Think the weather outside is too frightful to learn lifeguarding? The Gleason Family YMCA doesn’t think so.

The Y’s multi-week lifeguarding class begins Dec. 10. YMCA Aquatics Director Mel Dyer said the YMCA was actually the first organization to offer comprehensive lifeguarding classes that aren’t specialized to any specific area.

“We cover certification from pools, to water parks to beaches,” Dyer said. “Other certification courses do individual training may only be for the pool, shallow water, or water parks.”

Dyer became a certified lifeguard at Silver Shell Beach in Marion at age 15. She has taught lifeguarding for several years, and feels the course is an important one for communities based around the water, like Wareham. Because the job requires a certain mental maturity, Dyer said they do not admit any under 16 years old.

“By 16, the maturity level is higher, and critical thinking skills and time management skills are better developed,” Dyer said.

She also said the course is no joke, and that potential participants should be in the water at least once a week, prior to signing up for the course.

Not only do participants have to be strong swimmers coming into the course, and do 15 hours of written and online coursework, but they also must pass an endurance test, before certification.

“They have to swim for a certain distance, retrieve an object at the bottom of the pool, and tread water for a minute, while holding that object out of the water, as if it were a person’s head,” Dyer said. “Then, they have to dive back down, and put the object back.”

But it’s not just the physical challenge for which participants have to ready themselves. Dyer admitted that sitting in a lifeguard chair at the beach can get “mind-numbingly boring.”

“You have to stay present, and in the moment,” Dyer said. “This job is for people who really have a passion to keep other people safe.”

For more information on the class, or to sign up, call Mel Dyer at 508-295-9622, ext. 27.