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Night Calls and Memorial Prep

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At 3am a call came over about an attempted suicide at a beach on the west end. Supervisor Stephen Limones was on call and rolled out of bed and drove with lights and sirens to the scene to meet police, fire, and EMS. A family was on the beach and one of them was upset and swam out reportedly to end his life. Fortunately, in this case the family was able to bring him back to shore just as the emergency responders pulled up. EMS recognized that the person was having some kind of episode and made the decision to bring him to the emergency room for assessment and support.

5am the same morning close to the same location as the earlier call, a man was reportedly on narcotics and had evaded the police by running out into the water. Stephen showed up and went out to try to talk the man back to shore. As he got close, the man dove face down in the water and floated until Stephen got to him. Stephen took a risk and grabbed the man from behind and drug him to shore, speaking reassuringly to him. Police officers took over once they reached shallow water and ended up taking him into custody, mostly to protect him from himself until he came down.

More people more of the year means more calls of every type – day or night. This is the reality for first responders of all types working on an island that sees more visitors each year. 8.1 million people coming to the island means a larger number of 911 calls of all types, particularly beach related incidents.

Fortunately, with a lot of work by the Beach Patrol staff, we’ve run an almost continuous lifeguard academy, mostly because foreign Work/Tourist j1 visa holders don’t come en masse, but trickle in these days. Counting those in the academy we are up to a little more than 90 lifeguards, 42 of which are j1 visa holders, plus our 15 full-time Supervisors. We’re not at our target number, but we feel confident at this point we’ll be able to cover all the towers we have in our projections. We’ll be able to hit all the rock jetties each day plus some additional seawall towers where they’re needed. We’ll also be able to start our daily west end patrol schedule from Memorial to Labor Day weekends, and cover Stewart Beach, East Beach, and Dellanara Park.

To add to that we’ve got a new class of Wave Watchers graduated and out checking the beaches, Survivor Support Network is ready for another season, CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) will be here for holidays and as needed, and our partner public safety groups are ready to go.

Wednesday around 5pm at 37th we’ll kick off our annual “night swim” lifeguard academy graduation exercise and run, swim, and paddle our way to Stewart Beach. Come support your lifeguard crew by cheering them on as they make their way through this grueling challenge!

Academy

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The group picked their way gingerly across the higher rocks, which were only covered in white, foamy water intermittently. One person, older and moving confidently up and down the rocks, leapt from a higher rock, tucking his rescue tube firmly against his body in midflight, and landed smoothly on top of one of the larger waves. He took a couple of strokes, rolled to the side, and smoothly slid swim fins on. Swimming back to the rocks at an angle against the rip current, he motioned for the first of the lifeguard candidates to follow, as he rose and fell with the swell.

The first brave soul moved towards the rock the instructor had jumped from. Holding her rescue tube and excess strap in the hand that was opposite from the direction the waves came from she ensured the waves wouldn’t smack the tube into her and cause her to slide across the barnacle covered rocks. Keeping her center of gravity low, but her butt off the rocks, she kept her balance while letting the energy of the smaller waves pass beneath her. She moved lower quickly before a larger wave could knock her off her feet. You could see her force herself to focus and tune out the voice telling her all the ways this could go bad. A wave approached. She knew at this point she had no choice. Once you’re low enough to jump, a decent sized wave will scrape you across the rocks if you freeze. She didn’t. She jumped a little high and landed too close to the jump point. She didn’t get the tube flat against her body, causing her hands to sink too low on impact. But her head was just right- tilted back with her face forward.  She timed the jump a little early and landed in the whitewater. But overall, it was a pretty good first jump. And practicing in decent sized surf, although it looks scary, has a much greater margin of error.

Each year, the Galveston Island Beach Patrol trains Lifeguard Candidates, or “Rookies”, in a rigorous 100 hour Lifeguard Training Academy. The Academy includes United States Lifesaving Association Open Water accreditation, Red Cross Emergency Responder certification, tourist ambassador training, leadership, resilience, and intercultural competency. Lifesaving skills open water swimming techniques are first learned in a pool environment and perfected in the open water of the Gulf of Mexico.

Lifeguard candidates will be paid a training wage for the time they spend on the training course. Upon successful completion of the Lifeguard Academy, candidates will be promoted to Lifeguard 1 status and will be eligible to work for Galveston Island Beach Patrol at up to $20 per hour. More importantly they’ll return home each day knowing they prevented accidents and/or saved a life.

Tomorrow (Saturday) at 9am we’ll be holding lifeguard tryouts at the UTMB Fieldhouse. If you or someone you know is interested in joining the team and family, please check our website for details and show up at 9. We need you!

Risk

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Years back I climbed up the pyramids in Tical, Guatemala. It was really steep, and the steps were not designed for big American feet. I reached the top and looked out from a view above the rainforest canopy in awe. Then I looked down and realized there were no handrails. I was shocked. In the US this just wouldn’t happen. There would be railings and arrangements for disabled people and cable cars, so no one collapsed on the way up.

We’re Americans. We live in a country with quite a few resources. A country that has city, state, and federal governments that do all kinds of things that allow us the illusion of complete safety. We rarely see holes in the sidewalks or stairs without railings. Signs are everywhere reminding us how to stay safe. “Caution Drop Off”. “Plastic bags can suffocate you”. “Apple filling is hot”.

All of these precautions are aimed at one thing. Minimizing risk. Not eliminating risk but minimizing risk. The concept is “layers of protection”. It starts with each of us watching out for our own safety, then the safety of loved ones or companions. Then there are the institutional measures of railings, signs, metal detectors, airbags, childproof caps, security checks, health codes, etc. Institutions have sign in areas to filter visitors, schools lock all doors but the entrance, lifeguard towers have “lifeguard only” signs, etc.

It works almost too well. We forget that all of these layers of protection, while reducing risk, do not guarantee that we’ll be totally safe. We forget that there is no guarantee because we’re constantly inundated. We look for blame when accidents happen (“Was he wearing his seatbelt?”). And then we go to the beach.

Of all places the ocean is still the Wild Wild West. We do a great job of mitigating the risk considering that the ocean is something by its very nature that can’t be controlled. We train our lifeguards beyond all standards and expectations. We maintain over 600 safety signs up and down the beach. We have layers upon layers of supervisors, vehicles, and watchers for the watchers. And at beaches guarded by United States Lifesaving Association lifeguards (like ours) your chances of drowning in a guarded area are 1 in 18 million. But ultimately, we are only an additional layer of protection. We can’t guarantee safety, only mitigate risk.

Part of the beauty of visiting the beach is that once you step beyond the shoreline you are outside of all the human-made environment. That feeling of freedom you have when you dive into the surf is partly because of that. It’s important to remember, however, that you are mostly outside of all those safety nets. 30 yards from shore might as well be a 3-day trek into the wilderness.

So, do what you can when you’re out in all that freedom. Swim near a lifeguard, stay away from structures, and assign a water watcher for starters. Then get out there!

Surfing Ordinance

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Summer is close! The water is getting close to 80 degrees and the early crowds we saw this spring have not slacked off. And we just graduated an amazing new group of Wave Watcher volunteers! Apart from an intermittent smattering of man-o-war and some wind, the conditions have been nice. Looking at the calendar, it […]

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Lightning

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On a summer day in the early ‘80’s, a lone lifeguard stood on Stewart Beach. The air was thick as a dark, green frontal system moved in from the north.  In the distance lifeguard trucks drove up and down the beach using their loudspeakers to let people know lightning was moving into the area. Bolts of lightning struck nearby.  The lifeguard whistled at the few remaining people in the area and yelled for them to get out of the water. Suddenly, time stood still, and the air crackled with electricity. He realized he was lying on his back. A filling in his mouth hurt, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end, and he felt as if insects were running across his temples. He had survived his first lightning strike. Later, he would be struck again while playing tennis with an aluminum racket.

A similar incident occurred a few years back to a lifeguard in Florida but resulted in a fatality. Every year, many people on or near bodies of water are struck by lightning. In the US, the highest numbers are in states bordering the Great Lakes, southern states bordering the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and the four corner states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona.

Lightning most frequently occurs within 10 miles of a thunderstorm, so it is generally recommended that people take shelter when lightning comes within this distance. One way to tell how close lightning is involves counting the seconds between the flash of lightning and the corresponding thunder roar. This is known as the “flash to bang rule”. Every five seconds is a mile. If the time between the flash and the bang is less than 50 seconds, you want to clear out.

For a number of years, I’ve been part of a group working on a joint public education program for the United States Lifesaving Organization (USLA) and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which includes the National Weather Service (NWS). Through this I realized that there’s lots I didn’t know about lightning. For example, I wasn’t aware that it wasn’t enough to seek shelter in a building. It has to be fully enclosed, grounded, and have electrical and plumbing. Boats aren’t really safe at all, but if you have to ride it out in one, it should be in a cabin without touching electronics or the walls. Cars are pretty safe, but not as good as proper buildings, and again, don’t touch metal frameworks.

If you are caught in a lightning storm on the beach and can’t get to an enclosed building or car, don’t just run to a partially enclosed picnic table or similar structure. Instead, stay away from the tallest objects (lifeguard stands, light poles, flag poles), metal objects (fences or bleachers), standing pools of water, and open areas.

You can monitor thunderstorms and severe weather forecasts online at www.spc.noaa.gov . For more information about lightning safety, a good site is www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov .

Wave Watcher Academy – Register Now!

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2023

 

WAVE WATCHER ACADEMY

 

IN-PERSON

 

APRIL 17TH – APRIL 20TH

 

9:00 a.m. – Noon

 

STEWART BEACH PAVILION

 

201 SEAWALL BLVD, GALVESTON TX

If you are interested in attending, please email Angie @ [email protected]

 

 

Spring Break Wrap Up

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Spring Break started with a bang and ended with a whimper. That first weekend was scary from our perspective! Massive crowds, lots of current and waves, warm air and water, and sparse lifeguard coverage kept us moving fast, as we raced from hot spot to hot spot to keep people away from the rip currents near the jetties.

Early Saturday morning I called the police and fire departments for some help and they ran patrols both days on the seawall to help us spot trouble developing. Its good to have friends. Because of their efforts, some really hard work by the Beach Patrol staff, and a bit of luck we got through the first weekend. Then it got cold and most of the tourists that were all over the beach went to the other island attractions and stayed there for the rest of the week through last weekend.

Even with the cold weather, our stats over Spring Break were impressive, especially when considering most of the numbers happened over a three day period. I usually give a general overview when giving stats, but its interesting to see the specifics:

We moved 9,605 people from danger- mostly away from the rocks. We enforced park rules or city ordinances 84 times (11 of these were vehicles driving illegally on the beach), and Park Security did this 187 times (they only worked the first weekend). We responded to 18 medical calls, 7 of them were serious enough to be transported to the hospital. We responded to one possible drowning and made 4 rescues. We logged giving tourist information 137 times (this stat is notoriously lower than the reality of how many tourists we have direct contact with). We reunited a couple of lost kids with their parents and gave 1,344 water safety talks.

Those numbers are a good reflection of how much work we do. But when compared to the summertime numbers we accumulate when all 34 lifeguard towers are staffed and our trucks cover the entire beachfront, they’re pretty small. Just to give a general idea, in an average year we routinely move between 300,000 and 500,000 people from dangerous areas, make 3-4,000 enforcements, do around 30,000 water safety talk contacts, etc. The numbers are really staggering and show how much preventative work our lifeguards do. If you think about it, we do most of the preventative actions over a 9-month period, 7 of which we have guards in towers and the other two we’re working out of trucks only. That math comes out to just under 1,500 swimmers moved per day, or 12,500 preventative actions per lifeguard tower per season.

Those numbers are pretty overwhelming when you think what would happen if we weren’t there during the critical times and places to move people away from potentially lethal rip currents. It explains why our recent tryouts and academy that only produced three graduates terrified our staff.

It explains why we are such fanatics about all things that make up the complicated beach safety defense web.

Academy is coming…

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The group of young men and women radiated nervousness as they lined up on the sand. “On your mark, get set, GO!” shouted the instructor as they raced down the beach around the tower and into the water.

I was about half way out to the buoy when a group of good swimmers caught me and basically swam right over me. By the time I got going again a wave smacked me right in the face as I was taking a breath. When I got to the buoy I had to hang on for a few seconds to catch my breath before pushing on.

The year was 1983 and I finished 11th out of 30 in the Beach Patrol tryouts. Fortunately, I’ve come a long way from then, as has the Beach Patrol! There was no formal training and no special first aid course other than what I got when I took the Red Cross pool lifesaving course. I was just given a radio and sent to work.

Saturday, March 11th is the first of three tryouts for the Beach Patrol at 9am at the UTMB pool. If you know anyone that wants to work on the Beach Patrol (and be a hero!) spread the word. The swim qualification to be admitted into the training academy is 500 meters in 10 minutes or less. Details are on our website. Candidates who want to start working right away can go through the first lifeguard academy over spring break. We pay them to attend the school where they are certified in CPR, First Aid, and beach lifeguarding. They also go through training in tourist relations, city codes pertaining to Galveston’s beaches, Gulf Coast ecology, and near shore topography and hydrology. Coupled with all the classroom work is hands on training in how to swim and make rescues in surf, search and recovery, and the basics of lifesaving sport. It’s a busy week and we’ll do two more academies in May so we can work with everyone’s schedule.

In addition to training for new lifeguards, we are starting our annual training session for dispatchers, supervisors, and personal watercraft rescue operations. By the time Memorial Weekend hits we’ll be up to speed. Despite the huge amount of effort all this requires of our permanent staff members there’s a big payoff for both our staff and the public. The inconsistent training that once took a whole summer is taught in a uniform manner. Each employee is taught the same material and instilled with similar core values. Any one of our guards can handle whatever is thrown at them when and if they complete the training.

So for those that would like to try being a beach guard, I hope you’ll give it a shot. I’m so happy I squeaked in all those years ago. For me it was a life changer. Not many people get to go home at the end of the day with the knowledge that they prevented accidents and/or saved someone.

Drones Revisited

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A few years ago, some footage of what was reported to be the first real water rescue made by a drone at Lennox Head, New South Wales, Australia went viral. To me it looked staged. There were two swimmers just outside the surf line kind of floating around. The footage was from the drone itself as it dropped this package from maybe 100 feet up. Upon impact this big sausage looking thing inflated. Two swimmers swam over to it and floated on it back to shore. At one point it looked like a wave knocked one of them off it, but the guy swam easily back to it and rode it in. The announcer talked about how it was the first rescue by drones.

But drones have been used by lifeguard agencies for quite awhile now for surveillance. There are a couple of beaches that I know of that fly the on a set schedule as shark spotters and others that use them for surveillance of isolated or remote areas without guards. The operators have to be trained as pilots since they’re a governmental agency. Newport Beach, which is pretty cashed up, flies them three times a week for a 20 minute flight. If they see a shark bigger than a certain size they increase the schedule until it moves out of the area.

Mountain rescue drones have also been shown to be pretty effective in spotting lost hikers and dropping survival packages to them. The ocean has been more of a challenge. However, one recent local successful example is the Galveston County Community Emergency Response Team used them for a body search at the San Luis Pass and were able to see a few feet beneath the surface and were able to comb a lot of marshland that we had a hard time getting to by water or by land.

Most of the commonly available and affordable drones currently have a flight time of 20 minutes and can’t run in over 20 mile an hour winds. But some of the fancier ones being used by public safety groups are a bit better in-flight time, can fly in slightly higher winds, and can carry a variety of types of cameras including thermal imaging, infra-red, etc. They’re proving to be useful in some conditions for search and recovery operations.

I think the day is near where, if you have the resources, drones may be able to augment beach lifesaving programs in very real and cost-effective ways. Particularly in remote locations or for search and recovery operations. I’m hoping, once the Beach Patrol gets into a permanent building “forever home” that we will be able to use drones to fly periodic passes of the shoreline. There is some really cool software out there that is on the verge of being able to consistently identify both rip currents and swimmers in distress. And we can program them to alert us if people are in or near the area by the rock jetties where dangerous rip currents are ever-present.

SCENARIOS

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Last Wednesday was rainy and overcast before the front came in. There was some sea fog, but not to the point that it severely limited visibility. Lt. Kirwin and Sgt. Buck slipped down to the water and set a mannequin in the water. Buck donned a wetsuit, booties, and gloves and swam out.

Supervisors Lucero and Knight staged at the entrance to Stewart Beach in a rescue truck. They knew they were going to respond to a scenario but didn’t know what it would be. Then, when everything and everyone was in position, they received the call. The drill was a few people missing in the water, resulting from an accident. They had to race down to the Headquarters, retrieve a jet ski, launch it, and search for the missing swimmers. One of them, played by Buck, was ok with some minor issues. Another was a partially submerged victim that had to be removed from the water, assessed, and ultimately CPR needed to be performed.

This was just one of several scenarios we’ve been running, getting the crew to be razor sharp for the opening of the beach season. Working in pairs or small groups, some staff members participate in scenarios, while others complete work on towers, signs, complete leadership, resiliency, or intercultural competency training in the office, or work patrolling the beaches.

Once the seasonal lifeguards return in March, they too will participate in similar activities, but not to the extent of the full-time staff members. Our full-time staff make up the vast majority of the Supervisors, are all Emergency Medical Technicians and have quite a bit of additional training that our seasonal Lifeguards aren’t required to have, such as Swiftwater Technician certification, National Incident Management System training, Tourism Ambassador certification, and some are Peace Officers. They are also the teachers and instructors for the seasonal staff and teach everything from Red Cross Emergency Response to Personal Rescue Watercraft Operator instruction.

There are benefits to having our year-round crew trained up in time to teach the guards and being ready to respond to a myriad of emergencies. It’s also good to have them be very used to the day-to-day conditions, so when they jump in the cold water to make a rescue they know what to expect and are comfortable in cold water, limited visibility, and big surf. We want to be comfortable and prepared for all kind of conditions so they can focus on problem solving in difficult rescue situations. But it’s also important that they problem solve together.

Modern professional lifesaving has changed significantly in the past few decades. The basic techniques of saving someone are very similar to when lifesaving took off in the early 1900’s as a result of a boom in recreational swimming that resulted from a growth in a leisure class. The big difference is an emphasis on teamwork. What used to be “One beach one lifeguard”, in the immortal words of Leroy Colombo, has now morphed into “We’re only as strong as our weakest link”.