuz we were all doubled over laughing. Luckily, I had a some antiseptic towelettes in my pack so I could clean it off.

Fourth. Carson. He scored 100% on his CPR/AED test. I've never had anyone do that. EVER. Well...besides me. But we're talking about kids that have either been in my classes or are currently employed by Lehi City. 

Anyway, you remember that Rachel girl I mentioned? Well she has been WAY sick the whole week, and has been kicking everybody's butts. She's super girl.

I have been very creative with this class. I wanted to try some new things that I haven't done before because of the situation in the past. Basically, we've done many an intense relay race. We did a huge relay race outside in front of the Legacy Center where I had them doing emergency moves. That race ended in the teams doing I'm-A-Stars around a statue and then making a circle and dancing around each instructor. Awesome, I know.

And as co-instructors, Ken and I decided that it would be to their ultimate benefit if we practiced escapes on a regular basis. Not wimpy escapes. Escapes where we grab on as hard as we can and keep going till they get fast enough to get around us. Not only did it get them warm and REALLY good at escapes, it was hilarious to watch them try to save us.

Also! On Wednesday we had this freak snow storm that knocked out all the power...everywhere. For hours. It was actually kinda awesome once we left the pool. But, this was the night that we were doing our shallow water spinals. So it's not like we could just leave. So our class ended up staying and doing spinals in the dark, with one emergency light to see by, one lifeguard to watch us, and ingenious buddy system, no power, and two managers making sure we didn't die.

Basically, this was one awesome class. Best part? Well, drowning them. Of course.

*Erin. I know you've read some of this. But I added more. So just skip what you've read.