The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan. I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me. Here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics, and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

Unknown Speaker 0:46
Good morning, Las Vegas, and welcome to another edition of the scope with me. Tanya Flanagan here on K u and v 91.5. Jazz and more. First of all, Happy Father's Day. It is another beautiful Sunday morning in this gorgeous desert that we all call home. And so thank you for waking up. I know it's a hot summer day. But I appreciate your being here. I think we have a really cool topic for the season. That is very seasonable. And so I'm going to introduce you to my guests very shortly. But I do just want to wish all of the dads out there. My dad included a wonderful, blessed and pleasant, Happy Father's Day. So with that, and without further ado, I'd like to welcome my guest to the conversation. Gabby, good morning.

Unknown Speaker 1:30
Good morning, are you Tanya,

Unknown Speaker 1:33
I'm good. I am good. I am a huge person who likes to respect the pronunciation of names. And so I want you to share your full name so that I don't butcher your last name.

Unknown Speaker 1:44
My name is Gabby cannabis cannabis.

Unknown Speaker 1:48
So cool. Thank you for spending some time with me. I mentioned that our topic this morning is something that is seasonal, very seasonal, very timely. It's basically it is pool safety. It is drowning prevention. We've already seen some incidents in the valley already this summer as the temperatures have climbed up. So quickly, unexpectedly. We're like in the triple digits. And it is like now mid June, but we were there in early June. And it's just it's the time when we are called to the water. We want to cool down we want to get in we want to enjoy it. slather on some sunblock and get in the water and have a good time and just play. While it's important that while we are playing, we are safe. We have kids around the water. We have people who swim well those who don't swim so well and they have the best of intentions. But what we don't want to have is a situation where someone we lose someone or someone is severely injured due to something that we could have tried to put some precautions in place and learn what to do to prevent the trap the tragedy and the devastation from happening. So Gabby is an aquatics coordinator, and she works with one of our local city government organizations. And I just want to thank her for taking some of our personal time to talk with me this morning about something she's so well versed in. So, Gabby, pool safety. Tell us a little bit about how you are you from here or how you got into this space. Yeah, so

Unknown Speaker 3:14
I am born not sexually born but raised out here. Been with the government for quite a bit. I started in sportsmen over to the recreation and now has been in aquatics and has found a love for aquatics knew that I always want to do something to give back to the community. And definitely being on this side of aquatics and being able to, you know, just create a safer community and be able to use our knowledge and our skills to keep the community safe. But also spread awareness is something that we're super passionate about, like you said, drowning prevention is, is huge. Between the ages of one and four, it's the most prevalent source of deaths. So we definitely don't take it lightly. And so yeah, I'm just loving my group so far and aquatics and then also being able to share all the knowledge and information that I have, like I said, to keep a safer community

Unknown Speaker 4:08
like that. And I appreciate that. And one of my journeys I've always kind of tried to share, I'm willing to be somewhat as transparent as I possibly can in these spaces. So I went through I don't know if you know, I've told you this. I'm a three time breast cancer survivor. So one of the things that was on my bucket list because as a child, I did not learn to swim well. Optimum went to, you know, the pool party thing got in the water and play but my mother had almost drowned as a child and so she had a water phobia. And sometimes people have that, you know, some trauma happens. And the place or the thing that caused the trauma, they sort of shy away from it and never returned to it to conquer that fear. And so but her water phobia she kind of like took me to a Salvation Army one time as Chow to take some classes to learn to swim were her phobia. I'm looking at her, you know, I'm in the water and she's on the side and she's just all panning. Of course it made me panic. And then I'm just like, Well, I'm just kidding. Yeah, because I don't know what what are we doing? So I never really learned to manage the water. So after I went through my third round of breast cancer, I remember thinking, I want to check something off my bucket list because I don't want to live any part of life with fear. And one of the things I had was a small fear of like, what would happen to me in water, I could drown, right? So one of my bucket list things was to learn to swim. So I actually took classes through I took my classes through the city of Las Vegas, I don't think it's a big deal. You You are with the city in North Las Vegas, but I took classes through partly through the city of Las Vegas, because I was fully an adult. And I did not, and the only people taking classes are really children. And I was like, I refuse to have anyone that I know, see me in a swimming class, as an adult, I'm gonna go where I know no one that will know me will show up to now that I need classes to learn how to swim. Because I was grown. But that was funny. But it was just one of those things. Yeah. So I think it's so important that you spend time focusing on something that we love to do that we need to learn to do safely. What are the things that? Is it different? Like say, if you're at home, you have a pool at home? Or you're taking your kids to a public facility full pool? Are there different tips that you would give them on how to make sure the children are prepared? Yeah, at home versus at a community pool? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 6:36
absolutely. So there's quite a bit of a difference being at home, obviously isn't in a public setting. So in a public setting, it's misunderstood that we do have our lifeguards on stand in there to assist in any type of emergency. But in no way does that mean that our supervision of the children is any less. So as a parent, it's still your responsibility to just keep an eye sight and always being able to supervise your kids keep them in a distance where they are close and in range if they don't know how to swim, making sure that they have a light jacket, but not just like jackets on them. And this goes for at home or at a public facility, making sure it also fits them properly. Because if it's not fitting them in the way that they're supposed to, it really goes outside of the intentions of the lifeguard we've noticed or lifejacket, we've noticed that the life jackets that go from the front and attach on the sides are a lot more stable than the ones but old school kind of vests that you put on in Bucklin. So we've now transferred into more of the around the chest and our wings, as we will call them. So we've transferred into those seeing definitely more progress with those. And then at home, it's all lifeguards are professionals because they're able to perform CPR if needed. But that's something where I always encourage parents on the side to also take the time to learn CPR. In the emergency of a at home drowning, you are able to at least be able to quick act in kind of play that role before fire EMS can get on site. So being able to clear the lungs, give good breath, make sure that they're able to, you know, keep the blood flow and just putting them in the best survival rates that they can before EMS arrives is super important. And then like you said, swim lessons, I know that you joke being an adult and swim lessons, but not going to talk about too much of the city. But we do also have adult swim lessons that are more of the private route if you are a little more embarrassed to take them as an older age. But I see kids all the way up until 1415 still taking swim lessons just because like you said it wasn't really a big topic when they were younger, but we see them learning and so if you have the opportunities, whether to the city or other organizations to take some lessons, that's something that definitely will increase the chances of success in the water as well. So I think just supervision and then just being prepared for the moments whether you're at a public facility or at home, there's a lot of different steps that we can take in order to prevent drowning as a whole. Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 9:03
And I mean, I did joke about taking lessons as I got, you know, older but I mean, the part of the lesson in that is, is you're never too old to learn. So if it's something that you want to do, don't miss the opportunity to enjoy and experience that part of your life. I had a girlfriend, my close friend got married in Maui a couple of years ago. And so of course, being in Hawaii, we spent a tremendous amount of time on the beach and in the water. And it was one of the times that I really spending so much time in the ocean began to really understand the movement of water and how if you really just kind of move with it, it is not so frightening. It just will take you here but you move, you know, you learn to work with water and it's really just like, it's amazing, as a natural creation, how we are so naturally bonded to it, if we just allow it to do what it does, and we're not afraid of it and we sort of give and yield to it some so yeah,

Unknown Speaker 9:59
no Oh yeah, we call that respect in the water. So yeah, that's exactly you're, you're totally in tune with that. I love that. That's awesome.

Unknown Speaker 10:06
So that was pretty cool classes. And I know that they're training classes and things like that available. CPR. And I also want to talk a little bit about water, in the sense of safety, but also exercise. But before we get into the space of water being a good space to do exercise for different reasons, the CPR classes, you mentioned that people can do training, parents can sign up for training, people can sign up for private lessons for swimming, they can also sign up for safety classes. And I'm assuming that anyone who's interested, because every year or pools, we're looking for lifeguards to work, honestly, I'm just gonna be honest, we're looking for people to work at all the city pools and we're looking for people to work as lifeguards at the county, Clark County pools and so there's opportunities to become a part of this community, this lifesaving community in the service community in this way, and also to earn some money. And we're especially looking for young people. So that's something for people to think about. But the CPR training people can take classes through.

Unknown Speaker 11:15
Yeah. So they can take classes through Red Cross, we have star guard, we there's a lot of different options. I know the city also does internal and external classes as well. There's a ton of different private instructors that will also have their own company that they will come out to you and do CPR trainings, as well. So the resources are endless. Honestly, as long as you can dedicate some time to go in and sign up for those classes, they're all over the place. And they're usually year round too. So you don't have to worry about it being too late now that we're in the summer, you can kind of take them whenever you need be.

Unknown Speaker 11:49
Okay, that's really neat. I didn't really think about the fact that I guess they do star throughout the year on a rolling basis, or whatever fits your schedule, there's always going to be that opportunity to sign up and to do that. And if you're thinking about putting a pool in your backyard, I mean, I know now we have different requirements for what size the pool is. But, you know, children can drown in a tub of water. So being ready to make sure you have a safe pool environment and a comfortable home space. And you're prepared for entertaining or just for kids to have a good time for your family. And when you're hosting events for families and friends, it's really nice to be able to have access to these resources.

Unknown Speaker 12:28
Yeah, in and going off of that to town yet. We also see it a lot where it I did it growing up too. If you do have a space, like a pool in your area, and you do have full parties we see. Sometimes we'll allow our instructors or lifeguards to go out and lifeguard the pools as well. Even if it's at a home setting just to be sure that way. I know everyone's kind of trying to have fun and don't want to worry too much about just prioritizing even though we do say still supervise your children. But the idea that you can, you know, have these lifeguards come out and temporarily watch the pools and stuff. That's also an option that people don't usually just not the first choice that they think about, but it's definitely an option. I mean, we want safety at the end of the day. So you

Unknown Speaker 13:06
know, I really liked that I had I'm glad you mentioned it because I honestly never thought about that in the space of ensuring that there's you know, pull safety, if you're having any event, and you want to be able to have a good time, the kids are going to come over, it's a birthday party, whatever you might be having to take a little extra and have a lifeguard come up, you know, a teen or whatever, a certified lifeguard come and be at your pool party where you're having this for the kids. That Wow, did that is a really smart idea. And it's not something that I had ever thought of. But that's a great idea. I love it. I absolutely love that. That's cool. So just, you know, I'm assuming you could reach out to a community center in your area, at least definitely, that's the first place to start. Because we know they're on staff there, whether it was you know, whether it was community pools, they're on staff, and you can you know, find out if there's someone there that you can bring for a pool party, that you might be having a kid's birthday, or whatever you're planning. And then that way you have someone who's certified who's ready to do it. So

Unknown Speaker 14:07
a lot of these actually these hotel schools and bigger organizations, churches as well. So you can type in any contract with lifeguards, and though there'll be more than happy to send some out your way. So again, at the end of the day, we just want safety so if that means hiring an extra source, it's worth it. So

Unknown Speaker 14:25
that's true. I do toss out that the municipalities have jobs for lifeguards, but to be honest, we are a resort destination and so ever restrict property, every hotel property on the strip, and those downtown have amazingly beautiful pool areas and they are also always hiring for life course. I mean it's June so they may well be staffed but you never know. There's definitely opportunities to work in a very cool and beautiful and relaxing environment even though it was 120 degrees out there. I'm exaggerating on that heat but it feels like the hunt Dude in 20 degrees, but hey, so

Unknown Speaker 15:01
I know it seems like every day I'm out there. I'm like, it can't get any hotter and somehow it

Unknown Speaker 15:06
does. It really does. And so yeah, we're looking at doing some stuff today for my dad that is poolside. So I totally understand. Yeah, they're my family's looking at doing some stuff today for my dad this poolside? So I understand hope they have a wonderful time. Um, yeah. I wanted to talk also about using pools for our senior adults, because exercise and a lot of times when I'm having a conversation, I'll encourage people who have health issues, or you know, mobility issues and challenges to consider doing their exercises in the pool. Yes. Do you ever do anything with that? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 15:48
yeah. So I have a background in some personal training. So I used to always with my clients that were in the older generation, but aren't even just older, just ones that are a little less mobile, the pool is a great and amazing way to do low fat, low impact exercises, because you're able to still move the muscles but in a way where the water buoyancy is kind of helping you assist in the movement. So it's not as wear and tear on the on the body, but it's also giving you that great workout that you need. And it's also a great aerobic workout. So a lot of people think that working in the pool is just kind of helping with your muscles. But honestly moving past the water, and like you said, respecting the water and using the water. It definitely allows your heart rate to kind of get pumped in and also get some good aerobic workout as well. So yeah, arthritis, older age, any type of bone, osteoarthritis, all that kind of stuff is perfect for the pool. And it's a great way to stay cool. So you get some vitamin D stay in the water. Stay cool. We'll put on a nice little workout music track. And yeah, we've seen that awesome, awesome progress with that with the seniors. So

Unknown Speaker 16:55
that's really neat. Are there times that you do those kinds of classes or the birthday? Yeah, to at least go look and check and see what's

Unknown Speaker 17:06
Yeah, so I know the city kind of all over, will do like 8am to 845 classes we always want to do, I know we talked about the heat trying to beat the heat so hot at 8am. But it's not, it's more bearable than waiting to like one and two in the afternoon. So we'll do an eight to 845 typically about 45 minutes in the water will add some foam or water robic weights, we have them sit in a position where they're balancing on a foam pad. And so we're able to incorporate some exercises in the pool movement. And then just kind of like we said, be able to get some exercise, stay cool at the same time, beat the heat but also change up what we're used to. I think it gets monotonous using the gym over and over again. And so being able to kind of use aquatics as a form of change it up and kind of doing something in a different route. So we've seen a lot of growth and we're just only trying to promote it more and more and more. So sedentary lifestyles, one of the most debilitating things that you can have as you get older so we definitely want to encourage moving our body in motion stays in motion. So that's what we're doing with aquatics, and we've seen great success with the seniors but overall just in general,

Unknown Speaker 18:20
I love that I have to agree with you on the effectiveness of it because when I was going through the classes that I did take I learned how to do each one of the different types of swim techniques so the butterfly backstroke you know, traditional scissors, all kinds of stuff and I took you know, the class of six part course for learning include included diving, and there was just I was so toned and so fit and it was only six classes but I really could see the difference that it made in my physical ability and my body and I was like This is amazing. I mean, I you don't always get to the pool into every one of the different types of swim styles but the full scope and gamut of it really will condition the body and the condition somebody so quickly and so completely.

Unknown Speaker 19:11
Yes, yes, it's it's I even I was a college athlete, I even still do swim workouts to this day because it just doesn't compare sometimes. And then the idea of it definitely puts me in shape. But I like being able to kind of the recovery process is not as difficult just being that it is low impact low resistance. So it's awesome awesome for all ages, but specifically seniors. We've seen a lot of growth in this class, because it accommodates their needs. So font awesome to see.

Unknown Speaker 19:36
Pretty cool. So for people who might, you know, work Monday through Friday or whatever the schedule might be, or there are also classes on the weekends that you are offering or are aware of that people could take.

Unknown Speaker 19:48
I know that there's been I lived in Henderson for quite a bit now I know that there's water aerobics actually where they put bikes in the water and they're able to use bicycling inside of the water on these Aqua bikes. So I numbers if your research, a lot of the cities have classes that are going on on the weekends, the outdoor pool typically won't as much on the weekends, because they'll have it open to the public. But I know that any indoor pools, the odds of you being able to get into a class that meet your schedule on the weekends is higher. So there's classes all over. But the aquabike one is also one that we've seen a lot of progress in, as well. So yeah, I would just encourage people to go online, look at the city ones, because the city ones are awesome. They're usually low cost, and also really, really high quality classes. So yeah, there's definitely enough out there to fit your schedule, whether it's in the weekdays and weekends.

Unknown Speaker 20:38
Well, that's pretty neat. I mean, I think it's great this time of year, it's summertime, and we are in one of the hottest places in the country. So there's nothing more refreshing of locking the water, I mean, short of locking to the beach. But this is much safer. Because part of our focus is pull this conversation is really to talk about safety. And I just also wanted to touch on just the different ways that you can, you know, stay healthy and stay next to the water and cooled down. You talked about floatation devices earlier. And I want to make sure before we venture off to four other things that we've covered enough on the different types of flotation devices, because you know, when I years ago, I would always see people put the floaties on the kids arms, and like the floaties on their legs and stuff. So is there anything else that you wish you'd share with parents that they can do or people should do things they can do at home, and ways to prepare, they're things you should think about when you're at a pool, and you're eating food and you're drinking, because there's just like all these things that play into keeping kids healthy and safe around water and not having them you know, getting upset stomach aches, and headaches.

Unknown Speaker 21:45
So I'll kind of touch on first just the life jackets. So we always make sure we recommend the Coast Guard approved like jacket, I feel like we've seen a stray away from the inflatable ones only because when you put them on the arms and there's nothing really on the chest, it's easy for kids to fall forward and still drown or flip backwards, there's nothing really keeping their center of gravity in place. So we've kind of strayed away from the inflatable floaties. And now we're working more towards like I was explaining the ones that actually go on the arms through the chest around the back. And we've seen a lot more progress with that with the center of gravity. So it's important, although they're supposed to be supervised if they're at a younger age, but in God forbid something happens, where they do fall in and things like that, we've seen a lot more success with the center of gravity with the life jackets that are across the chest. So we always just make sure that they are Coast Guard approved, we don't want we want to stray away from anything that's not approved, in that respect. So as far as like jackets, and then I've seen a lot of pools closed down after lunch hours due to just becoming sick in the water and stuff like that after eating. So it's very, very important. One that we're eating stuff that's also going to keep us hydrated and support the summer heat. So healthy snacks, fruits, things that have watermelon is perfect because it also has water inside of it. So we're staying hydrated, but also having a good snack. Anything that's gonna keep us in a good kind of position with with the summer heats that we talked about, and just waiting that respected time. So giving at least 30 minutes before we send our kids in. It's more prevalent in the younger kids because they like to eat real quick and jump around. And they're kind of moving in these more sporadic moments, we see it less than the adults becoming sick. In the water, we don't usually swallow as much water as adults. So there's a lot of different factors but just allowing your kids to have at least a 30 minute window where they're off to the side, letting their food digest and also making sure that when we are giving them and supplying food at the pool that we're making those healthy conscious choices that are also going to support the summer heat. So again, fruits, vegetables, light snacks, so nothing too too too heavy. And then also water, water, water, electrolytes, I'm always giving our lifeguards some type of little electrolyte package to put in their waters, making sure that they always have water on hand. Because heatstroke is another thing that we see a kind of the pools and it comes down to just not properly being prepared for one more in those summer heat. So yeah, those are those are some of my suggestions on food and life jackets and then just staying hydrated. You can ever drink too much water be prepared. So coolers we allow a lot of people to bring in coolers and pack coolers full of anything that they might need. But just staying really, really conscious of the heat and putting yourself in a position where we can stay safe not only in the water but outside the water as well.

Unknown Speaker 24:35
I guess while we're on that we should also touch a little bit on on sunblock. And then the importance of that because anyone is susceptible to skin cancer and we want people to be properly protected. I mean personally, I just care about the rays of sun and getting an even tan. But I'm also knowing that while I'm getting even tan I am protecting myself as well. So Oh, yes,

Unknown Speaker 25:01
and I think one of the misconceptions is the fair our skin, the more likely we are for sun damage. But that's not true. The rays, anytime they're above seven becomes really, really intense. So any skin color always suggests that yours are the most susceptible to sunburn, your shoulders, things like that, which can lead into skin cancer. So we always have sunblock dispensers at the facilities that I work at, we're always handing out sunblock. But just being in that mindset of really, the sun is is not a friend to anyone. And so it doesn't matter how light or dark our skin complexion is, we definitely want to make sure that we're taking those precautions to protect any type of sun damage, I also suggest hats, sunglasses, you know the protective when we're in the water, but when we're out of the water, just being mindful, we want that beautiful tan. But we also want to make sure that we're taking care of our skin. So high rated SPF, sunblock, sunblocks, 50, so on, and so on. That little kids as well are very, we have them apply sunscreen multiple times. So it's also misconception that there's waterproof sunblock, which there is but after a certain amount of time, it's not essentially 100% waterproof. So reapplying is very important as well as the pool, and not just putting it on in the beginning of the day. And just thinking that you're kind of free and out of the clear for the rest of the day, you want to keep applying as needed as well. So that is super, super important that we just know that, you know, doesn't matter how we look, we're not we're not, you know, out of the clear. So we want to just always stay conscious of staying safe with with sunblock as well. Thank

Unknown Speaker 26:36
you, and you asked for some of the questions that were like in the back of my mind about the SPF strength and the waterproof factor. I'm guilty of putting it on once, but I don't spend a ton of time in the sun. So I think my daily single application is probably giving me for the most part the coverage that I need. But if I'm ever near water, I was to it more than once. I just want to say thank you this conversation was important to me, because I think recently, there was a report of a near drowning or drowning of a child. And we're just so early in this season, to talk about your safety, son safety, water safety. Leaving kids and hot cars is an entirely different conversation. But I just thought, let's touch on water. And let's get familiar with that. Let's talk about how important it is. We're familiar but really make it top of mind. Because it's the time of year that we love to get in the pool. We love to cool ourselves down. So I want to thank you for spending some time with me on Father's Day. I hope you have some fun stuff playing with your family later. And

Unknown Speaker 27:37
well, thank you so much. And I love spreading awareness. There's websites you can go on as well to kind of just stay informed. But thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. And then yeah, you know, stay safe. Stay cool. And um, enjoy your father's day as well.

Unknown Speaker 27:52
Absolutely. You mentioned the website, we have enough time do you want to like share the website or any social handles or spaces that people can go to follow and just learn more? Because I know there's just a ton of information out in the world now to get tips on stuff. But anything you got for us?

Unknown Speaker 28:05
Yeah, of course the CDC is going to be the awesome one for Johnny preventing preventative stuff and ECPR safety when it comes inside of the water. And then comprehensive cancer does a great job of promoting skin, and sunscreen safety and all that. So those are two really good ones. Like I mentioned previously, if you're looking to get CPR certified Red Cross is a great one. And yes, the CDC for drowning prevention, comprehensive cancer for sunscreen, and then CPR would be Red Cross. But there's there's tons of websites out there. But those are the really strong front runners that we use and want to stay in regulation with our tools. So I would say those are some pretty strong ones. Well, thank

Unknown Speaker 28:46
you. That's perfect. Well, Gabby, I want to say thank you for spending some time with me this morning. And I want to thank everyone for tuning in to the show. Gabby Canada Yes. Works in North Las Vegas and the Aquatics department just want to say thank you for talking to us. And to those who tuned in. Thank you. I wish everyone a wonderful week, a beautiful Father's Day. And we'll see you next week here on the scoop with me Tanya Flanagan on 91.5 Can you envy, jazz and more public radio? Stay safe stay hydrated. Bye for now.

Unknown Speaker 29:22
I want to thank you for tuning into the scoop with me Tanya Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle ta NYFL a na GA and you can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes Flanagan and if you have a thought and opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to Tanya dat flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai