By ANTHONY BOTTAN
Recent pool and beach drownings on Long Island have led Joe Tagliaferro, a former Valley Stream resident and the head lifeguard at the Hendrickson Park pool, to enforce stricter and more rigorous training sessions for all of the village pool's new lifeguards.
"When [new lifeguards] come in, the first thing they need to do is maintain professionalism," Tagliaferro said. "They need to stay alert and show authority. If it's a crowded day and they're not blowing their whistles for three or four rotations, they're not doing their job."
Tagliaferro, 37, a business teacher at Valley Stream North High School, has been the head lifeguard at Hendrickson pool for 14 years. He is a certified Red Cross instructor, and teaches the lifeguard training course to all newcomers. He said he has looked up to lifeguards ever since he first starting swimming at the pool at age 4.
This summer Tagliaferro is training about a half-dozen new lifeguards who passed a test that entailed swimming 20 laps of the 25-yard pool using different strokes, and diving into 11-foot-deep water to retrieve brick from the bottom. The lifeguard trainees moved on to a 10 days of training that included rescue drills, CPR and first aid and instruction in "backboarding" - securing a victim with head, back or neck injuries. At the end of their training, the lifeguards take a certification test, and those who pass are certified to work for three years.
Even Tagliaferro has to be recertified every three years. He said he recently completed the recertification class, in which he swam two-lap sprints and eight laps for endurance, and was given a refresher course on rescue skills.
Tagliaferro said that the most difficult thing for new lifeguards to understand is that they are in charge. Most of them are between 16 and 20, and they are sometimes hesitant to exercise their authority. "They're young and in a position with a lot of respect," he said. "If you have someone who is a lifeguard at 16 and a 20-year-old is messing around in the pool, they need to take charge."
His team of lifeguards makes rescues daily - often of small children who jump off the diving board in the deep end even though they don't know how to swim. So far this summer, Tagliaferro said, the rescues have been fairly routine, which is a good thing. "We've been pretty lucky this year," he said.
Tagliaferro recalled the adrenaline rush of his first save. A lifeguard who sees a swimmer in trouble blows a long whistle to alert other lifeguards, and often, he said, everyone at the pool is looking at you. "It's definitely a rush," he said.
Lifeguard trainee Jack Wagner, 16, said he wanted to become a lifeguard because it was good money for a summer job. Wagner said he has always liked swimming and water sports, so a lot of the training came easily to him. "The hardest part is remembering all the CPR stuff and the order it goes in," he said. Wagner has completed the 10-day training course and is awaiting his certification test.
Mike Wong, 17, who is in his second year as a lifeguard, credits Tagliaferro for making the rigorous training fun. Wong recently passed the Red Cross Water Safety Instructor course and plans to become a beach lifeguard once he gets laser eye surgery. (Many Long Island parks and municipalities require lifeguards to have near-perfect vision without glasses or contact lenses.)
The hardest part for Wong was not the actual training, but teaching, he said. "You have to learn to teach little kids, and some of them have disabilities or autism, and sometimes that makes it a little harder," he said.
Jessica Young, 16, swam on the Valley Stream swim team, so being a lifeguard was always something she wanted to do. "It just came naturally to me," she said.
This is Young's first full year as a lifeguard, and she has yet to make a rescue, which she admits will be a little scary. "I haven't had a save yet, and I'm a little nervous," she said. "But I think I'm ready for it."
Tagliaferro said that in addition to being good summer work, lifeguarding reveals a lot about someone's character. "It's a great job, and businesses love the experience," he said. "It shows professionalism, leadership and that you can deal with the public."
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