City of Temecula’s Red Team pulled out a win for AI’s July Lifeguard Challenge. Longtime participants City of Kirksville, Mo. placed second, with City of Apache Junction, Ariz. taking third.
This complicated drill required rescuers to make repeated laps between the victim and the pool wall in a kind of figure-eight pattern.
Endurance played a large part in scoring. Most rescuers executed near-perfect entries, approaches and contact with the victim during the first round. By the third round, however, there was a noticeable drop in proficiency.
Where others faltered, however, Red Team maintained a fast pace, clean body position and eye contact with the victim. The crew members also kept the rescue tubes positioned between themselves and the victims.
Unfortunately, a large portion of entries were disqualified from this challenge. It had nothing to do with rescuer error, but post-film production. Many teams tried to jazz up their submissions with background music. As a result, I couldn’t hear any cadences that may have been used to track the pace of the drill.
If you’re going to include music, please make sure it does not interfere with any audio cues.
Stay tuned to aquaticsintl.com for the announcement of August’s Summer Lifeguard Challenge winner. And remember: We still have two more bonus rounds. Those extra-credit drills could play a large part in the final standings for the summer.
It’s anyone’s game!
