Saving Lives oh Lifeguarding

Someone nearly drowned at the pool!

I was the lifeguard on duty last Thursday.

I actually had aimed this one girl for quite some time. She was swimming laps and laps yet her stroke was incorrect. Her breaststroke leg movement was wrong as she pulled her legs too near to her abs. I was just wondering “Uissh…. Ni mau sakit pinggang ni..” but I didn't expect her to really stop!

I was actually text messaging a friend saying today I could relax a bit since there were many lifeguards around. Push the button 'send' and then exactly at that exact moment the girl stopped swimming!

She stopped and then turned to face me. Yes. Exactly right in front of me. Lane 2. Both hands were already waving. Then one hand up. One hand down. One hand up one hand down.

I only looked down at her from the lifeguard high chair. Then I saw her panic face.

Turun tangga, turun tangga. Oh, there’s a kicking board. (I took Hazri’s advice on always bringing a kicking board with you anywhere while on duty.)

There were two white lifebuoys. Right. And left. Right, too far. Go fetch left one.

Threw it to her. She managed to catch it!

Serious OMG relief gila sangat-sangat she can tangkap!!!

Tapi, the lifebuoy was only made of styrofoam. It was too light! And for someone who’s panic, she couldn’t really hold on to it. She held it with one hand while the other was splashing the water. And she said ‘Kaki! Kaki!’

Oh okay so I kena terjun jugak no matter how much I don’t want to plus it is so near you can just push your way through until the edge.

Tapi... Oh oh! Handphone di dalam kocek seluarku~ Know what I did? I actually paused a while to take out the phone and slide it on the floor to a drier surface. Pandai kan? And I think I did it with style… Macam you know, slide it and the phone glides on the floor macam oh-so-James Bond like.

OMG gila perasan. Oh ya, sebelum terjun harus fikirkan tentang rambut juga ya. Stride jump jugak aku tengah panic-panik itu… Stride jump to the victim, not a single strand of hair wet, and pulled her to the side of the pool.

stride jump

Kaki cramp, she managed to say. So well, up up you go. Then Odah came out of nowhere, I didn’t notice. Okay so her leg, at the gastrocnemius ada cramp sikit. So yeah, tekan tekan tekan. The she smiled. A BIG smile. Seriously I was actually a bit scared of that smile. I thought she was going crazy.

“Sorry dah menyusahkan!!!” she said.

Oh. Oh okay… "Tak apa, dah kerja saya..." Ceh. I wish I could say that. Instead I only smiled and said “Tak apa tak apa” because I was really really nervous! My heart was pounding pounding pounding like crazy! I was so scared you know! Seriously OMG I tell you I am going to stick with my usual duty attire.

Sluar pentot (seluar pendek/ short pants) and t-shirt. Honestly, ever since donning the hijab I had a bit of a conflict on what to wear while on duty because you see, though it’s a ladies’ session, the male lifeguards would still be in the lifeguard room. Yes they don’t peek on the girls, but us lifeguard in cases of emergencies, of course would have to sometimes go in and out of the room.

So if I happen to be on duty with shorts, and suddenly a visitor needed me to deal with the male lifeguard in the room, I couldn’t simply say "Wait, let me get properly dressed first, then I’ll go." Betul tak? So that’s the conflict. But seriously, after today. I am just going to stick with the sluar pentot. In fact, I’m even considering wearing swimming suit while on duty. Hah! Oh yeah. So my t-shirt got wet. And so are my pants. SOoyeah. I did walked back to college in a wet shirt. Dah kata lifeguard.

Oh pengalaman...