Lifeguard uniform requirements are basically the same throughout the world, men’s lifeguard board shorts, women’s lifeguard swimsuits and t-shirts printed with the words Lifeguard or guard. Board short lengths are designated by each lifeguard agency. Long board shorts can hinder leg movement and interfere with rescues. Lifeguard apparel should always be made from rash free material, lifeguard board shorts should have oversized closure pockets with a locking loop and drain holes that allow the water to get out instead of weigh you down. Men’s lifeguard boardshorts should not drag or stick to your legs when wet. Women’s lifeguard swimsuits must stay up on the shoulders and their bottoms should stay on through different size surf. Neither should fade from the sun or pool chemicals.
Easily Identifiable
Clearly distinguishable and visible lifeguard uniforms are a must. Lifeguard uniform conformity, stops confusion and can help save lives. When agencies fail to require matching uniforms and let the lifeguard choose what to wear, then lifeguard visibility and identification becomes almost impossible especially when a high volume of people are present. Large facilities can have hundreds of patrons in the water at the same time. This means teams of lifeguards, working together must be able to spot their partners quickly in and out of the water. Lifeguard uniforms tie the agencies together and instill respect for the guards.
Colors
Lifeguard uniform colors in the past have consisted of mostly red or navy with white labeling. Today agencies stick with traditional colors and others pick out uniform colors that match the theme of their park or their particular branding.
Beaches and water parks that don’t have identical lifeguard uniforms have been sued when patrons were unable to find a guard when needed.
Lifeguard Equipment Requirements
Rescue Cans should be the best in the industry; beware of imitations! The Marine Rescue Patrol Can was developed by L.A. County Chief Lifeguard Bob Burnside over 30 years ago. Marine Rescue Patrol Cans are made with the thickest wall construction on the market and have a heavy nylon shoulder rescue strap attached to a nylon line.
The lifeguard rescue can or sometimes called rescue tube is the most used piece of rescue equipment in the world. It is used by lifeguards at most pools, waterparks, oceans, lakes and rivers. Well made rescue tubes are made from Ensolite foam with heavy vinyl covering. Rescue tubes made with tapered ends provide comfort and help to reduce drag. Rescue tubes can support both the victim and rescuers weight during the rescue. They are the preferred choice of the American Red Cross and are used by lifeguard training agencies around the world.
Lifeguard rescue fins help with long distance rescues or battling strong rip currents. Lifeguard rescue fins are designed to propel you through the water with minimal effort.
Lifeguard rescue fins like Da Fins are used for jetty rescues and rock hopping, due to their smaller size. All lifeguard fins must float so that they will wash into shore if lost in the water.
Lifeguard rescue fin the Duck feet fins are also highly acclaimed and are the #1 choice by Navy.
Lifeguard backboards are used by lifeguards to secure and transport physically injured victims. A popular choice by agencies is the Watermen Pediatric Spineboard. The polyethylene shell of this spineboard is heavy duty and x-ray translucent, so moving the injured victim from board to bed for x-rays is not necessary.
Sun Protection
Though not required lifeguards should use sun protection. Solrx a great sunscreen that stays on all day and will not run into your eyes.
Lifeguard rashguards provide an extra layer of SPF 50 protection from the sun and also provides warmth.
Skin cancer of the ears is becoming a growing dilemma. Broad brimmed hats like the La Palapa Hat a straw hat, works great and was originated in the 1960’s by California beach lifeguards. The wide rim covers and protects the ears.
Tonga hats are also a wide brimmed hat that is the most popular hat used by lifeguard agencies in California.
Lifeguard jobs require you to be strong, fit and able to swim. No matter what kind of lifeguard you decide to be (beach or pool), you need to start a training program. You have to be able to swim and swim well. Not only is your life at risk but also the victims you are privileged to save.
Lifeguard Apparel
Training programs start with the right clothing. Choosing the right lifeguard apparel can increase or decrease your speed. Both Men’s lifeguard boardshorts, or women’s lifeguard swimsuits can fall off in the waves, restrict arm movement, cause rashes, and become transparent over time. Baggy lifeguard apparel without draining pockets create drag and slow you down. That is why proper lifeguard apparel is dire.
Women’s Lifeguard Swimsuits
Our lifeguard store carries a variety of one piece and two-piece lifeguard swimsuits made for competitive women. They are made from top quality materials; and they fit right and stay on through the roughest conditions. The X-Back Elite a one-piece lifeguard swimsuit and the Surf Bikini a two-piece lifeguard swimsuit are both durable, outrageously comfortable, and are double lined with cute thin straps.
Men’s Lifeguard Boardshorts and Trunks
For those men who prefer board shorts our lifeguard boardshorts come with a rash free guarantee, have self-draining pockets and are made with ultra-soft nonabrasive material. The hottest trend for male lifeguards this year is the more efficient Watermen Short or boardshort liner worn under their lifeguard boardshorts. These boardshort liners, also known as compression shorts are made for the water, workouts and competitions. Watermen compression shorts help stabilize the joints and keep muscles warm, preventing muscle strain. Research shows that the compression shorts help decrease the heart rate and the lactic build up in athletes, therefore reducing the time it takes for muscles to repair themselves.
Note: Keeping your muscles warm before and after workouts or competitions is very important. Jumping in water with cold muscles can create all kinds of muscular problems. Remember cold muscles equal slower swim times and cramped muscles.
Male lifeguards, especially in winter often wear rashguards to help keep the upper body warm.
Physical Lifeguard Training
Swim Strokes
The two most commonly used strokes in competitions are the freestyle and breast stroke. You may choose any style stoke you feel most comfortable with, but the freestyle stroke known as the front crawl is the most common and is the fastest. Beginners who are uncomfortable in the water need to practice this stroke. The freestyle stroke burns around 500-700 calories an hour with moderate to high intensity.
Using the breaststroke in practice will build strength in your shoulders, legs, hamstrings, triceps, inner thighs, and builds strong chest muscles. This breaststroke is performed while you are on your chest, and you swim without moving your trunk. This breaststroke burns approximately 720 calories in an hour.
Developing Your Own Technique
Your personal technique can improve your time, and increases your endurance. Simple improvements can be made just by changing the position of your hands and feet. Your swim stroke should be pulled straight back as you roll on your side, and take a breath, and your elbow should come straight up by your ear as it reenters the water. You want to extend and glide as much as you can with each stroke. Make sure you stretch your body out and roll slightly as you reach forward. Using a pair of lifeguard fins will teach you to use your upper leg and glut muscles, creating a more powerful kick rather than using just your knee and foot. Swim fins also help by increasing the flexibility of your ankles. You should also use swimmer’s snorkel, so that you can focus on body rotation and arm strokes with ease.
Do not hold your breath under water while swimming. Instead practice bilateral breathing. You can do this by exhaling when your face enters the water, and blowing out through your mouth.
Note: It is important that the air is blown out slowly, exhaling too fast might obstruct the next inhalation, causing hyperventilation.
Warm-ups
Always remember to do warm up exercises and stretch your joints, and muscles before you enter the water. Three sets of 8 full body squats will warm up hips, legs and back. Rotating the arms forward and backwards in both small and large circles will loosen up the shoulders and bring blood to the arms. Even doing a light jog will help increase oxygen to your muscles. And as always have plenty of fluids handy to keep your body well hydrated.
Weights
The use of weights will help make you stronger. Swimmers improve their performance and endurance by building muscle in their upper body. Remember powerful shoulders and arms propel you through the water. You do not need to use weights daily; remember your body requires rest days to allow the muscles to recover. It is important to develop your own weight strength program and aim to increase repetitions. At home or at the gym you can use standing dumbbells, resistance machines or exercise bands to build muscular strength and endurance.
Diet
A swimmer’s diet needs to combine protein and carbohydrates to ensure there is good muscular growth and endurance.
Pre-workout Meal
A great pre-workout meal is wheat toast with fruit, banana with a little cinnamon has been linked to stabilizing blood sugar, and improving brain function. If bananas aren’t your thing, try yogurt with a ½ a cup of trail mix, or even a yogurt and fruit smoothie
After Workout – Recovery Meal
When you are in recovery mode try grilled chicken with steamed veggies. If you must pan cook the veggies opt for olive oil instead of butter. Another option for those seafood lovers is salmon with sweet potato.
Whatever you choose to eat, just remember this is what will fuel you through to your optimal condition for what comes next, lifeguard certification and testing, which we will discuss in detail, in the next post.
Millions of visitors and locals hit the beaches, lakes, rivers and pools each year. But sometimes we need a little help, and there are lifeguards in place to do just that. No matter what kind of lifeguard you are, your one number task is not rescuing people, instead your main duty is to prevent and protect the public from getting into a dangerous situation in the first place. As a lifeguard, you are constantly looking for potential danger, and your job is to warn people before that danger becomes an issue.
Surveillance, Emergency Care, Maintenance Duties
Lifeguards are responsible for keeping swimmers’ safe, and must be able to intervene in dangerous situations. During lifeguard training, lifeguards learn to identify emergency situations quickly.
Lifeguards caution people against using unsafe areas, or using illegal conduct, such as drinking or fighting. That means as a lifeguard you must be able to remain calm in all situations, if you panic or show fear the victim or the trouble maker will know it.
Beach Lifeguards
Beach lifeguards will warn people about rip currents, remind parents that waves will knock their children down, and to keep your loved ones within view. Beach lifeguards must be proficient in using two-way radios for contact, and coordinate activities between the different emergency rescue units. Beach lifeguards also have to maintain daily information on weather and beach conditions.
Beach lifeguards are constantly scanning the water in a similar pattern as a pool lifeguard, but they have a much larger surface to cover, and can rarely see below the water, so it is important to keep the beach lifeguard vigilant. Most facilities frequently rotate beach lifeguards from station to station to help them stay fresh and alert, and to offer breaks from surveillance responsibilities. Beach lifeguards, as well as pool lifeguards must be distraction-free, that means no cell phones and other items that take their eyes off the water.
Pool Lifeguards
Pool lifeguards keep patrons’ safe around and in the pool, from reminding people to walk, so they avoid slip and fall injuries, to stopping rough housing. They also teach swim lessons, and encourage things like the buddy system to keep you safe. Beach lifeguards supervise the use of water slides, and diving boards (if applicable), as well as pool maintenance, such as checking the swimming pools chlorine and pH levels.
Pool lifeguards scan the water, just like beach lifeguards do, looking for swimmers in trouble. They are trained to make a scanning pattern, by sweeping their eyes side to side or up and down looking at sections of the zone they are responsible for. This scanning method will happen every 10 seconds. It is suggested that they change their posture, position, and pattern every five minutes to keep them aware.
Both Beach and Pool Lifeguards
Provide emergency care and treatment such as CPR, and or use equipment like using spine boards and rescue tubes, as required until the arrival of EMTs. This year in particular beach lifeguards have had to administer first aid for stingray stings, using portable stingray kits.
Both lifeguard types perform various maintenance duties, as directed, to maintain a clean and safe facility.
Both lifeguard types will prepare daily activity reports.
Now that you understand some of the day to day duties of a lifeguard, our next posts will cover what it takes to get through lifeguard training, followed by lifeguard certification and testing, and ending with what to expect at lifeguard tryouts. Once this series is complete, you will have all the information you need to make an advised decision on whether or not becoming a lifeguard is right for you.
Here is a list of beach and safety essentials put together by a professional lifeguard. To date, most of the “What to take to the beach?” lists say the same thing, that is why our lifeguards have come up with a comprehensive list we guarantee, you never thought of. And for your convenience, everything is easily found within our lifeguard store.
Prepare for Everything
1) Sting Rays
Every family needs to carry a Stingray Kit with them to the beach, which can be purchases at our lifeguard store. Lifeguards report hundreds of stingray stings all along the coast, thus are warning swimmers to beware of the stingrays when entering the water. Though sting rays are not aggressive, beachgoers are stung by accident more often than you can imagine. Stingray stings are one of the most common dive and beach-related injuries. And if you have ever experienced the sting, you know it needs to be taken care of immediately. The excruciating pain if left unattended will put down even the toughest individual for 6-8 hours.
What should you expect if stung?
The person feels an immediate, sharp, excruciating pain that peaks in 1-2 hours. The wound bleeds. The wounded area may become swollen and may turn blue or red. Lymph nodes may become swollen.
Serious symptoms:jo8
Nausea
Vomiting
Fever
Chills
muscle cramps
tremors
paralysis
fainting
seizures
elevated heart rate
decreased blood pressure
Death may even occur, so fast action is needed. By using a Portable Ray RX Stingray Kit from our lifeguard store, you can stop symptoms before they start.
2) Drowning
Lifeguards always say, “Don’t drown your kids with standard heavy cotton t-shirts”, these tend to become heavy and bothersome while swimming. Instead we recommend Rashguards (Surf Shirts), they are light weight and breathable. Rashguards are used by lifeguards and the public against rashes caused by abrasions and nasty sunburns from extended exposure to the sun. Rashguards can be worn by themselves, or under a wetsuit.
3) Rashes
Combining sand, sun, and salt water with surfboards, life vests, or wetsuits create the perfect environment for beastly beach rash. Again, in the lifeguard store our Rashguards or surf shirts provide a barrier between the rash causing elements.
Our lifeguard store also has lower body rashguards. You can wear them under boardshorts, wetsuits or by themselves. At Original Watermen, we created the watermen short (our version of compressions shorts), where we offer a rash-free guarantee, as it is made with antimicrobial odor eliminating fabric.
4) Jelly Fish
Lifeguards deal with jelly fish stings daily. Jelly fish are unseen in the approaching wave; therefore, stings are a common. The tentacles trailing from the jellyfish body inject you with venom from small barbed stingers. Jellyfish stings vary greatly in severity. Getting stung results in immediate pain and red marks on the skin. Some jellyfish stings may cause illness and in rare cases jellyfish stings can cause death. Protection can be improved by putting on a rashguard life the ones we carry at our lifeguard store.
Jelly fish sting
First and foremost, seek emergency medical help if you feel you are having a severe allergic reaction, if the sting is from a box jellyfish or if the sting covers more than half an arm or leg.
What should you do once stung?
Get out of the water
Remove all tentacles by scraping the affected area with a credit card
Immerse the affected arm or leg immediately in hot water for at least twenty minutes
This is another instance where the sting ray kit from our lifeguard store can help, as it contains a self-contained heating system.
Rinse the area with vinegar for at least 30 seconds (If vinegar is not available make a paste of baking soda and water, and apply over the affected area)
5) Sun Danger
Of course, you need sun protection in and out of the water. At the lifeguard store we offer Solrx sunscreen. Solrx was voted best in its class, and lasts 8 hours with one single application, plus it stays on in the water. Solrx sunscreen is recommended by dermatologists and is both hypoallergenic and non-comedogenic.
Don’t forget your hats
We have a wide variety of hats in our lifeguard store. Not only do hats protect your face from the bad (UV) rays of the sun, but a hat also protects your eyes, ears and the top of your head from disease and skin cancer. Extended exposure to the sun’s UV rays has been linked to eye damage, including cataracts and macular degeneration.
How does the sun affect you?
UV rays radiate from the sun and come from many directions and are reflected from the ground, water, snow, sand and other bright surfaces. Sun damage to eyes occurs even on cloudy days as the sun’s rays pass through haze and thin clouds. Protect your eyes from UV rays by wearing a hat and sunglasses. In our lifeguard store, we have a quiver of hats, which offer you an array of options, for any day and any condition.
Now you have a complete list of essential equipment needed for a safe day at the beach, and all can be quickly found on our Original Watermen website and lifeguard store.
Want to save the entire ship population and all the family members from a lifetime of pain? Add lifeguards. There were numerous cruise ship drowning last year with almost equal amounts of near-drownings. This does not count those who drowned on the ships scheduled excursions.
The ships lifesaving equipment is limited mostly to a lifesaving ring situated somewhere around poolside or perhaps if you are lucky there might be a lifesaving hook nearby also. This is not enough. You need an actual trained professional lifeguard with the correct equipment always available scanning the pool continually. Many ships aboard children drown due to lack of supervision and distractions. We need actual trained professional guards on duty at all public pools, whether on a ship, at a school or in a park.
Cruise ship pools aren’t safe. Firstly, you can have very crowded pools, filled with a wide variety of people varying in age and activity levels. You may have the mature swimmers who are happily splashing around or relaxing in the vibrant turquoise water. These mature swimmers are a bit less stable and less agile as they once were and can slip, fall or just need an immediate helping hand to save them from an on board catastrophe. Or the super athletes swimming their daily workout or the very young wildly active people without a care in the world or a large pack of non-swimmers, who are all in the pool together. The entire group is trying to navigate around the pool and through the crowds of people, while keeping an eye out for the surprise deep end drop off, as the ship sways side to side, from the swells in the ocean. Combine that mixture with drunk swimmers, or drunk preoccupied parents and you are in for a disaster at sea. A fun filled holiday turns into a nightmare and that treasured family moment is lost forever.
Original Watermen is by far the best place to seek that essential lifesaving equipment. The Original Watermen lifeguard store has quality lifesaving equipment such as professional trauma bags, rescue cans, rescue tubes, backboards or spine-boards. They also have a wide selection of official lifeguard clothing at their one stop shopping lifesaving company, which is owned and operated by professional lifeguards.
Lifeguard Uniform Requirements
Lifeguard Uniform Requirements
