Eleven years into her career as a lifeguard on one of Ontario’s busy beaches, Stephanie Harding can’t turn off the instinct to be constantly vigilant and scanning the waters for potentially weak swimmers.
“You have to have a healthy respect for the water and as much as possible, understand the changing water conditions,” Harding, a supervisor with the Central Elgin Beach Rescue, said during a busy day at the end of July in Port Stanley on the shores of Lake Erie.
“We’re a great resource to come talk to if you want to get an understanding of where the high hazard or high-risk zones could be, and we’re more than happy to talk to anyone.”
While lifeguards often sit solo atop towers, scanning the waters, the entire team of 24 to 28 lifeguards in Port Stanley is communicating with each other about potentially weak swimmers and trouble spots.
“I love being an open-water lifeguard. It’s a really challenging and unique work environment.”
Some years, lifeguards at Port Stanley do one rescue a week. Every year, it’s at least a few a week, Harding said. Those don’t usually get publicized unless there’s a drowning, as there was in Port Stanley in July, when a 14-year-old boy died while on a trip to the beach with his parents and brother.
It’s a difficult part of the job, and having a team approach to rescues and their aftermath is key, Harding said.
“We run a really extensive pre-season training process and we discuss the idea that not all rescues are easy or feel easy,” she said. “Physically it can be taxing and emotionally it can be taxing, so we try to recreate those situations in training so there’s that high adrenalin and intensity so the guards are mentally and physically prepared for what they could encounter on the beach.”
Knowing that you’re never the sole person who is responsible for the safety of beach-goers also helps, Harding said.
For those hitting the beach, Harding recommends never swimming alone, wearing a life-jacket and asking any lifeguards on duty to identify trouble spots before going into the water.