Oregon Public Broadcasting

Teams of lifeguards will be stationed at two popular swimming spots on the Clackamas and Sandy rivers this weekend.  The lifeguards are trained EMT’s and paramedics with American Medical Response and are also trained in river rescues.  Pete Springer reports.

“I’m gonna swim out to you!”

A lifeguard leaps into the Sandy river at Glenn Otto Park during a demonstration of rescue techniques.

It’s the same spot where a man drowned last Sunday – just a week before lifeguards began staffing the site.

Kelsey Hinds is in her third season working as a river rescue technician and lifeguard at the park.

She says even strong swimmers can be overcome by the cold water of the river.

Kelsey Hinds: “We have a whole park here and just a few technicians to cover, you know, hundreds of people.  This river is fast moving, it’s deep and a lot of people aren’t familiar with it before they go swimming in it, so they don’t recognize where the trouble spots are and how they’re actually going to get in trouble.”

Lifeguards rescued about a half dozen swimmers at the park last year and there haven’t been any drownings when lifeguards were present in the last eleven years. 

AMR will also stage lifeguards at High Rocks on the Clackamas River.

They’ll be there daily until Labor Day.