Day eight: 7/27

Duration: 1.5 (0.8x1, 0.6x1)

Finally, the nine-hour courses are over. The yellow caps disappeared, as they'll arrive at 6:00 p.m. instead. I'll just skip over the routines and gatherings and jump straight into the lesson for today.

Today we learned the last step of saving a person - carrying the victim to shore. There are four types, but variations apply. Whether four or not, the methods are commonly divided into two groups, which are used for shallow waters and deep waters respectively. 

The coaches tried to teach us by demonstrating on land, but failed miserably as both fell and one nearly crashed onto the other. The head coach heaved a sigh, then made us all go to the poolside and demonstrated them one by one in the water all by himself. We all had an eyebrow raised when he attempted to do the fireman's carry - he was fairly skinny and the victim is easily twice as huge as him. He proceeded to execute it flawlessly, and we all gave him a round of applause.

The fireman's carry was the most eventful one of all carrying methods - the finishing move was almost identical to a WWE finisher, and everyone secretly urged number five to do a John Cena meme on his victim while the coach isn't looking. Fortunately but also disappointingly, the coach was looking, so he didn't.

The rest of the lesson was quite a breeze - we went through the carries, pulls, and lifts without many problems. We did another routine, times three, revised stuff for another routine, and that was it. I managed to hold my breath for a minute and two seconds and made a personal new record.

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Additional notes:

* If you need to help a friend get up from the edge of a high place, grab one of his feet and lift him up from underwater instead of pulling him up from above. It's much safer that way, but not more popular for some reason.

* If you know how to do the fireman's carry, as tempting as it may be, do NOT attempt to do an Attitude Adjustment on your friend or even an unconscious victim. Several methods of carrying a victim to shore are considered extremely dangerous for the victim as well.

* Again, protect the victim's neck and head while pulling him up to shore.

* I forgot to mention, every member of the team except coaches has their own number on his or her cap. The one I spoke of yesterday was number five. Mine was nineteen.