Water Country USA seems empty when I visit the park. No life vests, tubes, water and especially no guests. Still, we are hard at work getting ready for a fantastic 2012 season.

All of our Water Country USA lifeguards are certified through the American Red Cross. Most of you may know that, but did you know that the American Red Cross visits our park twice a year? During their site visits, they ensure our guards are properly trained and are demonstrating good skills on and off the stand. This week one of the aquatics managers from the national ARC headquarters toured the park as a guest and observed all of our guards.

New this year, Water Country USA will offer a variety of American Red Cross classes to the general public. Our American Red Cross instructors have been teaching our lifeguards for fifteen years and are excited to now have the opportunity to train you.

This weekend the lifeguard instructors at Water Country USA got together to recertify their skills and practice teaching. The team spent the morning reviewing teaching techniques, taking American Red Cross written tests, and demonstrating their CPR/AED skills.

The pools at Water Country USA don’t have any water yet so after lunch the group headed to Midtown Aquatic Center in Newport News. We hopped into the water first to take our swim test. SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment requires a tougher test than American Red Cross.

The first week of 2011 started out extremely busy at Water Country USA, at least for me. I took my Lifeguard instructor class with six other future instructors. We train and certify all team members who are responsible for water safety using American Red Cross lifeguarding and shallow-water lifeguarding classes.

Have you ever wondered what kind of training lifeguards at Water Country USA go through prior to sitting in the guard chair at Surfer's Bay?