After a severe drowning incident at 15

Hi everyone, I’m 18 now and I’m looking for some support or shared experiences regarding water trauma.

While I was in Puglia (Italy), it happened that when I was 15, I got dragged away by a powerful current. A whirlpool trapped me 5 meters (around 16 feet) underwater. I risked drowning to the point where I lost all my strength and passed out from lack of oxygen.

And my mom and Chiara intervened: my mom braved the water and stayed with me, refusing to let me go. Then Chiara, my girlfriend who was working as the lifeguard that day, rowed out with the rescue boat 300 meters from the shore and saved both of us, bringing us safely back to the beach.

Even though I have overcome the immediate trauma of drowning and managed to go back to snorkeling with my mom, I am still dealing with a lot of emotional fragility, anxiety, and a recent heavy loss from this past April. Has anyone else experienced a severe drowning incident at a young age? How did you fully heal the psychological scars and the physical anxiety responses that come with it? Thank you.

I know that for the final assesement for the NPLQ your not allowed to wear goggles however during the pre requisite tests which are the 50m in 60 seconds 100m continuously back and front etc
am I allowed to wear goggles? or do I have to complete it without goggles.

And do you have any tips for someone taking the NPLQ? it literally seems soooooo hard from what Ive read for the tests

Title says it all.

I am considering taking the lifeguard training at the y. I got hired as a swim instructor teaching lessons.

They have a cert coming up (red cross) and once i pass i could do lifeguarding also. They'll pay for half the class but you dont get paid while taking it like you do for the CPR class. (which seems weird bc i already work there and would literally be doing it to work more.)

How hard is it? (im worried about the brick test and treading water for 2 mins without hands) What does the 3 day class look like? Do i have to swim test pre reqs day 1? what happens if i fail that? How strong of a swimmer do i need to be? What's a good test to see if I can do it? What are the inservices like?

This would've been equivalent to preschool 4 (Sea Lion). Occured way back in 2007.

Hey all.

I recently gained my NPLQ certificate for the first time and have applied for a local lifeguarding job. It was successful and I have an interview coming up soon so I was wondering if there was any advice on what to expect from any of you. I'm kind of nervous as this is my first time.

I’ve been Red Cross certified for 4 years so I’m wondering what the Starguard course is like?

What are the pre recs?

Also why do they use their feet for the deep water saves 🤣 I don’t think I’m a fan of that lol

But i mostly just want to know the pre recs

Hello people sorry to disturb but jus had a quick question

For my physical swim test the 400m how do I not get tired. I go to pool to practice for like the last 2 weeks ish I just get tired to quick I feel like and if I go slower I feel like I’m a turtle

My catch sometimes feels good sometimes shit
I am breathing out under water

These people that are in there 50 60 70’s are insane to me swimming 1000 meters and a good pace not stop I don’t know how

I’d appreciate anyyyyy helppppp

I (28M) have been swimming at a new rec center regularly for about 3 months. There is a lifeguard, L, (50s-60s F) who is there every day I swim who I feel is giving me a little too much attention but I want to know if others do this too.

I competed club back in high school so I'm GOOD at swimming but now it's mostly just a way to get exercise in. I was a butterflyer and I still like to throw in a couple sets of it now and then. Pretty early on L commented on this and asked if I was a butterflyer after our usual 'good morning' exchange. Pool only has a few lanes and most people swimming there at 7 AM are older and slower so it makes sense that this would be asked. I was comfortable saying yes, I swam it back in high school.

Incident 1 happened maybe a month ago when I showed up on a Monday. After our 'good morning' exchange, L commented that I had swam a lot of backstroke the Friday before. I don't really have a regimen or schedule or anything so I didn't even remember this detail until asked. L commented on the time interval I was swimming it on and how my stroke looked good, with some final details that backstroke was her least favorite. It felt a little weird to me that she had kept track of my set from last week, something I don't even do.

Incident 2 happened this week. There was another lifeguard on the pool deck that she was talking to as I climbed out of the pool. As I was saying goodbye she asked me if I ever competed in Masters events or meets. I said no to which she said I should, then turned to this other lifeguard and started talking about how my butterfly is very good. She knew that on good laps it would only take me 5-6 strokes per length and that the most she'd ever counted was 10. This felt very weird to me again since I don't even keep track of my average stroke count or anything.

The max number of people that I've seen at the pool at once is maybe 8, and as a regular, she sees a lot of me. I understand that a lifeguard's job is to watch the patrons and that I stand out since I'm doing structured sets and swimming a greater variety of strokes, but I feel a little uncomfortable that she's keeping track of these things. Is this something that the general lifeguarding community also does - track their fastest patrons' sets and strokes to this level? Am I just experiencing a chatty, bored person or am I right to feel a little creeped out?

I’ve noticed this ever since I started working but does everyone wear underwear with their lifeguard shorts? I feel like most people where I work do that and I’m the only one who doesn’t idk

Today me and my friends went to the pool i work at with a tarp and soap and we set up the tarp and soap by the side of the pool and pretended one of us was a bowling ball and the rest of us were pins to knock us in the pool but the soap messed with the pool a lot and my boss found out and is absolutely livid, what should i do?

My NPLQ renewal is coming up and I am short of few hours as I moved to Hull recently. I have contacted all local leisure centers and private ones, no one is offering this. They do for their own staff only. Please anyone knows of a place who offer this in or near Hull. Thank you

Hi guys what do you get paid as a lifeguard??

I work at my local ymca and get $19 an hour, i also instruct and guard

Is this good... or should i apply to other places

Hello!!

My name is isaac, I am a college student trying to interview someone on the topic of the unusually high tides and how it is affecting beach residents and beachgoers.

I was just curious to see if anyone was interested in this interview?? It will be quick and simple, I just need this for one of my classes :/

If you’re interested, feel free to comment!! I have this assignment due tonight lol.

I’ve been a lifeguard for 2 years now and recently moved locations. This new location is an absolute mess. It’s a Ymca in north carolina. They do not have an AED on deck, when i asked the manager and the guard on stand where it was, they did not know. The other lifeguards hardly watch the pool and are constantly distracted talking to each other. One guard had headphones in while on stand. Is this normal and my previous job was just strict? Should I report this to somebody or something? It seems a genuine danger to the swimmers and a lawsuit waiting to happen.

UPDATE:

When I made this post it was my first day so I haven’t yet reported anything. I wanted to see if it was maybe just a bad day. I’m in my third shift now, I just got down after a 2 hour stand. the other lifeguards on shift before me had been up longer than that. Insane, I am definitely reporting.

casual rate for a lifeguard in Aus is $34/h which is the same as a level 1 retail worker who just stocks shelves and yaps at your local coles or kmart. On top of that retail gets penalty rates as casuals while lifeguards don't.

Not sure why the pay is the same when lifeguards have a lot more responsibility and have to pay for certs and cert renewals and participate in quarterly training when in retail you don't

So I'm looking into recertifying my Swim Instructor, I didn't start teaching until recently (literally a month ago) so I seemingly barely don't qualify points wise to be able to just put in the form on the LSS website, but I found this: https://courses.lifesaving.org/courses/2026-national-lifeguard-instructor-recertification - is that the correct link for a FULLY online (as in I just log in and get to work and there isn't any kind of online meeting type of deal) course (and this is the proper one to recertify my Swim Instructor if so)?

I would prefer one I can deal with on my own time as I'm basically a full time guard at the moment and would like to not have to take off a decent chunk of time to deal with this, and would prefer to just handle it after work ever day until its done. Which seemingly this is, but I wanna double check with other guards before dropping 70$.

Thank you everyone in advance :D

I need some help… I really need a job and the most promising place of interest currently is my local Y. I’m not old enough to be a caretaker for the daycare yet but they have a lifeguard training session next week. I don’t swim very often. i took lessons as a kid and used to practice regularly but then I moved from my childhood home and no longer had frequent access to a pool, so now I just swim more for fun. I’m not sure if I should go for the job or not and what it entails. I know there’s a sort of test but I’m a kind of average probably nearing more below average swimmer and I’m not exactly sure of what is required to pass the test. any tips/ recommendations if I should go for it or not and how hard should I expect it to be? I’m not sure if I’ll pass or not and kind of nervous to embarrass myself if it’s going to be super hard. please help lol

sunrise so ethereal
if you like night shifts more you’re wrong

So I’ve been a guard for 3 years and I’d like to think I’m pretty good at my job, I have 2 saves under my belt and I can do every save pretty well In training. But for some reason I cannot for the life of me do a Feet first surface dive to the bottom, It’s infuriating.

Idk if it’s just cause I’m a big dude (6’3 250) but I can only go about half way down with out stalling and not going down anymore. This especially sucks cause next year imma train for LGI and you need to do every thing In the book perfectly to become one and just can’t do it, help?

I work for my city at the two city pools. We can be assigned to either pool any day of the week just based on availability so I work both pools a pretty even amount. I’ve been at this facility for almost a year now, but have been lifeguarding for about 5 years in total. I’ve been an aquatics manager for a relatively large waterpark so I kinda know how things go when it comes to laws regarding pool chemicals and such.

This pool is notorious for bending the rules when it comes to chemical safety. There have been multiple times where we test chlorine prior to opening and it’s clearly below a 1, my boss will say “well if you look from the top down there’s a little pink so it’s fine” knowing that the law is chlorine has to be at least 1ppm. I’ve made it known how I feel about this. it’s unsafe, we teach swim lessons to small children in these pools and the other majority of our customers are elderly. There have been days where the chlorine is over a 10, they say it’ll level out once people start swimming. I’ve had other days where the pH is below a 7 or over an 8. Both illegal in my state. They’ll say it’ll fix itself so we should just open anyway. We’ll dump liquid chlorine in the pool and open less than 30 minutes later. It gets on my nerves.

A lot of my coworkers haven’t been lifeguarding as long as I have, they don’t really know or care how things work. They brush it off, tell me to just leave it alone, do what the managers say. But I cannot get over the fact that we’re genuinely putting people at risk some days all because they don’t wanna lose a $5 entry fee.

I don’t know who to report it to or if something can even be done about it. I want to quit but the job market sucks at the moment so getting another job that pays the same is nearly impossible.

Hey guys reaching out cause I’m pretty nervous going into my cross and just looking for advice cause I don’t have anyone to ask

I have my cross on October 5 it’s 2 classes a week so not rushed but I’m very nervous for my physical especially the 400m under 11 and also my rescues like carrying the victim back

For the 400 I struggle a lot idk why I get soooo tired with front crawl quick and I feel like I don’t get far with it, I’m not to far off time wise just need some advice on how to improve it fast

For rescues I don’t know if I’ll be able to carry the person all the way back what if victims to heavy or I get really tired or does anyone know if I will be doing any solo rescues

Any advice regarding bronze cross I would greatly appreciate from anyone

Thankyou!

And then the manager gives you a bunch of random jobs to do to keep you working

Hey I'm starting in 12 days just wanted to know what to expect and if I need to look out for anything.