Wrightsville Beach lifeguards train for their busiest season yet
WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — Memorial Day is less than two weeks away, marking the unofficial start of summer. Wednesday, beachgoers watched as Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue got ready for a busy beach season, training new lifeguards.
“It makes me feel good,” said beach goer Abby Kent. “Like, I’m not the best swimmer ever, and so having these amazing people out here in this cold water training and working hard to make us all safe is really reassuring.”
But the training is no day at the beach. At tryouts, hopefuls swim from Crystal Pier to the water tower, running a mile to the jetty, then rescuing two people without stopping.
Captain Sam Proffitt said that intensity is on purpose.
“On average we probably make 300 to 400 rescues a year… or a season. That’s really from Memorial Day through Labor Day,” he explained.
The rookies who made it through are diving into a two week training course, learning to rescue alert or unconscious victims, and taking 96 hours of emergency medical training.
Veteran lifeguard Katie Vonderau said it’s all about muscle memory.
“So when the time comes…you don’t think about it, you just do it,” she said.
The training came in handy the day she and other lifeguards saved more than 80 people in two hours. Her first rescue involved a grandmother swept out by a rip current, passing out the moment Vonderau reached her.
“I swam out there,” she remembers, “she was talking to me, and then all of a sudden the lights went out and I was all the way out there in a rip by myself.”
Vonderau swam both of them back to shore, saving the woman’s life. Without her training, she says things would’ve turned out very differently.
Veterans and rookies alike can mount the lifeguard stand Memorial Day with full confidence, thanks to their training.
“The training that we’re going through is so rigorous,” rookie, Liz Kramer explained, “that by the time that we finish we’ll be definitely ready to go, rock and roll and save everyone.”
The new recruits will patrol the water every day from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
