How to guard a life
10-ish questions with the Water Mine’s Rebecca Griffin, on ‘sassy kids,’ high school summer jobs and the ideal lazy river
The Water Mine in Reston technically opens at 11 a.m., but go eight minutes before and you’ll find families already streaming in, taking kids by the hand and folding towels over pool chairs and slathering on sunscreen.
“We usually hit capacity early on weekends,” site manager Tammy Yelmgren said, and “early” can mean the Old West-themed park reaches its 1,400-patron limit by 11:45. On the busiest and hottest days, some folks will wait outside for a few hours. Entry is no sure thing.
The Water Mine, opened in 1997, recorded half a million patrons in all last year, Yelmgren said, and while she hasn’t added up this summer’s numbers, “we have been very, very busy this year, especially with the hot and humid days.”
The park makes its shift to weekends-only starting next week, mirroring the Fairfax County Public Schools schedule. It’s an annual recognition that none of what the Water Mine does — not the three-story waterslides of Prospectors Plummet, not the tiniest splashing at Tenderfoot Pond — runs without its high-school-age lifeguards and staff, like rising Oakton High senior Rebecca Griffin.
Griffin, 17, is in her third year working at the Water Mine, a classic American summer job at a classic county summer spot. After starting as a lifeguard, she dipped her toes in the waters of middle management as an aquatics supervisor this year.
We grabbed a table with Yelmgren by the Rattlesnake River last week to talk “sassy” kids, cleaning the water and how lifeguards stay cool up in those chairs.
The following conversation has been edited for length and a bit for clarity.
The Fairfax Machine: Have you ever been interviewed before?
Griffin: Yes, I have been interviewed to get these promotional positions and also to get the lifeguard position and just some other jobs.
Machine: But, like, media interview?
Griffin: Oh. No. No.
Machine: Did you grow up coming to the Water Mine?
Griffin: I did! I was at this Girl Scout camp called Camp Fairfax, and I used to come here once a week, so that’s kind of how I got accustomed to this place. And then I was like, “Oh, maybe I should be a lifeguard here,” because it was so nice as a patron. That’s how it kind of started.
Machine: Was this your first summer job that you had?
Griffin: Well, I was a camp counselor for the Girl Scout camp that I went to, and then just one in Ashburn, but this is my first—
Water Mine intercom: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. IN ORDER TO KEEP THE POOL CLEAN, SAFE AND OPEN, WE REMIND YOU TO TAKE YOUR CHILDREN TO THE RESTROOM FREQUENTLY. ALSO, AS A REMINDER, ALL CHILDREN UNDER 48 INCHES TALL MUST BE WITHIN AN ARM’S REACH OF AN ADULT 16 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER AT ALL TIMES.
FOR YOUR SAFETY, WHILE YOU AND YOUR PARTY ENJOY THE RATTLESNAKE RIVER, PLEASE SIT IN THE CENTER OF YOUR INNER TUBE. PLEASE DO NOT SIT ON THE EDGE OR SIDE OF YOUR—
Machine: Is that automated, or is someone doing that?
Yelmgren: We make the announcements.
Machine: Respect.
Yelmgren: We just read through all of our little blurbs.
Machine: I’m thinking about other kinds of typical summer jobs when you’re in high school. I did a camp counselor kind of thing myself. My wife did that plus a lot of the retail route. Did you consider that versus this?
Griffin: When I was 15 I wasn’t really looking at the job market. I had been a Girl Scout since I was in kindergarten, so I just liked being in the outdoors world. That’s kind of how I became a counselor at the camps. But my mom really wanted me to have a job, so she was connecting the Water Mine and me and all that stuff.
Machine: What does it take to be a Water Mine lifeguard?
Griffin: You really need to be willing to walk for, like, eight hours a day. At Reston Association or other smaller pools, the guards don’t really have a roving station [like we do], so they just sit down.
It’s very hot. There’s not a lot of shade over here. You have to be pretty hard-working to be able to be outside the whole time.
[Have a Fairfax County story idea or tip? Get in touch.]
Machine: When you’re up in the lifeguard chair, do you get jealous of the people who are in the water?
Griffin: A little bit. I’ve heard some of my lifeguards ask kids in the water, “Hey, splash my feet! Splash my feet!”
You’ll see a lot of little kids [here] with camps, like I was a little kid with Camp Fairfax. So, I don’t think it would be envy to be in the water with them.
Machine: You must see a lot on the job, though. What stories stand out to you?
Griffin: Every day you can probably find a sassy kid. Not necessarily rude, but something I can only think of right now is a sassy response from a kid to a lifeguard telling them, “Don’t stack tubes” or something, and their comebacks are pretty funny.
I hear all the time “What the sigma?” or all that TikTok stuff.
Machine: Are you learning Gen Alpha slang?
Griffin: I guess you could say, yeah. But I still don’t know what sigma is.
Machine: Have you ever had to save anyone’s life?
Griffin: No, the most I would do is take out a patron who’s [having] a small panic attack. I would just blow my long whistle, jump in the water and pick them back up.
But there were two days where I was not working this year when we had two CPR events. The lead staff on deck, other supervisors, lifeguards, really anyone available, they tended to the situation, and that’s when they save lives.
Machine: As a kid I used to go to water parks in New Jersey every summer. As a 31-year-old man, I feel like I’m way too aware of the health stuff: the bacteria, people sneezing, the kids — possibly adults, who’s to say — peeing in the water. Am I overreacting?
Griffin: [Every hour at the Water Mine] we regulate chlorine levels and CO2 levels in the water, so that kills off all the germs and doesn’t hurt people’s skin.
The managers always double-check what those pH or FAC [free available chlorine] levels are. We are on top of keeping those chemicals balanced in the water, and we will close if there are any issues.
Machine: The lazy river is right here going around. Philosophically: How lazy is a good lazy river?
Griffin: It definitely changes as [you go from] a 5-year-old to a teenager. When you’re little, you’re like, “Oh my gosh, this is the fastest thing in the world!”
But I think when I was a lifeguard — coming back when I was 15, when the last time I was 10 — I was like, “Oh, it is a little bit slow, actually.”
[Time Machine: How Big Oil saved Reston]
Machine: Is there Water Mine lore that gets passed down to lifeguards and staff?
Griffin: [There] was a rainy day, so it was super slow, and we were all talking about the Water Mine lore. And a rumor came up that in the 1800s this place was just a hole in the ground because this guy who wanted to get rich from gold thought there would be a lot of gold here, and instead of finding gold he found a lot of water. So that’s why it’s a big hole of water in the ground, and I guess that’s why it’s a little Western.
Machine: Is that fake lore or real lore?
Griffin: [laughs] I don’t know . . .
10-ish Questions is a recurring feature of The Fairfax Machine. Who should we talk with next? Tell us in the comments.