Train to live well

Each day we get a new opportunity to eat right, exercise, enjoy today and get ready for tomorrow. Years before Baywatch became a popular TV series, I was a lifeguard on the Atlantic Ocean.

I didn’t work with any beautiful women. In fact, all 60 lifeguards were male.

Another difference was the level of excitement. The majority of our time was spent sitting. For the most part, we simply watched the bathers and tried to prevent problems. Since it was our duty to always be ready “just-in-case,” the rest of our time was spent training.

In three summers of work, I only responded to a half dozen actual crisistype rescues. On three of these rescues, I was the first one to the victim. When I was close enough to see their eyes, I knew I had a chance. I’d like to believe that I saw hope in their eyes, but they just stared. Not a haunted stare, but the kind you’d expect when all panic had been used up and all fear had been abandoned. By the time I could see their eyes, they had no energy left and their exhausted muscles had lost all strength.

Indeed, each slipped under the surface before I reached them.

Even though their limp bodies yielded to the insurmountable water and they were seconds away from death, all three reached toward the surface in one last grasp for life.

In the brief minutes between a carefree time at the beach and drowning, it was life that had become top priority.

With one man, all I could see through the turbulent water was his right hand, held up, just inches beneath the surface exactly in the spot I’d seen him disappear. The second victim, an older boy, somehow pushed his elbow above the surface more than a dozen feet from where I thought he’d gone down. And the third, while not obscured beneath opaque water, was perhaps the most bizarre. The young man’s body was being swept out with the clear water of a deep channel. Amazingly, when I got to him his body was 3 feet under, his hands reached out like a baby, his hollow eyes piercing the saltwater looked directly at me.

Fortunately, each one held onto life.

In each case the beach patrol did its job, within seconds, I was supported by a number of other guards, lifeboats, a towline, a medic – everything needed to save lives.

My time on the beach seems so long ago and I seldom think about it, but like everything in life, there is something that can be learned from experience.

I learned that daily training and a focus on prevention really works. Training to prevent drowning and to save lives is very much like training to prevent illness and prepare to live life to its fullest. Each day we get a new opportunity to eat right, exercise, enjoy today and get ready for tomorrow. And most importantly, I learned that life must always take top priority.

Dr. Ray Pope is a licensed chiropractor at Action Potential Chiropractic, Inc. on Camano Island.