Daughter is a lifeguard, the skills learned are incredibly valuable for anyone around water

Terrifying moment lifeguard dives in and rescues three-year-old girl

Maddog's family usually spends about 90 days each summer in or around the water, usually waterskiing, wake boarding, swimming, and just keeping cool. 

​More below the cut.

Daughter joined a swim team many years ago and found she really enjoyed swimming. I suggested she get her first aid, CPR, water safety, and lifeguarding card, which she did. She was recruited to work for both the public recreation district, and a private swim school. She both teaches youngsters how to swim, and lifeguards at both.

Watching a rescue is always galvanizing to me.

Nice snag!

I also had my full ticket of first aid, life saving, CPR, EMT, and lifeguarding, but I never worked as a lifeguard, instead I worked as a paper mill hand and made much more money.

When I lived in Mexico, I traveled some, and during one of those travels, I went up near Tampico, and met the family of some people I knew from where I lived in Comalcalco. The next day we went up to a stream to relax and hang out in the water. There were lots of people and it was HOT. The stream came down through a steep cut, and then out into what appeared to be a deep pool. The area around the water was made up of large round rocks perhaps the size of bowling balls. 

I was about to go over to a concession tent and buy a beer, when some young kids came up to me in a panic, and after a bit I realized they were saying that someone was drowning. When I looked, I could just see one young man about 50 yards away splashing in the water. 

It was slow going over the rocks, but I made it pretty quickly. I went in after him, but never found him, and really didn't have a good idea where he might be. The water was unbelievably deep with a thermocline about 20' or so. I attempted a grid search but never found anything, and the bottom was so deep it was difficult to search. After a half hour or so, I got out and asked the people who brought me what I should do. They had gone and found a fisherman and he was setting up to recover the body with nets. They did everything differently in Mexico.

The first body out was that of an old man I had never seen before. That set a family a few yards away wailing. After that everything had a surreal, unreal feel to it. 

The next body was another young man who had gone with us but not the one I had seen in the water. I was pretty stunned by now. The people I came with decided to take the group (about 20 people) home, drop us off then return to pick up the bodies, and the family that stayed to help in the recovery. 

I was 21, in a foreign country with a completely foreign culture, and, frankly adrift as to what I should do. It worked out, the family was grateful for my attempt, and I was sad for my failure. I never really understood the relationship of the two boys who drowned, but one had apparently tripped, fell in, but could not swim. The other came to his rescue but was dragged in, and he also could not swim. I was the only person in the group who could swim!

 I did have successful rescues, including a cold water ocean rescue in Oregon, but that is a tale for another day.