Written by Gary Johnson, Pool Super Vision

If you’re a lifeguard or trainer and haven’t seen this website… go there now. It’s awesome.

Lifeguards Love Youtube is a website that brings a heap of drowning related videos to one convenient location and then catagorises them so you can find them. You can use the videos to show lifeguards real examples of what they’re likely to see or to simply start a conversation about any particular aspect of drowning. It’s free and an unbelievable resource.

Think you’re busy? Think you’re hot? Let me tell you a story about 2 gals named Becky Hulett and Kelly Martinez. They work for the City of Phoenix in Arizona USA and oversee the delivery of aquatic services to 4.3 million people through 29 public swimming facilities and over 500 staff.

The weather in Phoenix is something else. It isn’t called the Valley of the Sun for nothing. They average over 300 days of sunshine each year, with 107 of those over 38 degrees C. Their hottest… an amazing 50 degrees C. Because the city creates its own ‘heat island’ residents don’t experience the cool overnights temperatures typical for desert areas. Imagine a night were the mercury doesn’t dip below 36?

Enough of the bad news. The good news is these girls had an idea; to trawl through YouTube and use videos of drowning to compliment their lifeguard training. Then in 2014 they decided to present at a conference on what they were doing.

Enter our 3rd character of the story; Benjamin Herskowitz. He said “you should make a website”. I don’t think he’d been paying attention… 29 CENTRES & 500 STAFF BEN! Apart from not having time to scratch themselves they’re poolies, they know diddly squat about the interwebby thingy.

As it turns out, Ben’s a Radiological Emergency Planner for two nuclear power plants. I’m not kidding. I wonder if he’s ever sent his business card to Monty Burns. Springfield could do with someone like him. Anyway, he’s also a lifeguard and a firefighter. Pretty neat bio hey? Right at the end it reads; ‘all round good guy and interwebby guru’. So he teamed up with Becky & Kelly and hey presto, Lifeguards Love YouTube was born.

That all happened back in 2014. Fast forward to now and along comes Mark Foote. Now Mark has 9 centres and 300 of his own staff to look after so I don’t know how he found time to get involved but fortunately for us, he did. Turns out he’s an interwebby guru too and as of now the website has undergone a major rebuild complete with a new logo. It looks very professional and now includes articles and presentations along with the videos.

Like I said the website is free and a great resource. It also continues to grow. If you find a good YouTube clip that isn’t on the website there’s contact details for the crew on their ‘about’ tab. Send them a link and they add it to the collection.

If you’re in Australia or New Zealand remember that there are some minor differences between how the US do things and how we are currently required to do things. Having said that you’ll find plenty of neat ideas to incorporated into your training and education regimes.

Becky, Kelly, Ben & Mark; the aquatic industry salute you! An amazing idea, brought to life by like minded and generous people who are passionate about drowning prevention. People with one thing in common; they were all lifeguards. A job that attracts good people and the best turn it into a career.

Enjoy. You can access Lifeguards Love YouTube here.