Andrea Unedited Episode on Swimming Pool Safety

On this episode of the Talking Pools Podcast, Andrea takes a deep dive into one of the most important — and often overlooked — topics in the swimming pool industry: safety. 

With summer approaching and pool usage increasing across the country, Andrea discusses the real-world responsibility pool professionals carry when it comes to preventing drownings, suction entrapment incidents, and avoidable tragedies. The episode opens with two heartbreaking Florida drowning stories involving young children — one at a pool party and another at an Airbnb rental property — sparking a broader conversation about accountability, supervision, and the role safety barriers play in aquatic environments. 

Andrea breaks down the five types of suction entrapment hazards including:

•  Hair entrapment 
•  Limb entrapment 
•  Body entrapment 
•  Mechanical entrapment 
•  Evisceration/disembowelment 

She explains how these incidents occur, why they remain a serious risk even in modern pools, and why educating homeowners and clients about suction safety is critical. The discussion also explores how damaged or missing drain covers, improper flow rates, aging plastics, and poor maintenance practices can create dangerous conditions. 

The episode includes a detailed explanation of the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act (VGBA), including:

•  Why VGBA compliance is about the entire hydraulic system — not just drain covers 
•  The role of dual drains and unblockable drains 
•  Safety Vacuum Release Systems (SVRS) 
•  Maximum flow ratings 
•  Drain cover life expectancy 
•  Pump sizing considerations 
•  Commercial inspection requirements 

Andrea also shares the tragic stories behind the legislation, including the deaths of Virginia Graeme Baker and Abigail Taylor, and how those incidents changed federal pool safety standards forever. 

Other topics include:

•  Why drowning deaths are increasing in the United States 
•  The importance of swimming lessons and active supervision 
•  Water watcher programs 
•  Airbnb and short-term rental pool safety concerns 
•  Why cloudy water should never be ignored 
•  Why pool pros should document damaged safety equipment immediately 
•  Common dangerous pool games and behaviors that should be discouraged 
•  Long hair safety around suction outlets 
•  Why “touch the drain” games are a terrible idea 
•  The importance of keeping gates and barriers closed 

Andrea also provides listeners with an extensive list of water safety organizations and educational resources including:

• Pool Safely
• National Drowning Prevention Alliance
• Abby's Hope
• PHTA Step Into Swim
• Every Child A Swimmer
• CDC Healthy Swimming

This episode serves as both a refresher and a reminder that pool safety is not a checklist — it’s a culture. Whether you service residential pools, commercial facilities, vacation rentals, or aquatic centers, this conversation reinforces why education, awareness, and proactive prevention matter.

Follow the Talking Pools Podcast on all major streaming platforms and join the conversation on social media.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Talking Pools podcast Tuesday edition episode. I am Andrea. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope everybody had a great week. I had an okay week. I was at Rockville. Welcome to Rockville and Daytona the week before. So if you didn't, if you if I missed an episode, I'm sorry, that's why. Um, but anyway, it was good. It was a fun show. I'm probably gonna do it again. So anyway, um, let's get right into my topic for today that I wanted to talk about. And I figured that since um, you know, we're coming into the summer and the opening season, I'll just continue with themes based on summer stuff for now. So I wanted to kind of just outline a bunch of safety issues and things to look out for when it comes to operating a safe pool. I just wanted to remind everybody of all the safety things and features and stuff we need to look out for as pool pros so that we can keep our customers safe and the kids safe and everybody safe. There's only two news stories, but they are relevant to my topic today. So the first one comes from Bradenton, Florida. Um, a mom was arrested and charged with child neglect after her four-year-old daughter drowns at a pool party. I'm not gonna read the whole article, but here's a couple of key points. I'm probably not gonna pronounce her last name correctly, so I apologize in advance. Um, Rosette Piarisius was arrested and charged with child neglect after her four-year-old daughter drowned during a pool party in Bradenton, Florida. Um, police allege that the child was at the bottom of the pool for several minutes before she was found. Uh the officers were dispatched to an apartment complex at 9:10 p.m. local time. They arrived within three minutes. They performed CPR emergency services, transported the girl to a nearby hospital, and she was pronounced dead. Um police said that the child's family, including the mother, was among a large group of people at the party, and the girl was, as I said, at the bottom of the pool for several minutes. They said that the death was unavoidable, and the public information officer told the news source that he's very comfortable saying that his this party shouldn't have happened there in the first place. And it was that it and that it was a party that was not meant for children and primarily adults. And the he went on to say that this went beyond an accidental drowning to the point of neglect. So I thought that that was an interesting story because um parents aren't usually charged, it just really does depend on the circumstance. Um, and then my second story is also from Florida, um, Miami-Dade County specifically, but this involves Airbnb pools, Airbnbs uh specifically, so this is why it's relevant. Not I'm not just trying to be like Florida-only stories. Um parents want accountability at rentals after daughter, a four-year-old daughter drowns at a Miami Dade Airbnb. The baby's name was Kennedy Ray. Um, so they rented an Airbnb. I don't know where they're from originally, but they were in Miami. They are from Atlanta, Georgia, and they want to see more accountability from rental platforms that list properties as family-friendly when they don't have proper safety protections. So apparently there were not there was nothing, there was no alarms, there was no gate. I think there was access to the pool through a door, which she was able to get out of. And supposedly Airbnb lists the following precautions with homes uh for homes with pools. They must have fences, alarms on all windows and doors, um, they must have anti-entrapment drain covers and safety release systems, and they must have rescue equipment. And the attorney is expecting to file a lawsuit against Airbnb. Airbnb's statement is quote, the loss of a child is a tragedy and our hearts go out to the Ray family. Airbnb has supported recent bipartisan efforts in the Florida State Legislature to strengthen safety standards for all homes with pools. We also continue to work with parents on education campaigns and initiatives to promote water safety, including discounted pool fences for hosts and in-app safety tips for guests booking stays near water. If you service Airbnb pools, maybe uh maybe maybe give the homeowner your input on the safety measures that need to be um implemented if they're missing. It doesn't say anything about the pool company, but uh the parents are rem are demanding the removal of the property from rent from rental listings because it's still listed in on not on Airbnb but on other apps. So anyway, those are the two new stories for you. Unfortunately, they are not fun ones, but they are something that we need to talk about more often as far as prevention goes. And, you know, I realize that the homeowner doesn't always have to approve certain things, but I feel like there's maybe other things that we can do as professionals, because it is our job to keep the people safe, as I said. And so I just feel like we should we should all come together and have a talk, all right? So let me know what you guys think. All of this in detail. So here we go. We have the transition from spring to summer with the sound of the pump turning on and the smell of chlorine, unless you're uh year-round. But beneath the fun lies a responsibility to verify that our safety systems haven't degraded over the winter or been worn out or broken during the year-round seasons. So we have to take we have to be taking care of safety issues all year-round and especially during the opening season. And for us in the year-round climates constantly. Summer, especially because every obviously everyone's home. I feel like I feel like the tourist season, yeah, you get a lot of vacation rentals, and you get a lot of people wanting to see grandma and grandpa. But I feel like it's busier in the summer for us as year-round people. I think it kind of doesn't stop depending on where you're at in Florida. But anyway, or wherever else that's year-round. So my goal for today is to move beyond the standard rules and to understand the life-saving engineering and behaviors that keep our families safe. VGBA compliance is part of that. You have to understand how that works and that it's not just a drain cover, it's not just having dual drains, it's about the whole entire system. Suction safety and the physics of entrapment is very important to understand because one of the things that gets left out is entrapment hazards. I think people are afraid to talk about it with their homeowners, with their residents, customers, whatever you want to call them. I I I've I know that I've not brought it up before because I'm, you know, some people give you weird looks, especially I I had a guy give me a well, I don't have long hair when I told him about hair entrapment. And it's like, well, it's not just about you, and it's not just about the fact that you have boys for children instead of girls, but like y'all got cousins that come over. You know what I mean? Like, what about your wife? What about her hair? It's not just about kids, although they are more at risk, but it is not it's for everybody, and it's for all the time. Anyway, I'm also gonna give you a bunch of links and some resources. Um, I'll have to list them. I don't really like listing things, but I'll make it quick and then I'll also make sure that it gets into the show notes. And then I have another list, even though I said I don't like lists. I'm gonna give you some like do's and don'ts. If you already know this information, that is great. I love that for you. Share it with somebody who might not know. And then also if I'm missing anything, if you feel like there's something I should add to it, let me know and I'll do an updated uh I'll do like a reboot or something like that in the future. Or I could do like a little quick editorial. Anyway, so let's get into it. Let's du let's jump in, let's dive in. So we know why drain covers matter, but for those of us that do not know, for those of you listening who may not know, because I know that there's residential pools without drain covers at all. So to prevent entrapment, operators should conduct thorough inspections before opening the pool and during maintenance visits. So if you're doing commercial pools, every single visit, check it, check it out. Same thing with residential pools, and if you're starting to notice things breaking down, wearing out, whatever, you want to bring that to everyone's attention, okay? Document it, tell everybody. And that's not just main drain covers either. I'm talking about any suction outlet, even if it's not directly tied to the pump. So the five types of entrapment are, and yes, I did talk about this a little bit previously, but here we go again. Hair entrapment is the most common type. And this is where, like I said, it doesn't matter if your hair is short, okay? It's somebody with long hair might get in that pool, and you should be conscious of hair entrapment. So long hair will pass through the openings of the suction outlet cover, so it'll just pass right through those grates, and then it becomes uh knotted on the other side. So it's essentially like locking or just trapping your head under water because I mean, like, imagine my hair is like down past the back of my back, and and it like the wind tangles up my hair. I can't imagine having it being pulled with the suction force, uh, you know, uh the vacuum force of a pump pulling it, and then it just twists up and gets all tangled and as I said, knotted, and then it just makes it so much harder. You you have to get scissors or just rip someone's hair out of their head, right? So hair entrapment is very serious. Not that they're none not that it's the most serious because they're all serious, but I feel like it's just one that people don't think about or tend to ignore. I don't really know why. Anyway, the higher the water velocity and the longer the hair, the more increased the risk. Next is limb entrapment. This is when um you have a broken cover or missing cover, and a limb, such as an arm, leg, finger, toe, something like that, is trapped within the plumbing from the force of the suction. So it's not just that your your arm is stuck across the opening of the pipe, it's that it's actually stuck in the pipe itself. So body entrapment is similar to that. However, this means that the whole body or your torso area is held against a suction outlet, forming a seal. Mechanical entrapment is when something attached to the user, such as a piece of jewelry or some part of a bathe of the bathing suit, like a you know, a strap or some embellishment, some accessory on there, a buckle, a clip, some extra loose hangy thing. You never really know with female bathing suits, but it also is could be a problem with a male bathing suit, too. You have the drawstring sometimes, or just a loose pant leg, okay. I said jewelry, I said jewelry, necklaces, whatever. I don't know if you could get a ring stuck, but you never know with people. Um, and then the fifth type is evisceration or disembowelment. And I'm gonna quote from the CPO book. So uh trigger warning. Quote: This occurs when an individual's buttocks forms a seal over a suction outlet, causing the rectum to burst and viscera to be withdrawn from the body. So this is why we need to just make sure that we are protecting people because nobody wants a scene from urban legend to deal with. So a pool pump, as we know, can exert hundreds of pounds of pressure, and a human being simply cannot pull themselves off of a blocked suction point. And I don't know if any of you have ever accidentally gotten too close to like the vacuum line when you were trying to hook up a system vac or trying trying to empty a leaf catcher or something like that. I've caught my arm on that before and it is painful. Luckily, I was able to pull myself off, but that is not always the case, especially in something like a giant pump that is on those commercial pools. So, in the in the event of entrapment, immediately activate the emergency cutoff switch, or in the case of a residential pool, just run as fast as you can to shut that bitch off. If you have an automated system on your phone, that's probably ideal. Once the pumps have stopped, you are supposed to roll the victim off the suction outlet instead of pulling them directly upward. And it says you may need to insert a wedge between the victim and the outlet to break the vacuum seal. Which sounds horrible. So I'm gonna give you a little bit of a pre-summer checklist when you're coming into the summertime. It doesn't matter if we open or close pools or whatever, just check all of these things because prevention is the primary defense against entrapment. So, pool operators, whether you're doing commercial or residential, we must ensure that the protective suction outlet covers are correctly installed and fully functional to minimize these hazards. So things you want to check for. So are the integrity of the thing, first of all. So are there cracks from UV damage or winterizing tools or high chlorine levels, low pH? Not saying that's your fault, but it does break down uh and wear out the plastics and it makes them brittle. Uh fastening. So are the screws that are fastening these things to their housings? I think that's the right term. Are the screws the correct manufacturer-approved stainless steel? Or are they stripped andor missing or rusting out, leaving stains? You have the life and sp expectancy, life expectancy. So every drain cover has a life rating, which is usually five, seven, or ten years. And if you don't know when yours was installed, this is commercial pool is here, it's time to replace it. And then specifically for commercial pools and aquatic facilities, you can request, like I say, if you get a new account, or maybe you've just had the account for a while and you've not ever had this information, but you can get records of the installations. Um, but one of the things that happened to me was I was working for a different company and I was doing a bunch of their commercial pools. I think I had almost all of them except for like one or whatever. And I had to deal with the same health inspector for all of there were like five of them, I think. All of all of my commercial pools. I had the one health inspector, and she was brand new because they rotate people very quickly. There's a high turnover rate for these health inspectors. And the first thing she did was request all of the main drain information because, you know, whatever. It's oh it's it's the yearly audit or whatever she whatever she said it was. I'm not gonna argue. I think she was just new and wanted to flex, but whatever. It's a safety thing, so I wasn't mad about it. But anyway, it was a real big pain in the butt because nobody knew any of the information, and we had to like get underwater cameras, and like I had to stick my phone in the water and try and zoom in just to get the information that was printed on the drain covers because nobody had records of it. Well, I think one pool did, but most of them didn't. We had to do all this work to get the information from the drain covers because not a lot of the facilities had them. And then once we got that information, then you have the form to fill out and then you can keep it from your records for your records from that point on. But that was the whole point of my the whole point of my story was if you get a brand new commercial account, just get that information right off the bat so you don't have to deal with trying to scramble to meet a deadline later. I think she only gave us like two weeks or something like that to get that information. So anyway, long story short, check all those things. So now I want to move on to the VGBA Virginia Graham Baker Act, um, because there is a lot of misconception around it. A lot of people think that it is just about the drain cover or just about the dual drains. Um and even if you did have a compliant drain cover and dual drains or whichever one is required, because obviously on an old pool, you're not going to be able to have a dual drain unless you want to like redo the whole bottom of the pool, but whatever. Even if you have those things, you're it's you're still not a hundred percent compliant unless you are compliant in all the other areas of the VGBA safety uh act, new Graham Baker Act. It's different, it used to just be VGB, and then the family wanted to separate the victim from the legislation. So when you we refer to uh compliance, we say VGBA. Anyway, as I said, the Virginia Graham Baker Act is about the entire hydraulic system. So a cover is only compliant if the pump's flow rate does not exceed the cover's gallons per minute rating, which is one of the pieces of info that is not printed, but uh it's on the cover. Term for that. Oh my god, someone help me out. So you have all of these other safety features like uh safety vacuum release systems, which shut the pump off if it detects um uh increased vacuum. So who was Virginia Graham Baker? Let's just talk about her real quick. Um, she was a because there's also a lot of myths surrounding her and what happened to her. She was a seven-year-old girl who drowned when she was trapped underwater by the suction of a hot tub drain. This is from Wikipedia, by the way. She was a profession, a proficient swimmer, and she was on a swim team. She had been swimming since the age of three. Um, and her parents were R. Nancy and James Baker. And James Baker is the son of former Secretary of State. James Baker III. In June 2002, Graham, because her name was Virginia, but they called her Graham, she was stuck to a hot tub drain by suction. Efforts by her mother to free her were unsuccessful, and when two men eventually were able to free her post mortem, the drain broke from the force. Although Graham drowned, her official cause of death was suction entrapment due to a faulty drain cover. Following Graham's death in June 2002, her mother, Nancy Baker, began worked to advocate pool and spa safety. She began by lobbying Congress to pass legislation to require anti-entrapment drain covers as well as other pool and safety spa devices. The ISA was introduced to Congress on January 12, 2007 and signed into law on December 19th, 2007, by President George W. Bush. Abigail Taylor. So Abigail Rose Taylor was a six-year-old girl from Edina, Minnesota, excuse me, whose accidental injury and eventual death led to federal legislation to improve the safety of swimming pools. Her death contributed to the VGBA. She was uh Abigail Rose Taylor, sorry. Why I said that already. In June 29, on June 29th, 2007, Abigail's parents took her to the Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Taylor accidentally fell on the open drain of the pool and her buttocks were sucked into the aperture. The suction dislodged a large section of her small intestine, which was forcefully drawn out through the anus, a phenomenon known as transanal evisceration. Taylor lost 6.5 meters or 21 feet of her small intestine in the accident, leaving her with short bowel syndrome. Taylor was hospitalized and received a rare triple organ transplant to replace her small intestine, liver, and pancreas, all of which were damaged in the accident. This is actually kind of hard to read out loud. Sorry. She was unable to eat or drink, and she required total uh parental nutrition. I think I said that wrong. Pronounced it wrong, but that's she had to be fed intravenously. The incident was similar to a 1993 incident in North Carolina involving Valerie Lackey. The pool drains in question in both the Taylor and the Lackey cases were manufactured by state right. So in December 2007, the requirements for safety improvements at every public pool and spa were signed into law. The the uh excuse me, this act became enforceable law on December 19th, 2008. And now here are the requirements for the law, which I'm gonna quote from the CPO book. So I'm gonna read through this kind of fast. So uh uh each swimming pool or spa cover shall conform to the entrapment protection standards of the uh ANSI slash APSP-16 performance standard. All covers in commerce must comply with the standard. All suction outlets must have levels of protection to prevent entrapment. Any pool or spa with a single main drain must also be equipped with one of the following devices. This is what I was talking about earlier. Uh one of the following. So a safety vacuum release system, a suction limiting vent system, a gravity drainage system, drain disablement, automatic pump shutoff system, and then other systems approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission or CSPSC. Covers must include permanent labeling with the maximum flow rate recommended by the manufacturer, the life and I keep saying inspectancy, the life expectancy of the cover, whether is it whether it is intended for wall or bottom floor use, and marked with VGB 2008 or ANSI slash APSP-16. Covers may be qualified field fabricated outlets that have been certified by a registered design professional. And then to further minimize the five forms of entrapment, no pools or spas should be operated if any of the covers of the vacuum outlets are missing or damaged. Local codes require dual drains to minimize the potential for direct suction that can entrap a person. These drains must be at least three feet or one meter apart and be hydraulically balanced, I wrote blanched, or be on two separate planes. So just because you have dual drains, they could be unevenly uneven, you know, and one side could suck harder than the other. In the event a pump is replaced, the manufacturer can assist in selecting a pump that draws flow to not exceed the cover's maximum rating if 100% of the circuit circulation system flow passes through the cover. And number four is unlock unblockable drains. The term unblockable drain means a drain of any size and shape that a human body cannot sufficiently block to create a suction or entrapment hazard, to create a suction entrapment hazard. The minimum size for these covers should be 18 by 23 inches. So according to the there's a CDC Vital Science Study relate released on May 14th, 2024. And I'm gonna paraphrase here, but it's basically says that drowning deaths are on the rise in the United States following decades of decline. Over 4,500 people have died due to drowning each year from 2020 to 2022. 500 more per year compared to 2019. So we can all think uh lockdown and COVID and all that for that. Um, drowning is the number one cause of death for children between the ages of one to four in the United States. Almost 40 million adults in the United States do not know how to swim, and over half have never taken a swimming lesson, which is uh 54% point 54.7 percent, according to the study. We need uh we need layers of protection because drowning is often silent and often very fast. We have the layers that we currently implement that we should be um recommending to people if we see them missing. We have fences like your lifesaver, for example, lifesaver pool fence systems. Um they actually have an incentive program for referrals. So if you refer people to them, I mean you all know how incentive programs work. You can go to their website and check it out. Um you have alarms, safety covers, education, such as what I'm trying to do, but that refers to swimming lessons mostly, and supervision, last but not least. Both of those two things combined swimming lessons and supervision literally almost eliminates the risk of drowning, almost. And now I'm going to give you a list of resources real quick. These are um you these are all like pretty much two. Like if you go to one website, you can find the links to them through all the other ones, but I'm just gonna give you to them them to you here. So we have poolsafely.gov and they focus on their pledge for kids, and they have a massive library of free educational videos. You have the National Drowning Prevention Alliance, which is ndpa.org. Um, more resources, more videos, um, the five layers of protection advocacy. Uh, there's a whole community there. You have Collinshope.org. They provide physical tags um to help adults designate who is watching the water. Uh there that's the um their program is called the Water Guardian. Then you have Abby'sHope.org, which is actually founded by the parents, I believe, of Abigail Taylor. This organization was um founded in her name. Um they are the leaders in advocacy for suction safety. They have a water watcher program similar to the others. Uh, they also have a pledge system. It's not monetary. You just go and you I have my little dog tag here that I got from Abby's Hope a long time ago. On the back, it says, I agree to maintain constant visual contact with children in my group, stay by the water until relieved by another adult, keep a phone nearby for emergencies, but stay off of it because you're watching these children. Refrain from drinking alcohol or so uh or socializing while on duty, refrain from talking on the phone, texting or reading. Um, and then like you get that's like done in 15 or 20 minute increments, I think, and then you switch off to another person. So that's how those systems work, which are super highly effective. PHTA, the Pool and Hot Tub Alliance, uh, provides training. Oops, I just clicked away from my outline, provides the training for the professionals who service the pools and spas through pool safety training and certifications like the CPO, certified pool operator. Um that's where you get a lot of information about how to be VGBA compliant. Uh the PHTA also has an initiative committed to creating more swimmers, which is called Step Into Swim. So you can check that out. You also have Every Child a Swimmer, which offers opportunities for low to no cost scholarships for qualified children. And then a couple, um, ooh, way too close to the microphone. Sorry. I almost just swallowed a hint. Florida specific programs for all my Florida people here for uh the FSPA, the Florida Swimming Pool Association. They are associated with the Florida Swims Foundation, which is a dedicated force in providing swim safety and education across Florida through community-focused initiatives and partnerships. So you can support them, you can help them fund swimming lessons, educational scholarships. Um, they also work with every child a swimmer and the step in to swim uh programs. They fund grants to swim schools throughout Florida with your donations, and you can mark which organization you would like to utilize the money. Uh, and then step in to swim, I guess, guarantees the funds will be matched. The Florida Department of Health offers swimming lesson vouchers also for uh low-income uh families. Um, and then you know, just check your local area, check your. I just started Googling swim programs or like uh swimming lessons and stuff like that, and you just look in your look in your local government uh health department, for example. Um, like I said, the our that you get the swimming lesson lesson vouchers. I don't know which other states have those programs, but just Google it. Also, the CDC website has programs that work work on healthy water and safe swimming. Um, a lot of these maybe, I mean, I didn't know some of these had water safety programs. Um you have a uh and just this is a list on the CDC website. It you have healthy swimming, you have safe water program, um, and then there's water safety USA, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Red Cross, Boy Scouts of America, Diversity and Aquatics. I mentioned the NDPA already, the National Park Service, the National Safe Boating Council, I said PhTA already, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Army Corps of Engineers, USA Swimming Foundation, and the YMCA. I skipped a couple because I just I'm sorry for listing so many things. And uh so now, you know, the importance of swimming lessons, which is why I feel like if I had money to be donating, I would be donating it to swimming lessons. Um it's about water competency, competency. It's not just about learning how to like you know how to swim. It's about treading water. Um, what happens if you fall in with all your clothes on? Um, I'm not gonna get into much of the uh ISR. I don't know if I agree with it, seems a little traumatic, but I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Uh, but I do feel like it's important to know how to react in an emergency if a child falls in, so I guess that's debatable. Um and then supervision. So supervision and as I said, supervision and swimming lessons nearly eliminate the risk of drowning. Swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by 88%. And then finally, here are your do's and don'ts. So the the golden rule, the very first thing, never swim alone. That comes that's supervision. Always have someone supervising anyone who is swimming in any body of water. Never swim alone at the ocean, never swim alone in a pond, and never swim alone in a ri- you get it, okay? Just never swim alone. You don't need to. Anything can happen. And this all of this applies to adults as well as children, because adults are also at risk of drowning. Actually, uh males between the ages of five oh man, I don't have the I can't quote the exact numbers. Uh white males have a very high statistic of drowning risk because y'all are crazy. Okay, y'all need to calm down and stop yelling, hey, watch this. Anyway, here's your don'ts. We're not gonna do dangerous games. I know, Andrea, you're no fun, and I really am not. I hate swimming in pools, it's so gross. I'm just kidding, I love it. But no, I don't let anyone have fun while they're at a pool. Pools are not fun, okay? I'm kidding. Don't nobody come for me. Anyway, no breath holding contests because this is dangerous. You have a risk of blacking out. Um, I used to think that hyperventilating before you go underwater was a good idea. It is definitely not. It can trick your brain into not realizing it needs oxygen. Uh, you could pass out before you get the chance to resurface. It's kind of making me feel like I want to pass out now. Just, you know, don't do it. Just don't let anyone else do it. And yes, you're gonna get made fun of for not being any fun, but at least you won't have to rescue anyone from the water now, will you? Uh the drain game. Discourage, touch the drain, or sit on the drain games, or any kind of drain that in uh game that involves swimming down to any drain or standing on it with your feet or doing a handstand over it like I used to. It's amazing I'm still alive. None of that. Even if you have a VGB cover, VGBA cover, even if you have a compliant equipment, other safety, just don't teach your children, teach your clients to teach their children that drains and not just the main drain, we're talking about any suction outlet here, stay away from any grates in any gutter systems in any com commercial pools. Just don't even just don't mess with them, don't touch them, stay away from them. It's like finding Nemo, right? Remember when finding Nemo got too close to the fish tank filter and he got sucked in? Okay, that was that's uh uh cautionary, okay? That is definitely a thing that can happen. So just remind everybody of that. No distractions. Parents, put your phones down if you are the one who is responsible for supervising the people in the water. If you have a water watcher tag on you, have your phone nearby for emergencies, but don't you look at it. Don't you post anything, don't you take any pictures, nothing. If you want to take pictures for memories or for content, if you must, that's a whole different issue. Have someone doing that for you. Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed that break from our sponsors. As I was saying, if you are the water watcher, the water guardian, whichever program you're doing, you should not be on your phone. You can designate someone else to take pictures and videos or whatever. Uh that's, you know, obviously not for the person cleaning the pool, but you should tell your your customers that. Feel free that feel feel free to share this with them. But last thing for don'ts is do not prop open gates or doors to the pool area. If you see someone doing that, you can close the pool. Uh, yeah, don't don't let people do that. Don't do it yourself. Anyone can just wander in, any children, any ducks. I don't know. Okay, so drunk people, okay. My here's the do list. Again, we're gonna stress active supervision, no distractions, rule number one, okay? Life jackets. If you have a weak swimmer, you need Coast Guard approved vests, not floaties, not puddle jumpers, those are the actual worst, you know, stuff like that. No noodles, long hair. And this is for like everyone, and please stress this to your customers as well. Keep long hair braided or tied up, or both. Braid it and then tie it up, braid it and then put it in a bun. In fact, shave your head that way. I won't have to empty the hair out of the pump basket. As I said earlier, teach the children and also the drunk people. My dog agrees with me. Teach the children the dangers of suction outlets and and entrapment. Let's be like Nemo and stay away from the suction. Don't get too close. And then for the pool pros, even if you're doing residential pools, not just commercial pools, look for broken or missing covers. Entrapment can happen even if the pump is off. All right. I had a customer with a broken drain cover, and I actually got my net stuck on the drain cover, and I immediately showed it to the homeowner, and I was like, you need to replace this immediately. They still haven't. But that's why I'm just letting everybody know. Make sure they know. And I told him, keep make sure you tell them not to get don't just don't swim around down there. There's no need for it. You'll get your bathing suit caught on there, you'll get your toe caught in there. I don't know, something. Just stay away. And then this is mostly for commercial pools. Um, but you should not be swimming if the water is cloudy or if you can't see the main drain, all of those things. And so that's pretty much it. That I think that covers everything. You always want to just check the hardware, check, um educate people, help help them get the resources, uh and and make sure that people are behaving in a safe way when you can when you can inform them. So safety is a culture, not a checklist. Although you you do need a checklist sometimes, which is anyway. Uh when we treat the pool with respect, we ensure the summer stays fun. So that is it. Thank you everyone for listening. Um, I hope everyone else stays safe. I hope you keep your customers safe, of course. And as I said, you can look at the show notes for all those links. Or you can just Google it. It's very, very easy to just do that. You just Google, like I said, keywords, go to the CDC website, they have that whole list that I read to you. Um, so follow the podcast if you don't already. I don't know how you're listening to it if you don't follow it, but I appreciate the listen. Now just go follow. Um, if you don't know, we we have other hosts, we have other shows, um follow us on all the streaming apps, leave reviews where you can. We like to read your comments when they're nice. You could follow all of us on socials, and then if you have questions, uh you can email rudy at talkingpools at gmail.com or you can email me at andrea.talkingpools at gmail.com. And that's it. I hope everybody has a great week and I will see you next Tuesday. Bye.