As beaches and pools reopen for the summer, lifeguards must figure out how to stay safe and also save lives

• Pools and beaches across the US have begun to reopen as states relax stay-at-home orders and temperatures rise.
• But from recruitment to training, to life-saving measures, lifeguards have had to adapt to the new reality brought on by COVID-19.
• Some lifeguards will be required to enforce social distancing at community pools.
• "It's difficult enough to have a 16-year-old tell an adult what to do, and they'll definitely run into a lot of problems this summer with adults and families who are reluctant to follow the social distancing rules," a Houston lifeguard trainer said.
• Lifeguards will increase their use of PPE, including face masks and hand sanitizer, and avoid using practices like mouth-to-mouth rresuscitation, which is already uncommon.

Memorial Day weekend is typically the start of the swimming season. Pools around the country open for the year and Americans flock to beaches.

In New York City, for example, beaches were open at 50% capacity, but visitors weren't allowed to swim in the water, hold barbecues, or congregate in groups larger than ten. In LA, beaches reopened on May 13 for swimming and surfing. But beaches in Illinois weren't open at all, which prompted state residents to seek time in the sun on nearby Indiana beaches.

In most locations, public beaches and pools relied on trained lifeguards to keep people safe, but COVID-19 has upended nearly every aspect of the way lifeguards work.

"The impact of COVID-19 on lifeguarding starts from recruiting all the way through operational. I would say that everything has been impacted," Tom Gill, a spokesperson for the United States Lifesaving Association, told Insider.

Arielle Phillips, who works as a lifeguard instructor in Houston, Texas, said the way lifeguards have been trained has been completely upended by COVID-19. While pools in Houston typically open during Memorial Day weekend, the city's mayor announced last week the closure of public pools and water parks for the entire summer, according to Click2Houston, despite them being allowed to operate elsewhere in the state.

Phillips said her company, which manages about 80 neighborhood pools in the Houston area, wasn't expecting to open pools until the second week of June.

And when they do open, she expects they will open at 25% capacity before eventually being allowed to open at 50% capacity. The company directed all apartment complexes and homeowner associations to remove all furniture around community pools to encourage social distancing. Residents can bring their own furniture, she said, but are required to practice social distancing.

While Gill noted that nearly every facet of lifeguarding had been impacted by COVID-19, none has been altered quite as much as the recruiting process, especially for agencies that rely on labor from other countries.

"Agencies around the country depend a lot on local workers and folks within their areas, but then there's a number of them that are depending on workers that come from colleges, and other areas, as well as foreign workers."

Lifeguard training looks different this year than in years prior

"This year there has been a big difference in training our lifeguards because typically you have a class full of 20 students," Phillips told Business Insider. "We still have a class of 20 students, but it's more in-depth now because they have to be socially distant."

While Phillips said her lifeguards were typically taught and tested at smaller pools, training now occurred only at 50-yard long pools that have six lanes. The sharing of equipment is prohibited, so new lifeguards must bring their own chairs to training sessions. The typical practice of sharing of mannequins to teach CPR is now also verboten, so the instructors are making do by using kickboards and lifevests.

"That's definitely a big change and something that's a little concerning for us as instructors because we want to make sure we're teaching them the proper way to do something, especially when it comes to a life-threatening event," Phillips said.

It's an evolving situation, Phillips said. On the first day of training, all of the eager teenage trainees showed up without face masks. It made Phillips uncomfortable, so she and another trainer conferred with their supervisor to ensure that trainees wore facial coverings during the rest of their training sessions.

Chlorine levels in the training pool were raised from their typical three to five parts-per-million (PPM) and are now kept between seven and 10 PPM, Phillips added. A decision about the chlorine levels in the rest of the pools will be made at a later date before they open, Phillips said, though she noted the state of Texas mandates a maximum of eight PPM in outdoor pools.

The lifeguards will not be required to wear a mask while they are watching over the pool, she said, though they will be required to wear proper PPE, including masks and gloves when assisting an injured person.

Lifeguards will face another challenge: guests who refuse to practice social distancing

Phillips said her lifeguards will be asked to enforce social distancing rules while on pool duty, though she expects it will be a challenge.

"It's difficult enough to have a 16-year-old tell an adult what to do, and they'll definitely run into a lot of problems this summer with adults and families who are reluctant to follow the social distancing rules," she said.

She added: "Usually you get calls about residents who don't want to follow rules. We are assuming we are going to have a higher volume of calls because we know this summer is going to be difficult in regard to enforcing those rules."

Still, Phillips said pool-goers should expect that lifeguards will still be there to offer their help if and when they need it.

Gill said lifeguards at beaches should focus on watching the water, not worrying about social distancing.

"As far as the USLA is concerned, it should not be the lifeguard's responsibility to enforce social distancing if that lifeguard is currently serving as water surveillance," he said. "If any lifeguard is assigned to a lifeguard stand and is watching the water, that should be their only job."

Despite what you've seen in movies, most lifeguards don't use mouth-to-mouth resuscitation now

He said that beachgoers should not be concerned about the dangers of mouth-t0-mouth resuscitation or contracting COVID-19 through a lifeguard's life-saving efforts. Lifeguards have added items like hand sanitizer to their packs, he said, as an example of increased measures to keep beachgoers and lifeguards safe.

"Let's get away from the movie view here," Gill said. "No lifeguard should be doing mouth-to-mouth ever. Every lifeguard at a minimum should have a face mask to use as a protective barrier. The lifeguard services are basically EMS response agencies set up on the beach ready to go, and nobody jumps off an ambulance or jumps off a fire truck and starts doing mouth to mouth anymore, and the lifeguard agencies are the same."

Both Phillips and Gill pointed toward a one-way face mask that allows air to enter one way through a filter to assist a person in breathing. Gill said more lifeguarding agencies that serve beaches were adopting what is called a non-rebreather, which connects to an oxygen tank and allows for air to enter an injured person's lungs.

"Most agencies that are you US-certified at least have that equipment on board already," Gill said, adding that some may have ordered additional equipment in order to deal with changes instituted due to COVID-19.

Gill stressed that regular dangers associated with beaches still exist, including rip currents, swimming alone, and diving into shallow water.

"People can't let down their guard because they're super focused on the pandemic and not focused on the other dangers that still exist, whether we're in a pandemic or not," he said.