Marios Mavrantonis: The dangers are many. Both great and small. The sea is friend and an enemy at the same time. If you do not know it, it is difficult. Before I started working on this beach I was coming to swim in the sea. I already knew it. Each lifeguard must know how has the bottom formed at the moment, are there any stones, how far you can step... This is a must care about people. There are currents that can drag you while swimming even though they are less common for the waters of the Athenian bays. Dangerous are also the severely burning jellyfish... The biggest danger, which a lifeguard faces however does not come from the sea, but from the man beside him ... As I already said before the problem is in how will the drowning man react to the one who is trying to save him. To save himself he will try to pull down the lifeguard in order to come to the surface himself. And this is exactly the biggest problem. A man who doesn’t know how to rescue should not be trying to do it. The drowning man is climbing on you like a buoy. He wants to save himself. The sea is a sea ... You don’t know what it hides for you...
Another problem are people who enter into the water after having eaten plenty of food. They say to themselves: "What so bad could happen?". But if you swallow water and loose consciousness things become very dangerous.
GRREPORTER: Where exactly is the problem of entering the water with a full stomach?
Marios Mavrantonis: When you eat your heart is trying to send more blood which is needed for the digestion of food. If you decide to enter to swim in the water it will try to deliver more blood to the whole body. It may be overloaded too much as it sends blood and energy throughout.
GRREPORTER: What mental and physical data must a lifeguard have?
Marios Mavrantonis: He should not be afraid that something will happen and he would not know how to react. Physical qualities are not so important. I was very surprised from this, when I went to the training for lifeguards. I'm not the man with the strongest body in the world, but if I have to rescue someone heavier than me will rescue him. The most difficult to rescue people are not the chubby ones, but those with strong muscles. The water lifts the obese people to the surface more easily. Muscles are a problem, and so are the people who are trying to be heroes... The lifeguard really doesn’t need to have any particular physical qualities. If you know how you can also save a man. Of course it certainly is good for the lifeguard to have some physical strength. But in the water things are different ... In the sea we are all equal. Where there is no bottom we are all equal. Experience is what really matters. Experience and whether you arewell-trained.
GRREPORTER: Until what age a person can be a lifeguard?
Marios Mavrantonis: As long as he could last. One may be 50 years old and feel like 25 and can save everyone. Or one may be 20 years old and be cowardly and do more bad than good to someone. Depends on how a man feels. I know some lifeguards who are 46 and 47 years old who are as young people. They are better than me that I am 22 years old. What matters is experience.
GRREPORTER: Your job just seems to me a bit difficult ... You are watching all day everybody bathing in the water and you're all the time at your post on the coast. Are you not getting angry sometimes that you can’t enjoy the sea as the others do?
Marios Mavrantonis: It doesn’t bother me that I can not go into the sea. It can do this before or after work if I have time.
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