Beach season officially begins in Toronto this weekend
Lifesaving Society says swimming near a lifeguard is key to staying safe
If Friday's heat has you longing for a day on the beach, you're in luck. Starting Saturday, lifeguards will be stationed at nine of Toronto's 10 beaches.
Lifeguarding stations will be staffed from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., seven days a week, all the way up until Labour Day. Gibraltar Point Beach will have lifeguards starting July 1, according to a city website.
For those waiting to take a dip in an outdoor public pool, the city says it will open 10 locations on evenings and weekends starting June 17, though it hasn't yet announced which ones. The remaining 45 locations will be open by the end of the month and wading pools will open June 30.
Splash pads around the city have been open since May 20. The city says it generally opens those first because it's a simple way for people to cool off.
"Effective tomorrow, we're launching the beach season here in Toronto," said Aydin Sarrafzadeh, the city's director of management services, parks, forestry and recreation. "I'm glad we were able to get it going this weekend just in time for the heat."
It's also good news after last year, when Toronto felt the impact of lifeguarding shortages across the country that forced some municipalities to scale back pool hours and cancel lessons.
Lifeguard staffing levels better than last summer
But the outlook is better this time around, said Sarrafzadeh.
"We've had great recruitment efforts to the point where we're fully staffed and ready to go for the summer," he said.
And thanks to a provincial change announced Friday, there will be more lifeguards available across the province this summer. The minimum age requirement to be a lifeguard, assistant lifeguard and aquatic instructor has been dropped from 16 to 15, the province said in a news release.
That's a welcome change to the Lifesaving Society Ontario, said spokesperson Stephanie Bakalar.
"We actually made that change to our certification in 2020. So we've been certifying lifeguards at 15 for the last few years," she said.
She says the society has seen its certification levels return near pre-pandemic levels, after pool closures led to a significant low.
How to stay safe
When it comes to staying safe while swimming open water — which is where Bakalar said most drownings happen — the key is to stick where the lifeguards are, she said.
"Less than one per cent of drowning happen in lifeguard-supervised settings," she said. "So the safest place you can be is where you're watched by a lifeguard."
Bakalar also discourages parents from bringing floaters, beach balls and other inflatables that kids can sit on, because they can get caught in the wind and swept out very far.
"Little ones often will chase after those and end up over their head and into some trouble," she said.
With files from Talia Ricci