Lifeguarding, the universe and everything

I went by the pool today to help one of my co-workers re-cert (she needed victims). So we cover most of the hard stuff like deep-end back boarding, and are doing a shallow-end face-down passive possible spinal scenario (meaning I’m face down and she has to turn me over without moving my neck) so she positions her arms and is loosely holding the back of my skull and my chin… and asking our boss questions about the positioning. And I’m just there chilling face down in the water listening to their conversation. After a while, the other girl there says, “Aren’t you going to let her breathe?” This is followed by, “Oh, oh… yeah… breathe!”

Summer League swim team has started up, and this year we’re having water polo again. Ah, it’s good seeing those yellow volleyballs being used properly again. It all makes me feel nostalgic… I vaguely miss being on swim team. The swimming part that is – I really miss the swimming part, but never missed the drama. Water polo I truly miss. It’s a great sport, and summer league’s the way to go – it’s so completely different from the school game. I like guarding the practices, because I get to see the different coaching styles in an impersonal way. Yoakum’s the coach this year, and he’s a pretty good guy. He was assistant coach when I was 12 or so, and I’d see him from time to time as he coached other teams (Brook) and in the halls when he came to teach science at my high school. His team played a little dirtier than our team, but nothing vicious and the girls were still nice about it, which speaks well for the coach. And he still remembers my name and talks to me, which is nice.

I’m looking for a way to change up canoeing class a little this year at pre-teen camp to make it a bit more interesting for those who have been to camp for the past 4 or 5 years already know the tip of the paddle from the grip – and yet at the same time, make it fun for those who’ve never been in a canoe before – I don’t know if any of the older girls haven’t been to camp before, so maybe I can do something with them. For the younger kids, covering the basics and letting them play around would probably work, and we only have a few classes besides the trip (and I’m way excited about the trip… I really hope the lily pads are still there, otherwise we’ll have to find a different route to the campsite to make the trip long enough to be interesting). At teen camp, we have slaloms, but I don’t know if the sterning skills are up to that - again, some of the older girls could handle that - and then there’s the usual set of skills tests and races… from experience I know that swamping races are rather fun, but also just a tad dangerous. Last time, we only did it with one dorm, and both Diana and I ended up with minor injuries and decided better us than the campers, but next time it might be them. I discovered a new sport on-line that sounds amazing – Canoe Polo… like Water Polo, but with canoes. How great is that? It’s combining my two favorite water sports into one. But… would it be too complicated to start up in just two classes (and most of that time is needed for covering swamping and the strokes and the like) and from the pictures, it looks like what’s used is little one-man canoes, and we’d be putting at least 3 in each of our canoes… plus the possible added injury of people swinging their paddles around *sigh* so… anyone have any better ideas? I’m open to suggestions.