On-the-job learning at the Water Park

MOSES LAKE - It doesn't look like a classroom - that surf-simulator-thing is a lot cooler, for one thing - but working at Surf 'n Slide Waterpark will teach some lessons, according to employees.

"We run a seasonal staff of about 135 (employees) at the pool," said Spencer Grigg, director of Moses Lake Parks and Recreation. "Most of those kids are 14 to 21. Kind of a blend of local school kids and college kids who started out as local school kids."

Working at the pool is a traditional job for teens and young adults, of course, and "we start hiring kids as groundskeepers at age 14," Grigg said. With job opportunities dwindling for 14- and 15-year-olds and the economy making it tougher for older teens, working at the water park draws a lot of interest. "We get far more applications than we're able to hire every year," Grigg said.

"We work them. They work hard," he said. Groundskeepers pick up trash and clean toilets and keep a watch for prohibited items. "Glass, alcohol and animals," said Tom Los, recreation supervisor for the city. Including barbecues, those are the prohibited items.

Attendance at the water park averages about 2,000 people per day, Grigg said. "Two thousand people can make a lot of messes," he said.

"It's real work. They're not just standing at the edge of the pool, looking cute," Grigg said.

Shelby Gonzales, 20, and a junior at the University of South Carolina, started as a groundskeeper before moving on to cashier duties. "You have to do it for a year and you appreciate everything else a lot more," she said.

But every job at the pool teaches lessons, Gonzales said. In fact the lessons start before the workday - all employees have to know when they're working and when they're off, and the 14- and 15-year-olds have to find rides to work.

"Also, working as a team," said Andrew Juarez, 25, and graduating from Central Washington University in early June. Employees learn teamwork from groundskeeping up, he said.

"You have to learn to work as a team pretty well," said Nate Osborne, a senior at Moses Lake High School and a three year veteran at the pool.

And when the gates open, all employees are interacting with water park patrons.

"You learn a lot about working with people," Gonzales said, both young people playing in the pool and the adults accompanying them.

Gonzales will be the head cashier when the pool opens. "We're the first people you see when you come in the park," she said, and that requires employees to make a professional first impression.

"There's a diverse group that makes it a lot of fun," Los said. There's diversity all over, among employees and customers, Juarez said, and employees must talk with all kinds of people. "You really start to figure out how to communicate."

"It's good exposure into what it's like to be in the professional world," Los said. Kids get to hang out at the pool with their friends, but the job has to come first, he said.

It's fun, but "it can be pretty stressful as well," Osborne said.

Osborne is a lifeguard and a swimming instructor. There are 19 lifeguard stations, and "we work the whole water park," Osborne said. "Anything dealing with water, the lifeguards are responsible for."

"You're expected to know your stuff," Osborne said, and know what to do no matter where the lifeguard is working.

Training continues all summer, Los said. "We test, train and teach our lifeguards every month. We're always throwing new things at them."

That's because an emergency can arise at any time, and employees have to react promptly, Los said.

"We deal with parents a lot when their kids have gone missing," Gonzales said, and pool employees are the ones who deal with children who have strayed from their parents.

"It really kind of teaches you problem-solving skills," Juarez said.

Pool employees are given responsibility, so they have to learn how to take responsibility and do the job, Osborne said.

There's another and more subtle aspect of responsibility, he said. "You're in a position of authority, and you have to learn not to abuse that."

"It's a great, great, great place to work," Juarez said. Once they get experience many employees are invited back the next summer, Los said. "It's there for us when we come back," Gonzales said.

"It's very common for lifeguards to say, 'oh, I'm never going back there (at the end of the summer).' But they all return," Los said.