Anyone with late teens doing adult Search and Rescue?

[Pen]

DS was on a waiting list for SAR trainings in our area. We were informed that there are new trainings starting in February.  When we first got on list he would have been in a less intense teen group, but when the new trainings start, he’d be just days away from 18yo so they say they would put him with adults.  It sounds very intense—2 nights per week and all day Saturday. (Plus emergencies as they arise.) He might be able to get into Canine handlers group if we got a suitable dog. 

It seems like it could be the sort of step up into more positive adult activities that he seems to need.  OTOH it might take away from time for being able to have a regular paid job which might be more beneficial.  (Maybe both would be possible?) 

He had some wilderness experience one summer a few years back and seemed to thrive with that.  He also already has had CPR and some other relevant training, 

OTOH I had thought he would be in a teen group with an adult leader as a sort of transitional phase .  

Any experience? Opinions? Thoughts? 

[MEmama]

No experience with search and rescue, but has he considered life guarding? Also a lot of responsibility and requires maturity, but maybe more employment friendly? 

DS is working on earning his lifeguard certification. Around here there is a severe shortage; he will easily find as many hours as he wants. 

[Pen]

1 minute ago, MEmama said:

No experience with search and rescue, but has he considered life guarding? Also a lot of responsibility and requires maturity, but maybe more employment friendly? 

DS is working on earning his lifeguard certification. Around here there is a severe shortage; he will easily find as many hours as he wants. 

 

I was a lifeguard as a teen.  I don’t think Ds is well suited to that.  We have considered that he might apply to be an ice rink guard for public skating times.   They usually use big hockey guys though who can easily physically stand up to people misbehaving on the ice.  

[brehon]

How is your son handling emergencies? Will he be able to handle seeing/dealing with potentially serious, life-threatening injuries? Will he be able to deal with a rescue mission turning into a recovery mission? Regardless of the age of the victim? What makes lifeguarding unsuited for your son that wouldn't be present in a SAR situation? 

My 18yo ds has done SAR (both ground team and working the radios) through Civil Air Patrol. Fortunately, he hasn't had to deal with any...less than savory...scenes.  I think you and your ds need to think through the above and other questions. Working with other adults in an adult role can be very beneficial for young men and women -- responsibility, reporting to other adults who aren't parental units, having an internal sense of a job well done, external validation of same by a non-parent, these are all good things. I think y'all just need to weigh the benefits of those and other positives with the possible negative of experiencing situations which can be very hard even for adults to handle. 

[Pen]

35 minutes ago, brehon said:

How is your son handling emergencies?

To the extent he’s had any to deal with, quite good. 

 

35 minutes ago, brehon said:

Will he be able to handle seeing/dealing with potentially serious, life-threatening injuries? Will he be able to deal with a rescue mission turning into a recovery mission? Regardless of the age of the victim?

 

I don’t know.  How can that be determined?  I know a neighbor teen in past was volunteering with fire department and got called to a double murder situation where a teen boy about his same age was in dying process and that was really rough .

35 minutes ago, brehon said:

What makes lifeguarding unsuited for your son that wouldn't be present in a SAR situation? 

 

He can swim reasonably well IMO for his own safety in an area with rivers, creeks and lakes, but he isn’t really a swimmer.  oToh he has a varsity letter for cross country running and has done a lot of hiking and is generally more adept on land than water.  

Also he’s better with lots of movement and active doing—more than sitting still and keeping careful watch. 

Also he has problems with chlorine if it were a chlorine pool. 

 

 

35 minutes ago, brehon said:

My 18yo ds has done SAR (both ground team and working the radios) through Civil Air Patrol. Fortunately, he hasn't had to deal with any...less than savory...scenes.  I think you and your ds need to think through the above and other questions. Working with other adults in an adult role can be very beneficial for young men and women -- responsibility, reporting to other adults who aren't parental units, having an internal sense of a job well done, external validation of same by a non-parent, these are all good things. I think y'all just need to weigh the benefits of those and other positives with the possible negative of experiencing situations which can be very hard even for adults to handle. 

 

Thanks for things to think about . I hadn’t been thinking about some of these concerns. 

[Pen]

@brehon  uh, wait, Does land based SAR require swimming based Advanced Life Saving certification like Lifeguarding usually does?  If so, that would also be a problem.  

[mom2scouts]

No experience, but that sounds like an amazing opportunity! I wish there was something like that here for my teen . One hesitation though...you said his wilderness experience was "one summer a few years back"? My kid practically grew up in the wilderness while camping, backpacking, canoeing, rafting, hiking, swimming, and orienteering and has significant experience in groups of mainly adults, so I wouldn't be concerned about him at all.  I would be much less confident about search and rescue for a teen with limited outdoor experience and the need to transition into a group of adults. If your son is motivated to try it, I would let him and he can decide whether it's an appropriate activity for him.

[Storygirl]

We didn't do search and rescue ourselves, but a number of years ago, we were friendly with a retired couple, and the husband was a search and rescue dog handler. He had a German Shepherd (a specific kind of German breed, not the American kind). The dog was a center of his time and life. The dog had to be extremely well trained. Some friends that we knew used to help with training by hiding in the woods as a "lost" person who needed to be found.

I think owning a search and rescue dog would be awesome, but it is a huge and unique commitment and is perhaps better saved as an idea for when your son is older and wanting to commit to it for a decade, or as long as the dog might live.

Starting as a search and rescue worker without a dog sounds like a great option, but I don't know anything about it. Do you think you could talk to someone in the organization and ask if they would be willing to let your son start in the teen division instead of the adult division, so that he can get his initial training with the younger people? You might be able to explain to them why that would be better for your particular situation, and maybe they would make an exception. It's worth a try, anyway.

[Pen]

27 minutes ago, mom2scouts said:

No experience, but that sounds like an amazing opportunity! I wish there was something like that here for my teen . One hesitation though...you said his wilderness experience was "one summer a few years back"? My kid practically grew up in the wilderness while camping, backpacking, canoeing, rafting, hiking, swimming, and orienteering and has significant experience in groups of mainly adults, so I wouldn't be concerned about him at all.  I would be much less confident about search and rescue for a teen with limited outdoor experience and the need to transition into a group of adults. If your son is motivated to try it, I would let him and he can decide whether it's an appropriate activity for him.

 

We live in a forestry zone of PNW, one of the last 3 houses before forest (and clearcuts and a few through roads) for the next 30-40 miles in the most forested direction— so just in terms of daily life,  he has had a lot of hiking / finding his way in forest usually with dog.  

But specific camping, orienteering, rafting experience—just the one summer in Cascades wilderness areas—which is where people tend to need rescue in our county.

 We are in a less extremely rugged area of mountains and I don’t tend to think of it as “wilderness”.    People don’t tend to fall into ravines or snow holes locally.   We do have bears, cougars etc. 

We also don’t have either Mt Hood nor Crater Lake in our SAR area— tourist attractions where people from out of area often get into difficulties just due to improper clothing.   

[Pen]

The thread about exhausted teen driving into house is making me think this might not be a good idea due to hours and causing too much tiredness. 

[jpinal205]

My older 2 children were part SAR through Civil Air Patrol from the ages of 16-20. Son was part of the spotter team in the planes and my daughter was part of the ground team. There were lots of training missions and several live rescues. Sadly one did not end well for an elderly man but the family was so grateful for knowing what happened that it really helped my kids cope with the sadness. Search and Rescue does require a certain resiliency but it was a very good experience overall.

[Pen]

20 hours ago, Storygirl said:

We didn't do search and rescue ourselves, but a number of years ago, we were friendly with a retired couple, and the husband was a search and rescue dog handler. He had a German Shepherd (a specific kind of German breed, not the American kind). The dog was a center of his time and life. The dog had to be extremely well trained. Some friends that we knew used to help with training by hiding in the woods as a "lost" person who needed to be found.

I think owning a search and rescue dog would be awesome, but it is a huge and unique commitment and is perhaps better saved as an idea for when your son is older and wanting to commit to it for a decade, or as long as the dog might live.

 

True.

 I’m not sure what the required commitment is.    If the dog training is so intense they have to agree to years of participating in exchange.  

We apparently have to go to first meeting to learn more.  Choices are regular ground SAR or dog handler.  

I think he’d likely be happier with a dog.  

GSD is a breed option they use here, and we know an excellent GSD breeder— but our homeowners insurance has a breed ban that includes GSD.   If Ds wanted to do it and wanted a GSD, I’d see if our insurance would make an exception for an SAR dog.   But probably it would have to be another working lines Labrador.   I’d be happy to inherit dog if Ds wanted to do it then in a few years went on to other things, but I wouldn’t be able to do SAR .  And I don’t know if the SAR group would be okay with that. 

 

They have other groups like horse riders and mountain climbers, but he would not fit those

———

In re below, I could try, but it sounds like most are 14-16 yo, petering out as later teens are reached.  And there’s no current training for it coming up.  By its next training he’ll be 18+.  So he’d likely feel out of place. 

20 hours ago, Storygirl said:

Do you think you could talk to someone in the organization and ask if they would be willing to let your son start in the teen division instead of the adult division, so that he can get his initial training with the younger people? You might be able to explain to them why that would be better for your particular situation, and maybe they would make an exception. It's worth a try, anyway.