After four days of the beach, my SIL/BIL suggested we drive down from Holden to Myrtle Beach and go to a water park (Myrtle Waves).
This place is fairly well staffed with life guards (late teens/early twenties with sunglasses and a red floatie), but I found out they’re not as prepared for action as they should be.
There is a lazy river and a “fast” one called the Racing River where you can get a kick board and it sort of zooms you around a curved oval track. The water is 3 feet deep but the waves produced make it deeper than that, and once you’re on the bottom steps leading into it, the current has you. A young mom found this out the hard way, and her 4-5 year old son got snatched out of her hands by the current while heading into the river. The lifeguard tossed part of his floatie thing out, and the kid grabbed it with one hand, but it stretched out and snapped loose from the kid’s wet grasp. The lifeguard reeled his floatie back in and did a shrug like *welp whaddya gonna do* and let the kid go. The current kept pushing him around the river and he kept going under water, coming up gasping. This all happened in a matter of moments, as my son wanted to check this thing out, so I was witnessing this from the top of the steps. As soon as I saw the floatie pop out of the kid’s hand, I jumped the river to the concrete “island” in the middle and jumped in the water near the kid and scooped him up. A few smacks on the back to clear some water and he was fine, and I delivered him to his mom who was otherwise too shocked to move at that point. I did look for a manager but no one seemed to know where one was.
Bottom line: don’t trust your kids to these lifeguards. Clearly they’re more concerned about dunking the iPhone in their pocket or getting their T-shirts wet than saving your kids
This place is fairly well staffed with life guards (late teens/early twenties with sunglasses and a red floatie), but I found out they’re not as prepared for action as they should be.
There is a lazy river and a “fast” one called the Racing River where you can get a kick board and it sort of zooms you around a curved oval track. The water is 3 feet deep but the waves produced make it deeper than that, and once you’re on the bottom steps leading into it, the current has you. A young mom found this out the hard way, and her 4-5 year old son got snatched out of her hands by the current while heading into the river. The lifeguard tossed part of his floatie thing out, and the kid grabbed it with one hand, but it stretched out and snapped loose from the kid’s wet grasp. The lifeguard reeled his floatie back in and did a shrug like *welp whaddya gonna do* and let the kid go. The current kept pushing him around the river and he kept going under water, coming up gasping. This all happened in a matter of moments, as my son wanted to check this thing out, so I was witnessing this from the top of the steps. As soon as I saw the floatie pop out of the kid’s hand, I jumped the river to the concrete “island” in the middle and jumped in the water near the kid and scooped him up. A few smacks on the back to clear some water and he was fine, and I delivered him to his mom who was otherwise too shocked to move at that point. I did look for a manager but no one seemed to know where one was.
Bottom line: don’t trust your kids to these lifeguards. Clearly they’re more concerned about dunking the iPhone in their pocket or getting their T-shirts wet than saving your kids