The Pauls Valley Waterpark is looking for a few good lifeguards. Quite a few, actually.
With summer right around the corner, Pauls Valley Aquatics Director Robert Rennie says he is struggling to find qualified lifeguards to staff the Pauls Valley Waterpark and the Bosa Aquatic Center, the city’s indoor pool facility.
And the problem isn’t just a local one. Lifeguards across the nation have been in short supply for several years now.
Rennie, who has been managing aquatics centers professionally for 15 years or so, said he has dealt with lifeguard shortages his entire career, but he said it does seem to be getting worse.
Based on his experience and what he’s hearing from other aquatics professionals across the state, and across the nation, he said it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact cause, but he does feel the pandemic plays some role in the shortage.
“With COVID a lot of people left the workforce and didn’t come back in, for a variety of reasons. This line of work is not immune to that. Is it for the same reasons? That’s almost impossible to say, because we’re dealing primarily with kids who are in high school or college,” Rennie said.
As food service, retail and other industries have also struggled to find employees post-pandemic, they have raised wages. Those wage-hikes have made other jobs more competitive with lifeguarding, which before the pandemic was typically more lucrative for young employees, due in part to the additional skill and training necessary.
“That’s just kind of my feel for what it is,” Rennie said. “I’m hopeful that we’ll get it turned around and start to get kids back in.”
One of the challenges is the number of lifeguards needed to staff a more complicated aquatic area like the water park.
Staffing requirements for the water park vary based on capacity, or how busy the park is, with more help needed on weekends than through the week. Typically, it takes 14 to 18 lifeguards per day to cover all shifts. In order to be able to accomplish that for a summer season, Rennie said he needs 50 to 60 lifeguards on staff.
“You know we have aquatic facilities here that are disproportionate to a municipality our size, with both the water park and the Bosa. You can go to Lawton, Ada, any of these communities that are much larger than us, and they don’t have these kinds of facilities at all. We have very nice facilities for a municipality our size,” Rennie said. “That does create issues for staffing, there’s no doubt about it. Thankfully we’ve been successful up to this point, and hopefully that will continue.”
With a limited number of summer jobs available to the high school and college age workforce in rural areas, Rennie said he thinks one advantage for the water park as an employer is the ability to employ a large number of people.
“We pull kids not just from Garvin County. We pull kids from all over the county and the surrounding counties,” Rennie said.
And many of those who have been employed at the water park come back year after year. Rennie said he’s had several groups of kids over the last few years that have stayed or come back for employment for 3 to 4 years or more, with some even coming back from college during the summer months to work at the water park.
“That tells me that they’re enjoying the job and they like what they do. If you can swim and you have a good attitude and you like to work and can pass the class, you’re pretty much guaranteed a job at the water park,” Rennie said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of skill that goes into it, too. You have to be a good swimmer in order to do this.”
Which is the other problem: finding candidates with the necessary skill set.
The City of Pauls Valley provides classes to train lifeguards and ensure they have the necessary Red Cross certifications, before they begin employment. Potential candidates must pass a pretest before enrolling in classes.
The city conducted a class over spring break and Rennie said only two of the four candidates who showed up for the pretest were able to complete it.
“When I first started here eight years ago, it seemed like it was pretty rare that someone would fail the pretest, and now I’m getting more and more that will fail the pretest. So, I think that’s part of the issue too, is not having those necessary swimming skills,” Rennie said.
While the number of children enrolled in Pauls Valley’s regular swim lessons has actually increased in recent years, Rennie said many of those students aren’t continuing lessons once they’ve mastered basic skills.
“A lot of parents will take them to swim lessons and if they’re capable of swimming across the pool and not drowning, that’s the end of it,” Rennie said. “You’re going to have to advance skills beyond that in order to be able to hone those lifeguarding skills and pass the pretest.”
The pretest requirements include swimming 300 yards using a front crawl, breaststroke or combination of the two; treading water for two minutes with no hands; and completing the brick retrieval skill, which consists of swimming 20 yards, retrieving a brick from 8-foot-deep water and then swimming on your back, holding the brick on your chest, back to the starting point in under one minute, 40 seconds.
“The pretest is pretty rigorous. I’ve had plenty of people who are good swimmers who told me they didn’t think they could do parts of it,” Rennie said.
The Pauls Valley Waterpark will have two lifeguard classes in May to train and certify lifeguards for summer employment at the water park. The first will be May 16-18 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the second will be May 23-25 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Cost for the class is $75, which covers the cost of pocket mask, fanny pack, whistle and certification card. Classes are limited to 10 people, and candidates must be 16 years old before August 1.
Candidates must also pass the pretest to be eligible for class. Pretests can be taken at the Bosa Aquatic Center at noon on April 9, April 16, or April 30, or at 4 p.m. on May 4 or May 19. For more information on testing or classes, visit the ‘Pauls Valley Waterpark’ page on Facebook or call the Bosa Aquatic Center at 405-238-1238.
