ACROSS AMERICA — The swimming hole may be dry again this summer.
A lifeguard shortage that kept about a third of America’s 309,000 public swimming pools dry, or open sporadically, could be “as bad as last year, or worse or this year,” according to the American Lifeguard Association’s B.J. Fisher,
America’s kids — and adults, too — deserve better, a safe place to cool off from summer’s blistering heat, said Fisher, the director of health and safety for the Fairfax County, Virginia-based lifeguard training program.
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He’s practically evangelical about what needs to happen: Local governments and, frankly, anyone who can swim needs to think differently about what it means to be a lifeguard in 2023 and beyond.
“Unless we start looking differently at lifeguarding, not as young teenagers who don’t have to pay rent or buy food, but as a career, we will have a shortage,” Fisher told Patch.
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In the more urgent short-term, though, people who have the strong swimming and other required skills, but never saw themselves sitting in a lifeguard’s chair, should reimagine the concept of community service and get their certification, Fisher said.
Lifeguarding isn’t the only way to help.
“Community active people who want to help out their community should go to the neighborhood Y and ask how they can help — maybe as a pool attendant to check passes,” he said. “We need to make this more of a community effort.”
Public pools are accepting applicants now, and what happens in the next several weeks will determine operating hours.
In a phone interview, Fisher outlined the problems contributing to the lifeguard shortage and what he thinks should happen to fix them.
How Did This Happen?
Lifeguards have to requalify biennially, but a couple of years of social distancing during the pandemic meant fewer training opportunities both to become lifeguards and to recertify.
Typically, about 300,000 new candidates are trained every year through various programs, including those offered by Fisher’s organization, the American Red Cross, YMCAs and other certified instruction programs.
Most lifeguards are high school and college students who pick up extra cash — historically, not a lot — during the summer, then move on to whatever they planned to do in real life.
Most renew their certification once or twice, and “are with us for about five years once they’re certified,” Fisher said, adding that when pandemic restrictions were lifted after a couple of years, “we had to start with a clean slate.”
The Pandemic Exacerbated The Shortage
The lifeguard shortage persisted for years before the pandemic, and an abrupt shift in immigration policy during the pandemic exacerbated it.
Many municipal pools, unable to offer the higher wages of hotels, resorts and condominium complexes, turned to professionals with J-1 visas, mainly Eastern Europeans, to fill lifeguard positions. But when those visas were suspended during the pandemic, it was “the straw in the camel’s back that broke everything down,” Fisher said.
The visa program has resumed. But the problem persists. That’s because few people look at lifeguarding as a career path, Fisher said.
How Are Pools Responding?
The response to the labor shortage isn’t as unified as Fisher would like, but one practice he wishes other communities would adopt is the free lifeguard training YMCA Atlanta is offering to anyone who wants to sign up.
Money talks, too. The city of Phoenix offered a $3,000 bonus to lifeguards to fill out its roster after only partially opening pools last year.
State and local governments have adopted a patchwork of regulations, many of which Fisher said allow pools to open under state codes, but below the national standards of a lifeguard in every chair, even during morning swims in the lap lanes. Instead of one lifeguard for every 50 swimmers, some pools across the country are now staffed at a ratio of 1 to 75.
“That’s an awful lot of people, and just imagine how many people are on deck,” Fisher said, pointing out lifeguards are also responsible for the safety of people lounging in deck chairs under the hot sun.
In New Jersey, for example, public pools smaller than 2,000 square feet can operate with a single lifeguard, even though the best chances of a drowning resuscitation are when two people work as a team. Some of the measures to keep public pools open are roping off the deep ends and shutting down baby pools.
In some parts of the country, people swim at their own risk in hotel, resort and condominium pools. They’re required to inform swimmers through signage, which serves more as a liability protection than an effective safety warning.
In an illustration of the influence of the tourism and hospitality sectors on public policy, Florida, one of the most-visited states in the country, doesn’t generally require lifeguards at hotel, resort and condominium pools. And Loudoun County, Virginia, the wealthiest county in the nation, allows them to operate pools without a lifeguard if they can prove to the county health officers.
“We are going in the wrong direction,” Fisher said. “There’s doing to be another uptick of drownings.
“We are not offering swim classes because every swim instructor is a lifeguard,” he continued. “There’s a snowball effect. In order to get pools open, they’re canceling swimmer.
What Should Be Done Differently?
To unravel the problems, communities should start looking at lifeguards as essential workers and part of a community’s emergency response team, Fisher said.
“Everyone should be lifeguard-trained,” he said, explaining that in some areas, park authorities are training groundskeepers and recreational staff, so they can be pulled into lifeguard duty if needed.
“Why not get our youth trained in first aid?” he said, suggesting career path training in vocational schools that incorporate lifeguard skills in other first responder jobs.
Public pools aren’t just a nice amenity, Fisher said.
“They’re huge assets with inflation. People can’t go on vacation, and these pools are places you can meet friends and neighbors and have nice, clean fun in a secure area” he said.
But without enough lifeguards to keep pools open, Fisher worries that kids who live in areas where backyard pools are uncommon and country club memberships are out of reach will find more dangerous, unmonitored places to get relief from the summer heat.
“We need to understand the true benefits of getting these pools open,” he said.
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