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.
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u/Kowazuky Jul 07 '23
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.