Last Fully-Guarded Weekend

Safety Drowning It’s the end of the season for most of Pensacola Beach’s lifeguards after this Sunday.

by Chad Petri

Published: Sat, October 10, 2009 - 10:03 pm CST Last Updated: Sat, October 10, 2009 - 10:07 pm CST

PENSACOLA BEACH, Florida - It was an unusually warm day along Pensacola Beach today, 10/10/09. If it keeps up, the lack of lifeguards won't keep beachgoers away.

“Makes me a little nervous, I’d be a little scared if I went out in the water, but I'm a good swimmer,” says vacationer Victoria Galli. With 324 rescues this season, lifeguards like Hilary Rivkind say they've met their most important goal.

“It hasn't been as difficult as last summer we haven't had a lot of strong surf or rip currents we haven't had any drowning deaths this summer,” says Rivkind. If you do decide to come out to the surf and the sand in the coming weeks, there are a lot of things to look out for to stay safe.

“If you come out here and you're not a strong swimmer don't veer into the water on a yellow or red flag day, if it's a green flag day make sure you're a good swimmer and make sure you know where you are,” says Andrew Edwards, Senior Lifeguard. Edwards says they also had more than 4,800 prevents. This is when a lifeguard warns swimmers to avoid dangerous spots in the water to prevent disaster.

“Once we tell them not to go into that rip current they were fixing to get into that counts as one prevent and we prevent them from getting rescued,” says Edwards. This week swimmers have to pay closer attention to flags and the water. Two life guards will patrol the beach on any given day starting Monday. Each will be riding in a public safety truck.

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