As the Easter Seals New York day campers swam in the training pool, nearly two dozen young lifeguards practiced lifesaving drills right beside them.
In order to keep skills sharp, lifeguards at the Colonie Town Pool have partaken in new weekly drills every Tuesday morning. The drills, implemented at the beginning of this season, are meant to ensure lifeguards are up to date on what to do in an emergency and so the guards don’t lose their edge.
“The biggest thing we try to do is get them in the water, so they don’t lose their stroke,” said Coach Leslie Kassel, also an assistant pool manager.
The weekly water rescue drills are an uncommon practice in most town pools. Oftentimes, lifeguards are trained once or twice a summer, with the biggest session at the beginning of the season.
However, the 19 lifeguards at the pool last Tuesday, many of which are Shaker High School students, all agreed the regular sessions have helped them remain vigilant and practiced.
Each week, the high school students partake in different kinds of rescues, from simulations of a struggling or out-of-breath swimmer, to someone who may have hit their back or neck on the way down from the diving board.
Kassel said most of the rescues at the Colonie pool are swimmer who have found themselves struggling after jumping from the diving board in the “deep well,” or the 13-foot deep end of the main pool.
In that case, the lifeguard jumps into the pool to assist in getting the swimmer back to the side. And if swimmer is “not making forward progress” and struggling, Kassel said the practice is to redo the swim test, given to allow people into the deep end, and have the swimmer take a short break from the water.
“They just struggle,” said Kassel. While the backboard, a tool for distressed swimmers who are facedown in the water or cannot move, has not been needed yet, she said it was good to have the young lifeguards familiar with the equipment.
Pool employees have had approval from town officials to do the weekly drills, but Kassel said the town pool was unable to implement the drills until this season. Kassel and her fellow coaches had wanted to begin them last summer, but the weather was too poor. Before now, the lifeguards didn’t get regular practice sessions.
The drills came soon after upgrades to the town pool had been made. At the beginning of this season, a vinyl PVC membrane liner was installed in the main and training pools. The lining had previously been the original concrete.
As well as new filters and a vacuum were purchased, and the lifeguard chairs have been replaced, built by the lifeguards themselves.
“It’s not as comfortable,” said Town Supervisor Paula Mahan of the concrete lining. “It was really aging. (The vinyl) is a lot softer on your feet, more cost effective and more efficient.”
Mahan said the town had been aware the pool needed upgrades and set aside funds for the capital project items in this year’s town budget.
Mahan and Kassel also said more upgrades to the pool facilities will be on the way, but the pool lining was the most important issue.
“We’ve been planning for these improvements,” Mahan said. “Little by little we’re getting things done, but it’s coming along nicely.”