Westerly - Think of a lifeguard and you might conjure up images of sunburned teenagers working a summer job. A new and relatively inexpensive lifesaving device could change that. Meet EMILY, a remote-controlled lifeguard. It looks like a buoy, but it’s a small watercraft fitted with a flotation device. It can go up to 22 mph and can get to people more quickly, and in some cases more safely, than any human. EMILY stands for Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard. It’s a little over 4 feet long, weighs 25 pounds and costs about $10,000. It’s made by Hydronalix, a Green Valley, Ariz., company established in 2009. If a swimmer is struggling, a lifeguard or anyone else can put battery-powered EMILY in the water and, with a remote control, send it through even rough waves to help. Some locations attach an emergency radio so they can instruct panicked swimmers on what to do.
How’d you like to be the guy that forgets to change Emily’s batteries that one day when half a little league team gets swept up and carried out by the undercurrent? Gonna be a total bummer for those lifeguard surf bros. Sorry little dudes, Emily ran out of juice, if you hold on for a few more minutes we’ll throw some noodles out to yo– annnnd you’re dead.
Forget the EMILY though. Show me the WENDY. As in Wendy Peffercorn. Now that’s a rescue that’d be almost worth drowning for:
Lotion, lotion, smiling, lotion, smiling, smiling, lotion…
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