Lifeguarding Course in Airlie Beach

After traveling to Fraser Island I went to the Whitsundays where I observed an hour-long lifeguarding class. The class took place at a massive lagoon in Airlie Beach on a Saturday morning. After watching the instructors remind the children how to properly enter the water and analyzing each child as he or she got in, I had the opportunity to speak with one of the girl’s mothers. She explained to me that children can begin the course as early as seven years old, and they sometimes let children begin earlier as long as they are able to pass a swimming test that measures a variety of skills. Because the sport originally seemed very similar to the nippers to me, I asked the mother if it was in fact the same but she explained that the children in this class were strictly training to be lifeguards and were not competing against one another. I also noticed that the instructors were paid and certified lifeguards instead of parent volunteers, which revealed another difference between the two sports. While the twelve-week class did cost money, she explained to me that signing your children up for a lifeguarding class costs much less than enrolling your children in athletic courses in Australian’s equivalent to the American YMCA. I found this incredibly interesting because in America lifeguarding is not nearly as popular and is therefore quite an expensive sport to pursue. Because Australia is surrounded by beaches, the mother I spoke with explained to me that the majority of Australian children are involved in either the nippers or a lifeguarding course mainly because it is essential for children to learn how to swim safely in the water. In America, on the other hand, the people who become lifeguards are usually those who swam competitively beginning at a young age but the majority of children instead take swim lessons only if their parents want them to learn how to swim. From my own experience teaching and working at camps in the summer, I have noticed that a lot of young children in America are extremely afraid of the water and cry hysterically when I encourage them to go in deeper than their knees. Just like the nippers, however, the Australian kids seemed to really enjoy the lifeguarding class and were happy to jump right into the water at anytime, thereby further revealing the differences in Australian and American sports culture.