Up Your Aquatic Scanning Game

Keeping swimmers and property safe during aquatic season is an ongoing challenge, especially as pool season draws to a close. While patrons are looking to eke out the last minutes of sun and fun, lifeguards often start heading back to school in mid-August. “Dwindling staff can mean closing or modifying access to some of your aquatic features,” says Mary Pedersen, PDRMA Risk Management Consultant, “but maintaining proper zone coverage is still important — perhaps even more important — when staff numbers decrease.”

Opening and closing weeks of aquatic season are always the most dangerous. Be sure to review PDRMA’s LRN Alert 11-16 — Finishing the Summer Aquatic Season Safely for best practices to manage these end-of-season risks. If you need to close select areas of your aquatic facility, look to LRN #352 — Late Season Aquatic Operations and Zone Closings for recommended best practices.

Whether you’re working with full or reduced staff, proper coverage and scanning of zones is essential. Gina Radun, Aquatic and Recreation Manager, West Chicago Park District, (and a former lifeguard herself) developed a simple and smart monitoring system called ScanWatch. “We have 65 lifeguards with 10 to 15 on chair at any one time,” she says.“We ask our supervisors and lifeguards to take 30 seconds to a minute during their break to watch a lifeguard on chair and assess them against a short checklist, the ScanWatch: How’s their posture, do they have effective scan times — things like that. They can also note what the lifeguard on the chair does well and if anything needs to improve.” 

Radun says the lifeguards do two Scan Watches each day. The reviews are anonymous, and no lifeguard on chair knows whether she’s being monitored. “It’s a way for our lifeguards to realize they are being observed and ensure they’re fulfilling their responsibilities, acting professionally and within our safety guidelines,” she explains. “It also reminds those completing the ScanWatch that their peers will look at them in the same way when it’s their turn on chair, so they know what’s expected.”