From the Ground Up

Eric Herman

Anyone who’s a parent knows that taking pride in their children’s accomplishments and personal growth is one of life’s greatest joys.

In my case, that pleasure has been one of the defining factors of my existence for the past twenty-plus years – ever since the day my son Brett Herman was born and was joined four years later by his sister, Amanda. I know that I’m right in line with other parents who call their children

the lights of their lives.

I bring up this up here for a special reason, in that Brett is on our roster of contributing authors for this month’s edition of WaterShapes.

As I’ve mentioned in this space before, Brett has spent much of his young life participating in aquatic sports, particularly swimming and water polo. He’s always loved the water, so much so that my friends used to call him “Aqua Boy.”

Brett’s now a junior in college and, more significant, has three full years working as a lifeguard under his belt, the last two at Raging Waters, a huge waterpark in San Dimas, Calif., where he is now one of the lead lifeguards. It also bears mentioning that he is an aspiring writer, studying English at California State University Long Beach.

Being the enterprising and ambitious lad that he is, last summer he mentioned an idea he had for an article for WaterShapes.

Brett’s a smart guy, and I wasn’t at all surprised his idea had merit: Having grappled for years with the grind of his sometimes 50-hour-a-week spring and summer job, he proposed writing about waterpark design from the practical perspective of a lifeguard and user. Based on his experience, he explained, the ground-level view of lifeguards is typically not factored into the configuration of these facilities – but it really should be.

After several months of discussion and refinement, I’m proud to point to “A Guard’s-Eye View” (click here), my son’s first foray into the world of professional writing.

It’s important to note that the views he expresses are entirely his own and do not reflect the dictates of health departments or any other waterpark-governing body. Even so, what Brett offers here is a rich depiction of the sorts of challenges lifeguards face in these settings and how the work of watershape professionals in designing, engineering and building these large interactive systems influences what happens on the ground on a daily basis.

For personal reasons, it gives me great pleasure to publish this article: It’s a bit of nepotism in which I’m more than happy to participate.

For much more significant professional reasons, however, I’m confident that those of you who work on waterpark environments as well as any of you who have ever designed an interactive waterfeature in a public space will find his perspective to be eye-opening, instructive and potentially quite helpful.