Four postings, and what each one is actually like.

Every posting on this board carries a line called Straight answer. That is the part we would want to have been told, and it is there because the people who last a whole season are the ones who knew what they were signing up for.

No certificate yet is not a problem and it is not a special case. Read the last block on this page.

Seasonal lifeguard

Ashgrove and Weller ParkSeason, full weeks

  • You can swim the length of the pool without stopping and tread water while holding something above the surface
  • A current lifeguard certificate we recognise, or none at all and you take our course first
  • You are willing to sit still and watch water for long stretches

Straight answerMost of this job is uneventful on purpose. If uneventful bores you, this is the wrong job and we would rather you knew now.

Apply for this one

Head guard

One facility, named on offerSeason, with pre-season weeks

  • You have guarded a full season somewhere
  • You are willing to write a rota and then be the one who fills the hole in it at seven on a Sunday morning
  • You can tell somebody twice their size to get off the rope and mean it

Straight answerThe hard part is not the water. It is being the person the other guards ring when they are unsure, and being reachable when you said you would be.

Apply for this one

Swim instruction

KingsbridgeSaturdays, term time

  • You are comfortable in shallow water with people who are not
  • You can explain the same thing four different ways without changing your tone the fourth time
  • A lifeguard certificate is useful here and is not required

Straight answerChildren who are frightened of water do not become unfrightened because you are encouraging. They become unfrightened because you are boring and predictable and you never rush them.

Apply for this one

Relief and cover

Anywhere we staffShift by shift, you choose

  • You are certified and you answer your phone
  • You can get to a pool within about an hour of saying yes
  • You do not need a fixed number of hours a week

Straight answerThis is the honest version of flexible: real shifts at short notice, and no promise about how many. It suits people with something else on.

Apply for this one

The job, described the way a guard would describe it.

You sit in the sun and watch water. You will be hot, you will be bored, and you will spend more of the shift asking people not to run than doing anything that looks like the training.

Then once, maybe twice in a season, thirty seconds happen and every dull hour before them turns out to have been the job. That is the whole shape of it, and nobody who has done it will tell you different.

What we can promise: shifts that are what we said they were, a rota you get in advance, somebody reachable when you are unsure, and a head guard who has done the chair themselves.

What we will not promise: a set number of hours before we know the season, or that you will like it. Some people find out in week two that sitting still is not for them. That is a fair thing to find out and there is no hard feeling in it.

Write to us See the course first

If you have never guarded before, start on the training page.

We run the course ourselves and we hire out of it, so the ordinary route into these postings is to take the course and then apply. We are not going to tell you which certificate your county accepts, because that varies and being wrong about it would waste your money rather than ours. We check it for your address before you enrol.

The training course Call (555) 555-0142