Swimming with/without lifeguards

[Motokid]

Have you ever, or would you ever swim in the ocean with no lifeguards present? Would you let your kids?

I just spent a week at the beach, and where we go there are no lifeguards. I am sometimes struck with the notion that many people find that a bit frightening. I kayaked out into the deep blue almost a mile from shore with no lifejacket. My kids played in the surf with no other supervision than thier own parents. The last two days were quite rough. Not much undertow, but the wave height was relatively high, and current was quite strong.

It kinda reminded me of the helmet law thread and the seatbelt debate. In the world of lawsuits and throwing blame around to everybody and anybody, the lack of lifeguards at a summer beach area is sort of wierd these days. Or is it? The pool I belong to has lifeguards and the water is clear, with no currents and no waves, yet the ocean where we vacation has no guards.

Is there too much risk involved for you to swim in the ocean with no guards, or to let your kids play/swim in the ocean with no guards?

 

[mehastings]

I've always gone swimming without guards. I generally figure I swim better than they do anyway. I don't think I'd worry much about doing it after having kids. As long as I'm watching them closely they'd probably be safer than having a life guard who is responsible for watching hundreds of people at a time.

 

[lies]

We only have a small patch of North Sea here, so it's not really an issue.

My sister and I did decide to swim to England once when we were younger only to have the coast guard tell us to get back: I guess in hindsight that was good advice, but at the time we were mad because now we'd never know who'd get there first.

 

[Zolipara]

I dont think i have ever been at a beach with lifeguards.

 

[Motokid]

I dont think i have ever been at a beach with lifeguards.

Maybe that's much more of an American thing? I know that many beaches here on the east coast have lifeguards during the summer months. All along New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland the main beaches have guards. I know that Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and at a few locations along the Outer Banks in North Carolina they have guards.

 

[mehastings]

I know that many beaches here on the east coast have lifeguards during the summer months. All along New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland the main beaches have guards. I know that Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and at a few locations along the Outer Banks in North Carolina they have guards.

There are guards at some beaches in Massachusetts and Rhode Island too. They've been getting more spread out lately though. I suspect the parks departments just can't pay salaries like they used to.

 

[Motokid]

There are guards at some beaches in Massachusetts and Rhode Island too. They've been getting more spread out lately though. I suspect the parks departments just can't pay salaries like they used to.

I know a lot of guards are students working for just the summer. Not sure if many/any places in the east have "professional" life guards. I could see it in places with huge surf like Hawaii...

 

[Robert]

I used to swim without lifeguards all the time when I was living in Charleston and in Virginia Beach. I believe we had lifeguards in Daytona Beach and Pensacola, but they were few and far between. In fact, I don’t remember seeing much of life guards until we moved to California.

As for my kids, if they swim in one of the lakes in the neighborhood, then they do so without benefit of a lifeguard. If they swim at the pool, then there are always lifeguards present, but I wonder how effective they are because so many young children there without parents, the lifeguards are too often busy keeping the children under control.

 

[ruby]

The beach is at the top of my road but i would not let my girls going swimming there,carnt say i have ever seen lifeguards there! And who in there right mind would want to go swimming in the mersey! Even though its meant to have been cleaned up by north west water!

 

[Motokid]

The beach is at the top of my road but i would not let my girls going swimming there,carnt say i have ever seen lifeguards there! And who in there right mind would want to go swimming in the mersey! Even though its meant to have been cleaned up by north west water!

I've no clue what you just said.....why would you not let them swim there? Pollution? Cold? Rough? What is mersey? Pardon my ignorance, but I'm interested in what you have to say....

 

[novella]

My family has lived on the same Atlantic beach for four generations, and all the lifeguards are from the neighborhood. A lot were my friends when I was that age. Two of my friends sat the same chair together and then got married. They're not always the best swimmers, either. As for 'professionals' there's one lifeguard (a schoolteacher in the winter) whose been the captain on my beach since before I was born. He's called Pinky cause he sunburns all summer.

You can only do the cool stuff like surf and swim out really far when the guards are off-duty, otherwise they blow you out. I spent entire summers thinking up pranks to play on the lifeguards: chairs in the water, toilet paper all over the chair, fake drowning (of course), Krazy Glue on their bike seats . . . They're just part of the scene, with a job to do. They're not babysitters, but they learn to look for people who can't ocean-swim, who swim drunk, or who are small and too adventurous, which is really the main thing.

So, yeah, if you know what you're doing, it's not a problem to swim alone. But there are quite a few pool swimmers who don't know the ocean that well. Every year there are 3 or 4 drownings along that beach.

I got saved by a lifeguard when I was five, but that's another story.

 

[RainbowGurl]

The beach is at the top of my road but i would not let my girls going swimming there,carnt say i have ever seen lifeguards there! And who in there right mind would want to go swimming in the mersey! Even though its meant to have been cleaned up by north west water!

Isn't the Mersey a canal with orange/brown water because of all the iron in it?

 

[ruby]

I've no clue what you just said.....why would you not let them swim there? Pollution? Cold? Rough? What is mersey? Pardon my ignorance, but I'm interested in what you have to say....

Sorry motokid the mersey is the river that merges with the sea,its been polluted for yrs and north west water have spent millions of pounds trying to clean it up! Its still not clean enough to let kids swim in it.But there getting there so maybe 1 day i will let them! Hope that explains it a bit more! Ruby

 

[Motokid]

Sorry motokid the mersey is the river that merges with the sea,its been polluted for yrs and north west water have spent millions of pounds trying to clean it up! Its still not clean enough to let kids swim in it.But there getting there so maybe 1 day i will let them! Hope that explains it a bit more! Ruby

yep...that helps a lot....

 

[ruby]

Isn't the Mersey a canal with orange/brown water because of all the iron in it?

Its not a canel its a river! I dont think its anything to do with iron but i am not sure!

 

[RainbowGurl]

I have been along The Mersey Canal, thats why I thought you might have been talking about a canal

 

[ruby]

I have been along The Mersey Canal, thats why I thought you might have been talking about a canal

Here in scouse land us scousers call it the river mersey!

 

[leckert]

I think I have been swimming more without lifeguards than with. I think I prefer without, but it really has nothing to do with safety.

Beaches with lifeguards tend to be more crowded and touristy. I prefer the secluded little slivers of sand that are off of the beaten path. The "path less traveled" so to speak. I'd rather pack a cooler and a towel over some rocks and dunes to find a patch of sand and water where I can be by myself than schlep to Ocean City, or Myrtle Beach and fall in with the herd.

I don't worry about safety too much. I'm a good swimmer, and my daughter stays with me when she goes in deep. mostly, though, we stay fairly shallow, or dig in the sand. I suppose a good thing about having lifeguards is that they have a better vantage point from which to see sharks.



@Robert:
We seem to have trod a lot of the same ground! I lived in Charleston for about 10 years, and I went to High School in Norfolk! I have also been to CA!

 

[Motokid]

I suppose a good thing about having lifeguards is that they have a better vantage point from which to see sharks.

I think when anyone can actually see a shark it's a bit too late....

 

[leckert]

I think when anyone can actually see a shark it's a bit too late....

Probably true.

And the lifeguard screaming "SHARK!" and blowing his whistle would just get you all scared and panicy before you are eaten! So, why not just be eaten peacefully.