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VIDEO: Lifeguards compete in Langley life-saving competition

Eighteenth year of longest-running event in BC
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David Liang works on a “victim” at the annual Langley Lifeguard Competition on Saturday. Dan Ferguson Langley Times

When they saw the swimmer in distress, the lifeguards piled into the pool of the Walnut Grove Community Centre.

Jim Davies frowned.

“They dove into the shallow end,” he said.

They aren’t supposed to do that, ever.

“I trained him,” Davies said of one lifeguard who failed to follow procedure.

“We’re going to have a talk.”

Davies was one of several judges at the 18th Annual Langley Lifeguard Competition on Saturday, the longest-running event of its kind in BC.

This year, 14 four-person teams of lifeguards took part in a variety of simulated emergencies.

Like real life, the competitors had no way of knowing what will happen when they walk into the pool area.

There were a number of actors mixed in with the regular swimmers, and without warning, one can simulate drowning, or being stung by a bee or any one of a number of situations that can happen to lifeguards in real life.

And like real life, there is no advance warning and it can happen all at once.

The difference is the judges who are never far away with their clipboards.

Outside the pool, the grassy space in back of the community centre was the scene of a different round of first aid scenarios that included performers portraying unhelpful and panicked civilians, like people with minor injuries distracting lifeguards from more serious but less demanding victims.

In all, around 150 participants, officials, and volunteers took part.

Initial results posted online show the first place team was a quartet of lifeguards from Delta, Burnaby and Coquitlam called “My Heroes.”

Second went to Heart Stoppers, listed as being from from Panorama, and third was claimed by “The Eh Team” from Abbotsford.

dan.ferguson@langleytimes.com

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Lifeguard Jacob Baxter works on a simulated drowning victim at the Walnut Grove community pool while judge Jim Davies observes. The annual Langley Lifeguard Competition is the longest-running in BC. Dan Ferguson Langley Times.
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Lifeguard Megan Lucy works on reviving a simulated patient while judge Maggie Smolski watches. It was the 2017 Langley Lifeguard Competition. Dan Ferguson Langley Times.


Dan Ferguson

About the Author: Dan Ferguson

Best recognized for my resemblance to St. Nick, I’m the guy you’ll often see out at community events and happenings around town.
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