Lifeguard Bob Sorenson sprang into action on a Rockaway beach this
summer when a wave suddenly pulled a swimmer out to a depth where
she couldn’t stand. When the swimmer panicked, Bob jumped in
the water and brought her to safety. A lifeguard for more than
three decades, Bob notes that “many people at the beach overestimate
their swimming ability and aren’t aware of the dangers of the ocean,
especially how undertows work.”
Bob, a Red Cross health and safety instructor and an NYU swimming
coach, first learned to be a lifeguard through a Red Cross course.
The experience inspired him to become a health and safety instructor
himself. He has been teaching important life-saving skills to
people throughout Greater New York for more than 30 years.
“Red Cross training teaches people to be familiar with the
conditions where they are working. It also trains them to
recognize how different types of swimmers act and know how to help
them,” Bob said.
Approximately 200,000 people nationally receive Red Cross
lifeguard training . “There’s such good training at the Red
Cross,” Bob added. “The rewards of knowing that you’ve saved
someone’s life are amazing. To know that someone might’ve
drowned if you hadn’t been there – you can actually see that you’ve
made a real difference.”
The Red Cross has been proudly training lifeguards since 1914 and
is the nation's leading lifeguard-training organization.
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