Today is kind of a blur of everything that happened, so between that and not getting much sleep this week and having really achy muscles, I'll try and cover everything. The main things I learned today were escapes which, pretty obviously, are when you need to escape from a drowning victim who is trying to take you down with them. The forward escape (facing the victim) is pretty easy, because if unable to use the proper technique, it's easier to kick someone to get them off of you. The escape in which the victim is trying (well, not really trying, since they're just doing everything they can to stay afloat) to drown you when you have your back to them. Doing this maneuver with a guy who is a lifeguard and has strong arms and has to weigh twice as much as you is NOT the most fun you will ever have, I promise you. The first time I attempted to escape, I was able to get my head above water, but he grabbed me again and pulled me back underwater when I was halfway through a breath, so I inhaled a good amount of water, but was able to escape for good about five seconds afterward (I feel like it was five seconds, but you honestly have no concept of time when you're essentially being drowned.)

The only other skill I learned was a zero entry backboard, where you backboard someone from extremely shallow (think less than one foot) of water. This is surprisingly just as difficult as the other two types of backboarding because turning someone on their side and then rolling them back on their back onto the backboard is extremely difficult when gravity is working against you, you have to keep their spine stabilized, AND have to keep their face out of the water.

A lot of the day was spent practicing all the skills we learned--compact jumps, surface dives, run and swim entries, submerged victim rescues, active victim rescues, you name it. This was after swimming 200 meters freestyle and 200 meters sidestroke, which is really awesome when it's less than 24 hours after you first learn the proper technique (I hope you all picked up on the sarcasm.)

We had a lunch break (Firehouse Subs, yum!) and Clay County EMTs came to tell us about what they generally expect from lifeguards and what they want to happen when they come to take over. This was extremely informative, and knowing that the EMTs are (almost) always up for jumping in the water to help when needed (and when given permission to, depending on county and even state) is very comforting, especially when they're much more qualified than me as a lifeguard (I train for a week, they train for months.)

After this, we were supposed to go back into the pool, but a thunderstorm started rolling in, so everybody put chairs and tables away and grabbed everything and headed over to the main house where we practiced CPR and took the written CPR/First Aid, Lifeguarding, and Waterfront written exams. Thankfully, I passed all three. After dinner, we discussed the different aspects of waterfront guarding, something we hadn't gone over as much as pool guarding, which is great because my camp has two lakes and no pool.

At a little before 8:30, we were free to go, and I don't have to report back to the pool until 9:30, thank goodness. I'm pretty sure a 13 hour break is the longest one I've had since Monday! I'm going to end this post here so I can use this extra time to catch up on some sleep, hopefully!

Oh, I almost forgot, on the way to the parking lot, I saw this cute little deer! The picture isn't very good, but it's better than nothing!