Waterfront Lifeguarding and Lake Facility Management with Bridget Tierney

In this episode, host David Kotz interviews Bridget Tierney, the aquatics director at the beautiful Deer Lake Club in Boonton, New Jersey. Join us as we dive into the unique challenges and rewarding experiences of lifeguarding in a lake environment.

Episode Highlights:

• Introduction to Deer Lake Club: Learn about the stunning aquatic facility managed by Bridget, including its two acres of water, sailboats, rowboats, and more.
• Lifeguarding Differences: Discover the key differences between lifeguarding at a lake versus a traditional pool, including the use of jet skis, motorboats, and rescue boards.
• Wildlife Encounters: Hear about the various animals that share the lake with swimmers, from fish and turtles to the occasional water snake and even bears!
• Lifeguard Training: Understand the additional training requirements for lifeguards at a waterfront, including deep water line searches and the use of masks and fins.
• Emergency Action Plans: Bridget explains the comprehensive emergency action plans in place for missing persons and other potential incidents.
• Water Quality and Temperature: Learn about the challenges of maintaining water quality and dealing with varying water temperatures in a natural lake setting.

Bridget also shares her experiences as a lifeguard instructor and manager, providing valuable insights into the skills and knowledge required to keep a facility like Deer Lake Club safe and enjoyable for everyone.

Don't miss this informative and engaging episode! If you enjoyed the podcast, please like, comment, and subscribe for more life-saving stories and tips.

Listen to the full episode now!

Contact David Kotz

• Email: info@nstc.net
• Phone: 908-502-0600

About The Lifesaving Chronicles:
Hey there, lifesaving educators! I'm David Kotz, your host and the founder of the National Safety Training Center. Join me as we embark on a bi-monthly journey, each session packed with approximately 30 minutes of rich content tailored for American Red Cross and American Heart Association educators like you—CPR/First Aid instructors, Lifeguard instructors, EMT instructors, and any current or aspiring lifesaving educating entrepreneurs who are passionate about saving lives. We'll dissect curr

Podcast Disclaimer: By accessing this Podcast, I acknowledge that the National Safety Training Center (NSTC) makes no warranty, guarantee, or representation as to the accuracy or sufficiency of the information featured in this Podcast. The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this Podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk. This Podcast should not be considered professional advice. The content isn't a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Unless specifically stated otherwise, the NSTC does not endorse, approve, recommend, or certify any information, product, process, service, or organization presented or mentioned in this Podcast, and information from this Podcast should not be referenced in any way to imply such approval or endorsement. The 3rd party materials or content of any 3rd party site referenced in this Podcast don't necessarily reflect the opinions, standards or policies of the NSTC. The NSTC assumes no responsibility or liability for the accuracy or completeness of the content contained in 3rd party materials or on 3rd party sites referenced in this Podcast or the compliance with applicable laws of such materials and/or links referenced herein. NSTC makes no warranty that this Podcast, or the server that makes it available, is free of viruses or other elements or codes that manifest destructive properties. 

Transcript

0:03

Thank you.

Dave Kotz 0:05

Okay, welcome to The LifeSaving Chronicles. I'm David Kotz, your host. I'm here with Bridget. Bridget is the manager of this beautiful aquatic facility. Bridget, tell us all about yourself and your facility here.

Bridget Tierney 0:17

Hello, my name is Bridget and I'm the aquatics director here at the lovely Deer Lake Club. And we have this lovely, beautiful property to manage.

Dave Kotz 0:26

How many square meters is it? Yards?

Bridget Tierney 0:31

We're probably looking at about two acres of water almost.

Dave Kotz 0:39

Two acres?

Bridget Tierney 0:39

If we take a little bit.

Dave Kotz 0:41

But clearly in addition to the swimming area, which we just saw, over to our right we have some sailboats. They look very pretty. We've got rowboats, so forth and so on. So what's different, Bridget, about lifeguarding at a lake environment or a beach environment than your traditional pool environment?

Bridget Tierney 1:00

There's a lot of differences; a few similarities. One of the biggest differences is we do have to watch the boating area as well as your regular waterfront swimming. So we do have some jet skis and a motorboat to help us get to people that are far in the back as quickly as possible. If you see, there's a skid on the back so we can have people go on the skid, get a nice up close view to be able to perform rescues.

Dave Kotz 1:31

So the operator of the jet ski obviously sits here. Sometimes you have a second rescuer sitting on the back right around here and then we can put the victim, pardon me, right across- it's the drowning person. New technology, new terminology, drowning person. They go on that skid, which helps get them out of the water.

Bridget Tierney 1:50

Yes.

Dave Kotz 1:51

Very cool. All right. So some different equipment. What else is different?

Bridget Tierney 1:56

You can't see the bottom. It's really not visible.

Dave Kotz 2:01

That's about eight inches of water, maybe 10. And we're just seeing the bottom there. So it's dark. It's a little mucky there.

Bridget Tierney 2:07

Dark and mucky up. And as soon as you start moving around down there, you start kicking it all up, which makes visibility even more difficult.

Dave Kotz 2:16

Okay. So that's definitely a challenge for lifeguards. What about animals?

Bridget Tierney 2:22

Oh, yes. What animals would you like to know about? We have fish here and turtles.

Dave Kotz 2:28

There are fish?

Bridget Tierney 2:29

There are fish.

Dave Kotz 2:30

In the lake?

Bridget Tierney 2:31

Yes, in the lake, yes.

Dave Kotz 2:32

Swimming with the people?

Bridget Tierney 2:33

Swimming with the people, yes.

Dave Kotz 2:35

Is that a problem at all or do they seem to co exist?

Bridget Tierney 2:38

No, they co exist. Okay. They're pretty much scared of the, giant child splashing.

Dave Kotz 2:43

So the fish aren't a problem. How about other animals in the water?

Bridget Tierney 2:49

For the most part, most of them tend to stay away. You get your occasional water snake that decides to relocate to a sunnier spot, but we usually splash them away and they tend to disappear quite quickly.

Dave Kotz 3:00

Yeah, I'm not sure I'm fond of the water snake thing.

Bridget Tierney 3:03

No. It's an acquired taste.

Dave Kotz 3:05

Okay, so we got some snakes. Turtles.

Bridget Tierney 3:08

Turtles. We have turtles. Yep. Okay. They make their occasional appearance here and there, but they tend to keep to themselves.

Dave Kotz 3:16

Okay, so Fish, turtles, snakes. Anything else?

Bridget Tierney 3:24

Are we talking inside or outside of the water?

Dave Kotz 3:26

Oh yeah, go for it. What do you got?

Bridget Tierney 3:28

Oh, we've got deer, bear, fox, coyotes.

Dave Kotz 3:31

Did you say bear?

Bridget Tierney 3:34

Yes, we do.

Dave Kotz 3:37

At the Deer Lake Club, I was expecting the deer. That's making sense.

Bridget Tierney 3:40

Yes. No, we do. We have bears.

Dave Kotz 3:41

How do you deal With bears and people interacting. That seems like a challenge.

Bridget Tierney 3:46

It is a challenge. It is. So we, always make sure staff is alerted and we usually try to just have staff handle it, deep, loud voices, make sure they try to stay away from people and that they are making their way towards people. We notify them that some bear is coming.

Dave Kotz 4:00

So have there been any unfortunate incidences or have you guys coexisted fairly?

Bridget Tierney 4:04

We've coexisted fairly well. Some close encounters, but nothing like dangerous.

Dave Kotz 4:11

Cool. So at a facility like this, how many lifeguards do you have on duty at one time?

Bridget Tierney 4:17

So typically when we're at our peak hours, we usually have about eight lifeguards working.

Dave Kotz 4:23

All right. So obviously we see a couple of lifeguards stands on the beach. We have two stands on the beach that we see that, obviously, someone would sit in. I see two stands on the dock, one on the shore side dock, one on the far side dock. What else- where else do you position your lifeguards?

Bridget Tierney 4:39

So we usually position a lifeguard near the slide. And then we have another lifeguard that sort of roves around in the deep end to cover deep water tests or just to make sure they can cover any areas where it's a little more populated. We also have a lifeguard covering the boats, They also monitor to make sure that everyone in the boating area is also safe.

Dave Kotz 4:58

Excellent. Now, your lifeguards have a slightly different training requirement than pool lifeguards. Can you tell me a little bit about the additional training that's required?

Bridget Tierney 5:08

So they are required to be able to swim a little bit longer because it is open water, so they do have to swim a longer distance. They are also required to be able to use a mask and fins. And with mask and fins, it comes with several skills that they need to be able to do. One of them being a deep water line search for if- God forbid there was a missing person and they would all sort of line up, dive to the bottom, do three sweeps, and come back up, and then they would continue until either the person is found, hopefully on land, or dead in the water.

Dave Kotz 5:38

So there's two different search techniques that you're just talking about, right? So one's a line search where we're all walking.

Bridget Tierney 5:43

Yes.

Dave Kotz 5:44

And the other is the mask and fin kind of search where we're diving down to the bottom and checking out the bottom. I'm trying to think if there's anything else that's like really unique about this particular facility.

Bridget Tierney 5:55

We use a rescue board which similar to a surfboard style but when we are doing any of our- twice a year we do a long distance swim and a middle distance swim out in the middle of the lake and we use the rescue board to go out there because it's a little faster. It's a little easier to maneuver and in open water, it's exactly like using a rescue tube, but instead of you having to swim the person back, you can paddle yourself back on a board.

Dave Kotz 6:23

And so for distressed swimmers, how many people can you support on one rescue board?

Bridget Tierney 6:28

You can support at least two to three people on a rescue board, depending on sizes.

Dave Kotz 6:33

Okay. Very cool. So not only can you make rescues faster, but you can rescue more people with a rescue board. Very cool stuff. We've got one at Round Valley Reservoir. It was pretty cool. Were you there for Round Valley? So there's a great one at Round Valley. We'll check that out. All right. We're back here with Bridget at the Deer Lake Club in Boonton, New Jersey. It is a gorgeous day. Friday before Memorial Day. I've noticed that they've made some serious effort to making sure everything looks good. I saw Bridget's mother planting flowers, making sure this place is looking just beautiful. Gorgeous.

Bridget Tierney 7:09

Yes.

Dave Kotz 7:11

I know we're out here on the dock now and you can see we've got a backboard here. We're ready to go. So the equipment's here. What about in service training? Is that different here at the lake than it is at the pool?

Bridget Tierney 7:23

It is different here. So we do training at least once a week for the entire summer and we make sure that they do conditioning so that they are physically fit and ready to do the job for the week and they swim at least 22 laps once a week along with practicing other skills so that they stay sharp on their skills. Plus with these high edges here, it's really important to practice being able to get somebody in and out of the water safely.

Dave Kotz 7:48

That's at least 18 inches.

Bridget Tierney 7:50

It is.

Dave Kotz 7:50

So it's not, it's like some of the pools that we work at, it's flush.

Bridget Tierney 7:55

Right. Slide them right on and here you have to do a little more heavy lifting to get them up sometimes.

Dave Kotz 8:00

Gotcha.

Bridget Tierney 8:00

Yeah.

Dave Kotz 8:01

So your emergency action plan or EAP is a little more involved here than it is at the pool.

Bridget Tierney 8:06

It is. So we practice finding which would be the quickest exit point based on where they are. So sometimes we do a little stop motion rescues where we do a rescue, I have them pause and say which exit point would be closer so that they can learn where they are. They can make faster decisions.

Dave Kotz 8:24

That sounds very smart. That's nice. So the other thing we were talking about as we were preparing is there's an additional requirement imposed by the state of New Jersey, an age requirement in order to work at a waterfront. So pool lifeguards can be as young as 15. What about here at the waterfront?

Bridget Tierney 8:41

Here at the waterfront you have to be 16 years old.

Dave Kotz 8:44

To be a lifeguard?

Bridget Tierney 8:45

To be a lifeguard and work.

Dave Kotz 8:47

So could they work maybe in the boat area or...

Speaker 2 8:51

Definitely work in just the boating area at 15. Obviously with an extra lifeguard who is 16 to help supervise it. But we definitely have jobs for them so that they can also still practice and keep their skills nice and sharp. So that when they are 16, especially those summer birthdays that we have, they can just jump right in the stand and already know how everything works.

Dave Kotz 9:12

Very cool. Let's talk quickly about the zones here you have because I see we have a stand here right, right here on the deck.

Bridget Tierney 9:19

So this is our deep one zone and it goes from out to that dock that's out there almost about halfway to where the shallow water meets and they cross over with the shallow end a little bit and then the deep two chair covers all of those lap lanes. And then up to the very corner of that floating dock that's out there.

Dave Kotz 9:40

So the deep two chair is what you're calling this one out here?

Bridget Tierney 9:43

For this one out there, yes.

Dave Kotz 9:44

Okay, cool. So that takes care of the swimming area over here. Do you guys have a swim team? Is this like a competitive swim type of thing?

Bridget Tierney 9:51

It is not. It is really more for our swim lessons that we offer here because we do want everyone to know how to swim. We do offer some lessons which they get to practice in the lanes and everything. And then we also use it for our deep water test.

Dave Kotz 10:06

Excellent. Okay. Do you allow swimming beyond the...

Bridget Tierney 10:09

That's when we do a twice a year swim where we go swim to the middle of the lake and all the way out to the furthest end of the lake because we make sure we have extra lifeguards and we have at least five to six lifeguards out there plus we have our eight still manning the regular beachfront.

Dave Kotz 10:25

Outstanding. That sounds pretty cool. What else is different about a waterfront environment?

Bridget Tierney 10:33

It's a little harder when, especially in the deep end, when kids jump in, you have to be a little more diligent, making sure that they pop back up and determine, did they swim a little bit under the water? How far did they swim? Because you can't see it like a typical pool where you can say, Oh, I see them. You have to keep an extra eye out. So you definitely have to have a good scan when watching the water.

Dave Kotz 10:57

So what about, what's underneath the docks? We're on these docks, they feel very stable right now.

Bridget Tierney 11:02

Yes.

Dave Kotz 11:03

Is it possible kids could swim underneath?

Bridget Tierney 11:05

Yes, it is possible for them to swim underneath. It is definitely a rule that they're not allowed to swim underneath. So we do try to make sure that we are very...

Dave Kotz 11:13

Look! It's one of the rules. It's right there.

Bridget Tierney 11:14

There's one of the rules. Yes. So we definitely have more rules probably than a pool does just for safety reasons because you can't see the bottom, so it definitely makes it harder and swimming under the dock, it's just like holding your breath extra long in a pool. It's just not a safe place.

Dave Kotz 11:31

Now we know that there have been some cases where bad things have happened. If you surface suddenly underneath the dock and hit your head, that could have unfortunate results as well.

Bridget Tierney 11:41

Yes, it can.

Dave Kotz 11:41

Bridget, I want to talk to you about something very specific that happens here at your facility. It's a little different than a pool. When you have a missing child or even just a person, obviously at a pool, we can look down in the pool and go, okay, there's no one there. We feel better about this. Not so much the case here.

Bridget Tierney 12:01

No.

Dave Kotz 12:02

So tell us about your particular emergency action plan when you have a missing child.

Bridget Tierney 12:06

So our typical emergency action plan for this would be two air horn blasts. And if for whatever reason the air horn isn't working or you're not near one, it's three long whistle blasts. And we clear everybody out of the water. So we empty the entire lake and then based on the information we receive from whoever's reporting person missing and their age and when they were last seen is sort of where we start our search. So if we find out that they were a smaller child, we start in the shallow end with a line search and we sweep with our feet and then we move into the deeper water and move that way. But we also have to call volunteers and we do have other staff members who are trained in the shallow water search, but not the deep water search, but we have them break off into the wooded areas where we have a playground that's right behind me. We have a snack shack. We have picnic areas, parking lots. So we have to send people to land areas as well as water areas. So it's a little more complicated in that we have to send both water and land searches at the same time.

Dave Kotz 13:11

We looked at places, not just the water, but where would a child really want to go if they were going to disappear?

Bridget Tierney 13:18

Typically the snack bar.

Dave Kotz 13:19

Yeah, me too.

Bridget Tierney 13:20

Occasionally you find them at the park or the fishing docks because some kid caught this big fish. You never- lucky for us, we haven't had water searches. If we have, they've usually been getting out of the water and they stand next to their parent and we're like, that's good. Those are the ones we like the most. But typically they're not in the water, but you still have to check it.

Dave Kotz 13:44

Is that the scariest scenario that, that you, you kind of, when you think about what could possibly go wrong? That's what keeps you up at night.

Bridget Tierney 13:52

Yeah, it definitely is. It's definitely the one that you, you know, remind the lifeguards that they have to make sure they're vigilant on the stand and they're always watching and, you know, they're always checking their zones and, you know, keeping an eye on that kid who's kind of wandering by themselves cause, you know, sometimes we even see the kid wandering and we're like, Hey, where's your mom and dad? And like, you know, cause if they don't know where they are, at least we have the kid and we're not searching. I rather search for parents than search for the child. Indeed.

Dave Kotz 14:19

But so it sounds like you've practiced this plan quite a bit. You know, it's, you're, it's several things going on simultaneously. It just makes it interesting for the lifeguards and the lifeguard managers to do.

Bridget Tierney 14:30

Yeah. So we make sure that we practice it at least every time we do drills, they're practicing it because it is probably one of the most common because we do encourage the parents if they can't find their child to tell us so that we can react to the situation as quickly as possible. But it is also one of the scariest and it's one of the most exhausting things we probably do.

Dave Kotz 14:54

Gotcha. I know one other thing that I just thought of that makes this facility and most lakes and beaches different than a pool is water temperature.

Bridget Tierney 15:06

Yeah.

Dave Kotz 15:07

How warm is your lake right now?

Bridget Tierney 15:09

Oh, it's not. It's not at all. I mean, it's Memorial Day weekend and it's the top of the water is probably okay. But the further down you go, the colder it gets.

Dave Kotz 15:19

Right.

Bridget Tierney 15:20

So you definitely need a couple 80 90 degree days to sort of heat up the water. So there are times where we do warn people that it is too cold to swim and you know, there are some people who like cold water, but we typically warm them if it is too cold.

Dave Kotz 15:35

Now, along with the temperature, so my guess is I don't see any filters and pumps and whatnot, so we're not chlorinating this thing.

Bridget Tierney 15:43

No, no we are not.

Dave Kotz 15:44

You're doing it the way nature intended.

Bridget Tierney 15:47

Yes, yes we are.

Dave Kotz 15:49

Okay, so do you still have to test the water periodically?

Bridget Tierney 15:52

We do. So we get tested once a week to make sure that there's no like high bacterial levels or anything like that and as long as our tests come back good, we're allowed to open and stay open and we're good to go.

Dave Kotz 16:04

Because I'm imagining there's not much you can do to mitigate.

Bridget Tierney 16:07

No, no. Sadly, there's not much. It's sort of just a waiting game.

Dave Kotz 16:12

Okay. Yeah. Very cool. Well, Bridget, I'll spill the beans. I know that you're not just the lifeguard manager here at this facility. Also, Bridget is a lifeguard instructor.

Bridget Tierney 16:25

I am.

Dave Kotz 16:26

And a lifeguard Management person, as well. So she's taken all those Red Cross courses.

Bridget Tierney 16:33

I have. Yes. And it's important to have all of those courses to manage a facility because you need all the tools in your, you know, tool belt to sort of solve all the problems.

Dave Kotz 16:43

Outstanding. Well, Bridget, it's been a pleasure talking to you again today. It is a beautiful day here. I'm almost ready to jump in the water.

Bridget Tierney 16:50

Not quite. There's no lifeguard yet.

Dave Kotz 16:53

Oh, good point. Awesome. Well, I'm sure we'll check in with you again this summer, but. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Bridget Tierney 17:01

It was lovely.

Dave Kotz 17:03

Dave Kotz from The LifeSaving Chronicles. See you soon.

17:11

Okay.