Zone responsibility

Zones are specific areas of water, pool deck, or shoreline that should be actively scanned from your lifeguard station. One of your responsibilities as a lifeguard covering your zone is making sure all the water can be seen by a lifeguard, top to bottom. Another responsibility is checking if there is overlapping coverage when two lifeguards are on surveillance. There should also be nothing in the way of the lifeguards’ vision like sun glare, floatation devices, etc. Lifeguards should be able to respond to an emergency in their assigned zones within 30 seconds and be able to provide ventilations outside of the water within one minute and 30 seconds. Zone coverage is when the pool is divided into different zones for a lifeguard to be assigned to and survey. Total coverage is when a lifeguard is watching the entire body of water on their own. Emergency back-up coverage occurs when a lifeguard is performing a rescue in the water, so another lifeguard watches the rescuing lifeguard’s zone and their own.