Junior lifeguard club splashing into new season

You don’t need to be a Baywatch enthusiast to join this lifeguard club.

The River Dragons junior lifeguarding club is kicking off its 2008/09 season and looking to recruit new members.

“You’ll feel more confident in the water and it’s such a great feeling being able to save someone’s life,” said Jenna Jackson, one of the club’s two new coaches this year. “It’s a really great atmosphere, so much fun.”

Clara Waxer, Jackson’s counterpart in heading up the club, said the club had about 50 members last year, and they’d like to see the numbers expand. 

Members must be between 7 and 17 years old and meet the Lifesaving Society’s swim-to-survive standard, or be able to roll into the pool, tread water for one minute and swim two lengths. “Just so we don’t have kids that can’t swim,” Waxer said.

The club convenes Mondays and Wednesdays for practices. “It’s like a swim club but all the events are simulated real-life situations for saving lives,” Jackson said. “We use mannequins, one event is rope toss,  and we’re always into first aid.”

“We do a lot of team-building stuff, and practice the events,” Waxer added.

They may be young, but the 17-year-olds have a good amount of experience under their flutter boards. They’ve been swimming for nearly 20 years between them. “We always wanted to be lifeguards,” Jackson said. “Now we are and we want to give all our information to kids.”

The new coaches have been competing with the River Dragons club since its inception in 2003 and Waxer said her experience as assistant coach last year spurred her on to stay with it. “We see all the kids who are coming now and we used to be the kids who would hang out at the pool,” Waxer said. “This year we thought we would love to try leading it.”

The junior lifeguarding club will be aiming to contend in both the provincial lifesaving championships in March and the national championships in May. Last year, three members from the club attended the nationals in Toronto as part of Team Alberta.

Interested swimmers can attend a free trial practice on Sept 8 or see a demonstration at the Aquatic Centre’s open house on Sept. 15. To join the club, participants sign up at the pool as they would for any swim class.