Carded at the Eau Claire YMCA

[JMD]

So yeah, we arrived at the pool at 9:30. Bryan had already set up a lane for us. Shortly after putting my fins and mask on the 16 year old lifegaurd sauntered over. I thought, oh oh here we go. After the death at Talisman last year i wondered how much disinformation the calgary lifegaurds would be operating with.

Expecting to be kicked out poste haste, i was somewhat taken aback when she asked if we had our certification cards with us. Bryan and I both responded that we were certified to the nitrox level with TDI (as if that mattered). I then asked what agency she thought should certify us. She replied that PADI certified snorklers, Bryan and I responded we didn't think that was true (I was just relieved we were being refered to as snorklers) and she backed off. She said she could see that since we had all the gear we must know what we were doing, and maybe if she could just perform a skill check, like you know, seeing us clear our snorkel. Since i wasn't wearing a snorkel I thanked her for checking on us and swam away.

She proved to be very nice after the fact, enquiring after the long fins and regaling us with her scuba adventures. It appears that aside from the certification question we are more than welcome at the Y. Given the long winter I'm happy to be able to shake some rust off at the pool before we get to the lake.

Thanks to Bryan for setting us up at a great training facility. Same time next week for anyone who is in the area and interested.

[feign]

Good story. I love the..."have the gear, so you must be able to do it" attitude. And the certification by Padi for snorkeling might be true. But you see James, you didn't have a snorkel so you must not truly be certified.

lee

[iceselkie]

Nice. I think she was just looking for a buddy IMO! Unless it's a new regulation to ask for cards (which we don't, currently?)-- the skill check is also a good idea. Great customer service! Bask in SK, the Lawson pool had SCUBA hour, where they let SCUBA/snorklers/finswimmers/uw hockey have the whole deep tank. It was good because you knew ppl would be keeping an eye on you, as there was always ppl underwater. Here in Kamloops, there is a well established pool/SCUBA relationship..they even do SSI scuba rangers for kids as young as 8 (snorkling skills mainly). Just watch for shift changes, accidents happen when a new guard comes on and doesn't know what you're up to- getting to know the staff is especially important, who knows, they might want to try freediving someday too (finswimming is becoming more common in Lifeguarding competitions, which are really catching on).

[Erik]

There is a PADI Snorkelling certification with the card to go with it. A few freedive trainers have developed their own Freediving course through PADI as well, since you can basically make up anything you want at PADI and charge people to get certified in it.... ie: pearl collecting, spearfishing, bottle collecting, boat diving
Erik