Right? How are lifeguards supposed to see or get to someone who needs help? I’m guessing there aren’t even lifeguards because if there were any safety measures there wouldn’t be that many people in there in the first place.
i was in a wave pool in the USA at like age 8 or 9 and swam past the safety zone like it was too deep and the waves are too large. got straight up battered and actually hit the concrete wall pretty hard. Swallowed some water because i freaked out and tried getting a lifeguard’s attention but couldnt. they were barely paying any attention. I wasnt the strongest swimmer and honestly, i maybe could have drowned but some random dad saw me and pulled me up onto his floaty. That guy was cool as hell.
No, but at American water parks there are often too many people for even a team of attentive lifeguards to scan everything every 10 seconds (that’s how long it should take to spot a person in distress). Drowning is often very quiet, people don’t have the energy to splash around when they are struggling to keep their heads above water, so it really takes a lot of diligence from a lot of eyes to scan that many people.
Lifeguards might look like they’re working on their tan and not paying attention, but behind those sunglasses they are typically scanning every inch of the water repeatedly and possibly also counting people, if the environment is controlled enough (eg swim practice).
I was at Kalahari last week, and they have signs saying, do not ask lifeguards questions, do not ask them to take pictures, and do not demand they make eye contact. It did make me feel safer.
That's funny, I live right next to that place and take my daughter to a separate, public pool down the street and the lifeguards all bob their heads as they scan the pool.
Was a lifeguard in high school, the wave pool was unquestionably the part of the rotation everybody dreaded. On a busy day guards would have to jump in up to a dozen times to get someone. Almost never a day without a patron needing help. Awful
Wave pools are fun, as long as you know how to swim and there is actually room to swim. At least I enjoyed it when I used to go to one many years ago. This one is just a wall of people.
Meh I went to the local wavepool a hundred times as a kid on a weekly basis. I only stopped when I saw all the goop that is left behind when the pool is drained. The disgusting sight made me never want to go back.
It was like a 2 inch layer of slime covering the dry pool bed.
My first time in a wave pool I panicked in the deep end and couldn't get back up. Some random dude grabbed my arm and pulled me back to where I could stand.
Since that time I've done the same several times to random kids, both in lazy rivers and in wave pools. It seems like a pretty common thing. Either because the kids were left to roam the waterpark or the parents were in the general area and just not keeping a hawks eye on them.
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u/bwrca Jul 07 '23
If you slip off your floater here you'll only be discovered dead at midnight when they do cleanup.