For two summers I worked as a lifeguard at Zoombezi Bay, the water park attached to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. On a day off, I went on my own and took some shots. The perspective in many of the pictures is that of a lifeguard.
We rotated our posts every half hour or so, and you'd often see lifeguards walking from one station to another. The uniform was a shirt, shorts, Zoombezi-issue swimsuit underneath, a hat or visor, sandals, emergency whistle, and fanny pack. The fanny pack contained gloves, gauze, band-aids (for first-aid incidents), and a "seal-easy," a plastic resuscitation mask.
Lifeguards got to watch all sorts of people float by on the Roaring Rapids, the not-so-lazy river we called the "AR" for "Action River," because of the jets and fountains in it.
Ten hour shifts four days a week make for a very deep tan, even with SPF 50 sunblock applied twice a day.
The Seadragon, a rollercoaster ride at Zoombezi Bay, has been at the park since it was called Wyandot Lake. I've always thought the white beams looked like sun-bleached bones.
One of the stations at Crocktail Creek. The Seadragon rollercoaster goes by not three feet behind that seat, and if you're in that chair when it comes through, the vibration makes your teeth rattle. It's one of my favorite spots in the park.
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