Easter Weekend and WW Academy

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Well, if anyone was in doubt the beach season is definitely here! Good Friday! The water hit the mid 70’s this week and it’s suddenly full of fish. If you’re planning to go out in the Easter Weekend madness, please swim near a lifeguarded tower and stay far away from those rock jetties and piers. We’ve had really rough surf and strong rip currents so there are deep troughs and strong rips near the rocks and the sand everywhere underwater is uneven. Stay close to shore, assign a water watcher, don’t drink and swim, and swim alone. If you have non-swimmers or small children in your party make sure they’re in a life jacket. If you swim on the west end, especially the San Luis Pass, remember we won’t have a lifeguard presence out there until summertime.

Last year around this time, a group of people stood near the end of the rock groin at 37th street. They took turns removing the ring buoy and attached throw bag from the rescue box and throwing it to an imaginary victim in the water. The ring should be tossed over the head of the victim and gently pulled back to where the person’s head is. If you miss, you don’t take the time to stuff the rope back in the bag but coil it on one hand while stepping on the “bag end” of the rope. Your coils should go from the body out, so when you throw, they don’t cross over the other ropes and tangle. As in much rescue work, the simplest thing gets complicated if not done the same way each time. It’s all about eliminating variables, so when things inevitably go wrong, you have less on your plate.

We are kicking off our first virtual Wave Watcher Academy on the 17th. There’s an option for both virtual classes and in person. The virtual parts will be available Monday the 10th and people can mix and match online material starting then with in-person classes the week of the 17-22nd. They can certify in CPR and will became official “Tourist Ambassadors”. We cover beach topography and near shore bathymetry, rip and longshore currents, protocols for lost children, beach rules and ordinances, drowning events, dangerous marine life and treatments, and Galveston areas that are hazardous to swimmers. On the final day they’ll tour the beach, will be issued uniform shirts and hats, receive an official ID card, and we’ll finish up with a celebratory lunch together.

The Wave Watcher stats are entered into our database so we can keep track of preventative or enforcement actions. By tracking the stats for the lifeguards, beach park security program, Wave Watchers, and Park Staff we get a good indicator of the amount of work being done to protect our locals and tourists on the beach.

The Wave Watcher program has become an integral part of our family. Information is on our website, so let us know if you want to jump into the class.

 

Be safe out there!

 

Spring Break Wrap Up

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Spring Break started with a bang and ended with a whimper. That first weekend was scary from our perspective! Massive crowds, lots of current and waves, warm air and water, and sparse lifeguard coverage kept us moving fast, as we raced from hot spot to hot spot to keep people away from the rip currents near the jetties.

Early Saturday morning I called the police and fire departments for some help and they ran patrols both days on the seawall to help us spot trouble developing. Its good to have friends. Because of their efforts, some really hard work by the Beach Patrol staff, and a bit of luck we got through the first weekend. Then it got cold and most of the tourists that were all over the beach went to the other island attractions and stayed there for the rest of the week through last weekend.

Even with the cold weather, our stats over Spring Break were impressive, especially when considering most of the numbers happened over a three day period. I usually give a general overview when giving stats, but its interesting to see the specifics:

We moved 9,605 people from danger- mostly away from the rocks. We enforced park rules or city ordinances 84 times (11 of these were vehicles driving illegally on the beach), and Park Security did this 187 times (they only worked the first weekend). We responded to 18 medical calls, 7 of them were serious enough to be transported to the hospital. We responded to one possible drowning and made 4 rescues. We logged giving tourist information 137 times (this stat is notoriously lower than the reality of how many tourists we have direct contact with). We reunited a couple of lost kids with their parents and gave 1,344 water safety talks.

Those numbers are a good reflection of how much work we do. But when compared to the summertime numbers we accumulate when all 34 lifeguard towers are staffed and our trucks cover the entire beachfront, they’re pretty small. Just to give a general idea, in an average year we routinely move between 300,000 and 500,000 people from dangerous areas, make 3-4,000 enforcements, do around 30,000 water safety talk contacts, etc. The numbers are really staggering and show how much preventative work our lifeguards do. If you think about it, we do most of the preventative actions over a 9-month period, 7 of which we have guards in towers and the other two we’re working out of trucks only. That math comes out to just under 1,500 swimmers moved per day, or 12,500 preventative actions per lifeguard tower per season.

Those numbers are pretty overwhelming when you think what would happen if we weren’t there during the critical times and places to move people away from potentially lethal rip currents. It explains why our recent tryouts and academy that only produced three graduates terrified our staff.

It explains why we are such fanatics about all things that make up the complicated beach safety defense web.

Rips and Rescues

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Lt Austin Kirwin drove down the seawall taking quick looks at the swimmers in the water as he wove his way through traffic. The whole staff was on edge with the unfortunate rip current related drowning fatalities of the twins out of Houston.

Suddenly he saw something off of Murdochs that didn’t look right. Erratic splashing and movement in the water drew his attention to what looked like four heads out past the end of the rock jetties. He called for backup, found a place to park, grabbed two rescue tubes from the back of his patrol truck, and ran as fast as he could down to the sand and into the water. Austin keeps himself in top shape and is an excellent runner and swimmer.

Things got confusing when he hit the water. A bystander also had spotted the swimmers and was on his way out to help as well. The rest was a blur, but within a couple of minutes Austin had thrown a tube to two people that were floating on it. He’d made it to two more farther out and brought them back to the two and had all four reasonably stabilized. Sergeant Andy Moffett made it to him quickly and took two of them off his hands, and Supervisor Micah Fowler was able to spot and rescue the would be good Samaritan. All 5 made it back to shore in good shape. Austin even was able to dry off quickly and make it to a press conference about the tragedy of the twins as the other guards made sure the rescued were OK and collected their information for a report.

So many things had to come together to keep this from being another tragedy. Training, work ethic, funding, and infrastructure, are all pieces to the equation. But equally important are the intangibles, like Austin being able to use his years of experience and that sixth sense that enabled him to translate those little splashes in his peripheral vision into perception of a threat that needed quick response.

It stands to reason that both fatal and non-fatal drownings are also largely the result of rips when talking about the beachfront. But there isn’t one size fits all for rip currents. The current that was likely the cause of the twins’ death was a structural rip. A current caused by a pier that sticks out into the water. These are known as “permanent rips” because they’re always there in varying degrees. The current that almost took the lives that Austin, Andy, and Micah saved was right in the middle of open beach. Some combination of factors related to the form of the shoreline and the submerged shape of the bottom (bathymetry) caused a rip current to run out in that specific area for a finite amount of time. This is a “fixed rip”. These are the two main types of rip currents found along the Texas coast. They’re responsible for 80% of our rescues and likely both fatal and non-fatal drownings.

On The Beach

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I guess with the water hitting the 70’s while still in February, any lingering doubts about the validity of global warming have literally melted away.

With the warm weather came the crowds in all their diverse glory. Any kind of person you can imagine seems to end up on our beaches. Being within striking range of the most diverse city in the US, this is inevitable. With warmer water and increased crowds it’s becoming more and more evident that we’re going to have to find a way to expand tower lifeguard coverage into February, the second half of October, and probably weekends in November.

There is a part of me that enjoys the ever shrinking time of year we have our island sandbar to ourselves. But when the masses arrive I feel a certain elation. I’m proud to be a 7th generation Galvestonian and our history of immigrant groups that came here voluntarily and involuntarily, and all the mixing, swirl, strength, and tolerance that comes with our rich history.

I think that’s why I love our beach, and the whole coastline of Texas, so much. Not only do we welcome everyone, but our state codified this in the Texas Open Beaches act to ensure that our natural resource is accessible for everyone who wants to enjoy it. Our state has the admirable distinction of legally providing the public with the greatest amount of access to the beach of any of the states in the country.  No small feat.

The beach is a special place and people flock here for different reasons. And it’s an absolute privilege for my staff and I to protect, support, and at times rescue the public who comes to our beach.

But with all that access and the diverse masses that visit, comes some pretty complicated situations. The unspeakable tragedy where a Honduran family came to the States to earn enough money to bring their two twin boys to the US so they could pursue the American dream, only to have them die in our waters is a poignant example.

As we activated a massive search involving so many partner groups, we did the best we could to keep the family updated and supported. The Survivor Support Network, comprised almost exclusively of volunteers, did such an incredible job of providing counselors, translators, and clergy. They also worked with LULAC and several local businesses to secure lodging, meeting rooms, and meals.

Meanwhile on the beach, the County Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT) of volunteers,  spent hours and days working tirelessly along with the local Police, Fire, EMS, the Coast Guard, Equisearch, and many others in order to do their part in helping this family somehow find closure to this unspeakable tragedy.

Seeing how many step forward to help this family renews our faith. Seeing the family go through this renews our commitment to do everything in our power to prevent similar incidents from happening.

Drones Revisited

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A few years ago, some footage of what was reported to be the first real water rescue made by a drone at Lennox Head, New South Wales, Australia went viral. To me it looked staged. There were two swimmers just outside the surf line kind of floating around. The footage was from the drone itself as it dropped this package from maybe 100 feet up. Upon impact this big sausage looking thing inflated. Two swimmers swam over to it and floated on it back to shore. At one point it looked like a wave knocked one of them off it, but the guy swam easily back to it and rode it in. The announcer talked about how it was the first rescue by drones.

But drones have been used by lifeguard agencies for quite awhile now for surveillance. There are a couple of beaches that I know of that fly the on a set schedule as shark spotters and others that use them for surveillance of isolated or remote areas without guards. The operators have to be trained as pilots since they’re a governmental agency. Newport Beach, which is pretty cashed up, flies them three times a week for a 20 minute flight. If they see a shark bigger than a certain size they increase the schedule until it moves out of the area.

Mountain rescue drones have also been shown to be pretty effective in spotting lost hikers and dropping survival packages to them. The ocean has been more of a challenge. However, one recent local successful example is the Galveston County Community Emergency Response Team used them for a body search at the San Luis Pass and were able to see a few feet beneath the surface and were able to comb a lot of marshland that we had a hard time getting to by water or by land.

Most of the commonly available and affordable drones currently have a flight time of 20 minutes and can’t run in over 20 mile an hour winds. But some of the fancier ones being used by public safety groups are a bit better in-flight time, can fly in slightly higher winds, and can carry a variety of types of cameras including thermal imaging, infra-red, etc. They’re proving to be useful in some conditions for search and recovery operations.

I think the day is near where, if you have the resources, drones may be able to augment beach lifesaving programs in very real and cost-effective ways. Particularly in remote locations or for search and recovery operations. I’m hoping, once the Beach Patrol gets into a permanent building “forever home” that we will be able to use drones to fly periodic passes of the shoreline. There is some really cool software out there that is on the verge of being able to consistently identify both rip currents and swimmers in distress. And we can program them to alert us if people are in or near the area by the rock jetties where dangerous rip currents are ever-present.

SCENARIOS

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Last Wednesday was rainy and overcast before the front came in. There was some sea fog, but not to the point that it severely limited visibility. Lt. Kirwin and Sgt. Buck slipped down to the water and set a mannequin in the water. Buck donned a wetsuit, booties, and gloves and swam out.

Supervisors Lucero and Knight staged at the entrance to Stewart Beach in a rescue truck. They knew they were going to respond to a scenario but didn’t know what it would be. Then, when everything and everyone was in position, they received the call. The drill was a few people missing in the water, resulting from an accident. They had to race down to the Headquarters, retrieve a jet ski, launch it, and search for the missing swimmers. One of them, played by Buck, was ok with some minor issues. Another was a partially submerged victim that had to be removed from the water, assessed, and ultimately CPR needed to be performed.

This was just one of several scenarios we’ve been running, getting the crew to be razor sharp for the opening of the beach season. Working in pairs or small groups, some staff members participate in scenarios, while others complete work on towers, signs, complete leadership, resiliency, or intercultural competency training in the office, or work patrolling the beaches.

Once the seasonal lifeguards return in March, they too will participate in similar activities, but not to the extent of the full-time staff members. Our full-time staff make up the vast majority of the Supervisors, are all Emergency Medical Technicians and have quite a bit of additional training that our seasonal Lifeguards aren’t required to have, such as Swiftwater Technician certification, National Incident Management System training, Tourism Ambassador certification, and some are Peace Officers. They are also the teachers and instructors for the seasonal staff and teach everything from Red Cross Emergency Response to Personal Rescue Watercraft Operator instruction.

There are benefits to having our year-round crew trained up in time to teach the guards and being ready to respond to a myriad of emergencies. It’s also good to have them be very used to the day-to-day conditions, so when they jump in the cold water to make a rescue they know what to expect and are comfortable in cold water, limited visibility, and big surf. We want to be comfortable and prepared for all kind of conditions so they can focus on problem solving in difficult rescue situations. But it’s also important that they problem solve together.

Modern professional lifesaving has changed significantly in the past few decades. The basic techniques of saving someone are very similar to when lifesaving took off in the early 1900’s as a result of a boom in recreational swimming that resulted from a growth in a leisure class. The big difference is an emphasis on teamwork. What used to be “One beach one lifeguard”, in the immortal words of Leroy Colombo, has now morphed into “We’re only as strong as our weakest link”.

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Happy Black History Month!

Galveston has so many layers of history. I mentioned awhile back that we’ve pulled together a committee that has been working on some really cool stuff related to African American beach use in Galveston and the history of the African American beach lifeguards that protected it, chaired by David Mitchell. David works for the Jesse Tree Non-profit and is also employed by the Beach Patrol to provide Ecumenical Support, Community Outreach, and serves as our Volunteer Coordinator.

The Beach Patrol, NIA Cultural Center, Old Central Cultural Center, Visit Galveston, The Historical Foundation, The Park Board of Trustees, Galveston Lifeguarding Inc., and others have been working on a multi staged project. More people and groups are joining the effort as we move forward. Phase 1 was submission of an application for an “Undertold Story” marker on the seawall, with the help of the County, City, and a myriad of groups that have thrown in support. I’m so pleased to announce that our application for the marker honoring the African American Beach and the black lifeguards that worked it was approved this week! The amazing thing is that for this particular designation the state covers the cost.

Phase two will be a data base that profiles African American Lifeguards and black beach history. We’re looking for families and friends who can record stories of these heroes. So far, we have information on a number of lifeguards that worked that beach including James “Jim” Helton, Waverly Guidry, Leroy Green, Jr. Lynn Stephens, John Ned Rose, Willie Diggs, Oliver O’Conner. We’re hoping to get oral histories from family members on them and on others, so if you or anyone you know would be interesting in recording you or your family’s experience with an African American guard, please contact Alex Thomas at athomas@visitgalveston.com or 409-797-5155. We see the data base as a sort of living project. We hope to use grant money to bring on a researcher who will add historical documents to the oral histories and possibly structure an evolving and growing body of work.

Phase three will be a large, sculptural monument to these lifeguards. The idea is that there will be a way to point your phone at either the marker or the monument and access the data base, and this will be part of a larger cultural tour of the island. We’re thinking about a representation of an African American lifeguard that is an amalgamation of the lifeguards that worked that and another African American beach that existed at the western end of the seawall. We envision that soon we’ll send out a request for qualifications for artists. A committee will revies the artists and pick the three that are closest to the type of work we’re looking for. Then those three will be given a stipend to develop a small mockup of the sculpture. The group will pick one of these, and that artist will be commissioned to create the final version.

Kayak Death and Preparation

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Settegast road has a nice little kayak launch at the end of it. You can launch right into Eckert Bayou and paddle straight into West Bay, which separates Galveston from the mainland.

The man launched from the Settegast ramp at 6am and paddled through the 60-degree water into a really strong, cold wind from the north. But he had a small trolling motor on his kayak to assist him as he headed out. And then no one heard anything from him. Later in the day, after he was reported missing to the Coast Guard and a search started, his cell phone was pinged in a couple of different locations. More groups jumped into a search including the Galveston Police, Jamaica Beach Fire, Galveston Fire, State Park rangers, Beach Patrol, TEXSAR, Galveston County CERT, and the Brazoria County Sheriff Office. There may have been others. By mid afternoon his kayak was found. Crews searched into the night, paused for a few hours, an and resumed the next morning. Finally, his body was found miles away late morning the following day. He was face up with a lifejacket on.

The Beach Patrol/Jesse Tree Survivor Support Network (SSN) was called out to aid the growing number of family members who headed down to Galveston. At one point there were over 25 people there, with multiple groups broken out in prayer circles, question and answer sessions, and grief therapy. Casa Del Mar helped us out with a hotel room for the closest family members to spend the night and a local realty firm with a nearby office offered to let the family gather out of the elements.

In my career with the Beach Patrol I have seen, time and time again, Galvestonians give so much to people in need. I’ve been privileged to witness how we consistently come together in times of crisis to help each other and those who visit. It’s beautiful, and heartwarming, and restores faith in the human spirit. It’s probably the main reason I love my job and living here.  But there’s one thing it doesn’t do. It doesn’t bring him back. It doesn’t bring any of them back.

Because we can’t bring back the dead, Ocean Lifesaving focuses so much energy on prevention. Half a million people are moved from dangerous conditions a year by the Galveston Beach Patrol alone. Not the mention the 30 to 50 thousand children that receive water safety information presentations a year in the county.

Boating is tough. The Coast Guard, law enforcement marine divisions, and Park and Wildlife do an admirable job of getting into out to the public. But its tough and there’s a lot of ground to cover. The encouraging thing is the information is simple. Have a plan, communicate your plan. Know the conditions and your personal limitations. Wear a properly fitted lifejacket. Simple stuff.

The hardest thing is getting everyone to realize one critical thing. It can happen to anyone, so take reasonable precautions. Then go have fun.

Everything Happens for a Reason

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Everything happens for a reason.

Things can go wrong pretty quickly in the ocean. After working in and around this environment for years we can, at times, become too comfortable and forget how little it takes to be overwhelmed. Arrogance is a real danger.

I try once a year to put myself in a place that isn’t familiar and is completely out of my comfort zone. I climb a mountain. When I return, I find my mind is clearer and things feel more in perspective. I also find that I don’t take it for granted that I’ll be safe, even at the beach. Rescue work demands a level of preparedness that is reinforced by walking that edge.

A three-day motorcycle ride got me to the base of my mountain. It was cold, but I’d brought good gear.  I had sturdy hiking boots, a fleece, Gortex gear (even though it was perfectly clear), a down vest, waterproof matches, a good knife, and a whistle (for bears). I’d laid it all out, packed extra food and water just in case things went south. I’d even brought a flashlight, extra batteries, and a GPS in case. I knew it would be physically demanding, but I’ve been training a bunch and was feeling good.

As I hiked the path got steeper. Obviously, in December there aren’t a lot of people out climbing so I was careful with my foot placement. I made sure and took lots of breaks, staying hydrated and eating these ridiculous little energy bars. I felt tired but was liking the whole “man against the elements” thing.

I was about halfway up the steep side of the mountain when suddenly this little, slightly paunchy, middle-aged man came zipping by me wearing a Mr. Rogers style sweater, aqua socks, and carrying a very small plastic bottle of some kind of flavored water. He shouted a cheery “Hellooooo!” as he all but skipped by me on the vertical slope.

At the top we shared a cup of hot tea (which I’d carefully prepared and brought in case the weather……well, you know….).  He was Korean and visiting every national park in the US for 48 hours. I had to tell him that we wouldn’t make it back before dark several times to get him to descend with me as he scampered around the rocks impervious to the 35-degree air and the 30 mile per hour wind. We barely made it back before dark.

Everything happens for a reason. Instead of returning feeling like I conquered the elements, I was instead reminded to not judge a book by its cover and that there is a real joy in spontaneity and simplicity. I hope that my new friend got something out of the experience as well. Maybe something about preparedness since he would have been stuck out there after dark without my nagging? Or maybe just a lesson about the versatility of a cardigan sweater.

Everything happens for a reason, but the lesson is usually not what was anticipated.

Rescue Theory – Part 3 (conclusion)

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The last two weeks we talked about the basics of rescue theory and how we use techniques to make as many parts of a rescue become automatic as we can. The key components of elimination of distracting variables are level of fitness, skills, equipment preparation, and state of readiness. That gives the guards the tools, but they still need to prepare themselves for the myriad of unexpected variables that inevitably are thrown at them while making rescues.

Cognitive flexibility under stress, the ability to demonstrate flexibility and creative problem-solving strategies under duress, is a little harder concept for the guards to grasp at first. Through repetition neural pathways become more “worn”, much like a foot path that has been traveled more often and therefore becomes easier to use. This is a good thing in that response to a given stimuli becomes automatic, but with the obvious benefits come inherent risks. The potential issue lies in the environment itself. The ocean and beach are in a constant state of flux, as are the beach patrons themselves.  No rescue is routine as there are a multitude of factors that can affect the process. When in a stressful situation we all have a tendency to default to what we know. That’s good if it means we perform CPR the way we were trained. But you also hear stories about police officers who, in the midst of a shootout, start collecting their empty magazines off of the street because that’s the way they did it when practicing at the range. The goal of teaching people to show “cognitive flexibility” during a rescue or crisis is for them to default to their training while at the same time being able to expand their awareness and come up with creative solutions to problems that pop up while dealing with a multitude of issues.

Understanding this principle helps in the teaching process. In ocean lifeguarding we teach from the top down. Our instructors focus on the overarching principles and teach to trouble shoot application of these principles to a variety of real life scenarios. For example, instead of teaching exactly how to make contact with a victim in the water, we focus on basic principles such as keeping floatation between the rescuer and victims’ bodies, pausing and assessing a safe distance from a victim. That way the concept works when you use other types of floatation and/or in a myriad of specific rescue techniques. Once these general concepts are internalized through training and repetition (muscle memory), the guards become more confident and comfortable in their ability to handle anything that is thrown at them.

These concepts and a respect for the power and variability of the ocean are the beginnings of forging competent and professional lifeguards.