Any lifeguards out there?

[McKelly]

This is the strangest question, but I saw this Saturday and it is really bugging me, not knowing why lifeguards do this? I was on the deck of the pool watching my kids swimming when one of the lifeguards blew his whistle. All of the lifeguards stood up (even the ones on the chairs, not on the chairs, but on the base of it) for about five minutes and then they sat down. None of the guards jumped in to save anybody, just stood up and then sat down. Does anybody know why they did this? Just curious.

 

[chasbos]

I would think that they do this every so often to probably do a full check of the pool and pool area.

Each lifeguard is likely given an area and when the whistle blows they do a whole scan of their area to make sure everything is OK.

Did the swimmers have to get out of the pool? This was done when I was younger, the whistle would blow - everyone would get out of the pool so the lifeguards could make sure everyone was accounted for and nobody was on the bottom of pool.

 

[Beth76]

Maybe to make sure everyone is awake

You know (I hope you don't mind the slight hijack) we were at a waterpark the other day and I saw two different lifeguards eating while on duty--in the pool! One was at the base of the tube slides where he was supposed to be catching kids. My BIL was down there and had to tell the guy to catch the kids who were coming down because he was too busy eating to notice the signal from the other guard.

The other one was standing in the baby pool eating cookies. I certainly hope she would never need to drop her cookies to save a small child.