CINCINNATI
Jackie Willer squints at her section of the L-shaped pool, a bright yellow whistle clenched between her lips as she looks down from an elevated chair.
Six feet below, dozens of youngsters in brightly colored swimsuits splash in the cool, blue water, enjoying a summer afternoon while the veteran lifeguard watches over them. Miss Willer wouldn’t want any other summer job.
“I used to come every day during the summer,” said Miss Willer, 22, who has been a lifeguard for eight years at Pleasant Ridge Pool. “I loved watching the lifeguards and always looked up to them.”
Pool managers wish there were more like her.
There aren’t enough lifeguards to staff all the water parks, municipal pools and private aquatic facilities around the country this summer, a trend that isn’t likely to ease. Pool managers are trying new approaches to attract guards — recruiting year-round, improving benefits and offering free training.
Although there is a steady increase in the number of lifeguards certified each year by the American Red Cross and private firms, it hasn’t kept up with the demand fueled by the growth of water parks.
As a result, many pools have reduced hours or closed. Stretches of beach sometimes go unguarded, with swimmers warned by signs to enter the water at their own risk.
“It’s very frustrating,” said Mayor Emmett Pugh, of Beckley, W.Va., where one of the city’s two municipal pools is closed this summer for lack of lifeguards. “It’s a tough problem.”
The shortages extend from coast to coast — and to the islands beyond.
“The demand for pool time is increasing all the time,” said Larry Davis, who occasionally closes a pool or part of one in Hawaii County because of shortages. “People want us to stay open later, but we can barely keep up with the hours we have now.”
In suburban North College Hill, Ohio, the municipal pool was closed at night last summer. “To be honest, last year was really bad,” said Debbie Masters, head of the city’s recreation commission.
New designs for municipal and private pools also tilt the supply-and-demand equation for aquatics. Features such as slides and “lazy rivers” require more supervision.
“The trend is to build more, bigger, better, more enjoyable facilities for the whole family, not just a rectangular pool,” said Gary Toner, president of Cincinnati Pool Management Inc., which hired about 400 lifeguards this year. “But staffing them is a challenge.”
The American Red Cross offers lifeguard training that includes more than 30 hours of study and swimming tests. Last year, 222,235 persons took the course, an increase of 42,433 over the 179,802 who were trained in 2002. It’s not clear how many failed certification.
To get certified, a candidate must be able to swim 300 yards without stopping, using different strokes. Another test involves retrieving a 10-pound brick from the bottom of a pool and swimming 20 yards with both hands on the brick above the water level. Lifeguards also are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Private firms train lifeguards using different standards that are also rigorous. Some employers add their own training on top of the certification courses.
“Over the years, lifeguarding has become more important, with more responsibility to the job,” said Dr. Peter Wernicki, an aquatics adviser for the American Red Cross and the U.S. Lifesaving Association, and a former lifeguard. “It used to be kind of standing on the beach or at the pool and talking to your girlfriend. Now everybody realizes it’s a much more important job than that. You’re really saving lives.”
The World Waterpark Association estimates that more than 1,000 water parks opened in North America in the last 30 years, visited by more than 73 million people annually. Indoor water parks are the fastest-growing segment of the industry.
Water parks and pools that pay well tend to get as many lifeguards as they need. The others sometimes struggle to fill their staffs. Water parks also offer perks. The Beach Waterpark, just north of Cincinnati, pays its 200-or-so lifeguards between $7.15 and $9 an hour. Guards get free admission to the park, free tickets for family and friends, and other incentives that make the job attractive.
The job’s image seems to have changed as well.
“When I was growing up, I was assistant manager of a pool,” said Mr. Pugh, who is still hoping to find guards in Beckley. “That was a job I really wanted. You got to be outside all summer.”
It’s different today. “Being a lifeguard at a swimming pool seems to have lost some of the allure it used to have,” the mayor said.
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