FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 2011 THE VANCOUVER COURIER
EW13
news
Vancouver Lifeguard School celebrates 75th anniversary
Lifeguards hone and tone for next summer Megan Stewart
Staff writer
Slushy streets and salt-stained galoshes don’t conjure thoughts of sunbathing and seaside leisure, but many Vancouver lifeguards are back to work this week to train for the summer season. In the 75th year of the Vancouver Lifeguard School, new and returning lifeguards build on their skills from now through April and vie for one of nearly 200 coveted positions to safeguard the city’s 11 beaches and four outdoor pools. For a 15-year-old Glenn Schultz, saving a drowning boy from a watery grave at Locarno Beach more than five decades ago led to a 50year career as a lifeguard. Now the man in charge of the city’s beaches and open-air pools, Schultz is the city’s top outdoor lifeguard. He also runs the school and hires the seasonal lifeguards. His introduction to the profession came by way of natural instinct and skill. Seated in the sun on a wooden raft, a teenaged Schultz looked on as another boy climbed out of the shallows and jumped off the opposite end into deeper water. When he didn’t resurface, Schultz peered into the water. “I looked down and
saw his eyes. He was trying to say something, trying to talk, but he couldn’t.” Schultz fished the boy out of the water. “Little did I know it would end up being a career,” he said last week, seated in an office at the Aquatic Centre with a giant window overlooking the paddling pool used by infants and parents. Photographs of Vancouver pools taken before and after the renovations we recognize today illustrate half a century as a lifeguard. Schultz remembers the days when access to a bathhouse cost 15 cents and bathers changed after work to hit the surf for a few hours on a sunny day. He signed up for the city’s lifeguard school and began his first patrols in 1960, four years before the National Lifesaving Society standardized safety requirements throughout the British Commonwealth. Vancouver’s outdoor crews are experienced and Schultz says about 80 per cent of his staff returns each year, including lifeguards who signed on in the ’60s and ’70s. All guards are tested at the beginning of each season. Today, lifeguard training emphasizes skills and fitness as well as prevention. Banning inflatable toys and mattresses from beaches and pools in the early 1970s was one of the best decisions the city made,
said Schultz. “Life-saving in B.C. is proactive. We try to stop the accident before it happens,” he said. The public relations requirements of the job are increasingly emphasized, given the need to enforce rules with diplomacy and discipline. And then, a lifeguard must be fit. “The have to be fit for any potential emergency situation and the work itself can be physically demanding,” said Sean Healy, the park board supervisor of aquatic services and also a lifeguard. “They move row boats, paddle boats, lift people and come to the aid of people in distress and all that is physically demanding.” Lifeguard skills competitions are an increasingly popular form of professional development encouraged by Schultz. Lifeguard Gail Findlay-Shirras represented Canada in Egypt at the recent world lifesaving championships and placed in the top 15. “[Competition] keeps you in shape so you can do your job,” said the 27-year-old Vancouverite. “If you’re struggling, I can get to you fast. If I’m frank and honest, I can get there faster than everyone but 10 people in the world.” mstewart@vancourier.com Twitter: @MHStewart
Longtime lifeguard Glenn Schultz once saved a drowning boy from a watery grave at Locarno Beach. photo Dan Toulgoet
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