COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah — From jumping in with their tubes to practicing compressions, local teens at Cottonwood Heights Recreation Center are hard at work this week as they train for their lifeguarding certification.
The class takes all week, each day starting at 8 a.m. and finishing around 2 p.m. On Friday, the lifeguard students will test their knowledge and potentially land a job at the pool for the summer.
They are tested for all of their skills. Even before the students enter the class, they must be able to swim 200 yards, tread for two minutes, and dive for a brick.
Students must also be 15 years old by the last day of the class.
“It’s a lot of teamwork, and it’s just a lot of good base knowledge to know, like any emergency situation, you know you can take action,” Halle Debris, one of the current lifeguards, said.
She said it’s one of the best first summer jobs a teen could have, especially because of the social component.
“It’s a really good job to make friends,” she said. “I’ve met a lot of my really good friends here.”
One of the students in the guard class is Abbie Durrant. She said they’ve learned everything from the way to pull a person out of the water to CPR and first aid.
“They teach us really good so I’m not nervous if I have to jump in and save somebody over the summer,” said Durant.
The class in Cottonwood Heights ends this week, but there’s another one starting on Saturday, April 18.
The center will train swim instructors to teach swim lessons starting on April 13. More information about the classes in Cottonwood Heights can be found here.
Many cities and counties have their own training programs, which can be found on their own specific websites.
