MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – The Myrtle Beach Fire Department held a series of fitness assessments Monday, and they now know where improvements are needed to save lives.

The new training helps responders target skill areas they lack expertise. Participants started arriving on the beach around 7:30 a.m. Monday to test their swimming and paddle boarding skills.

The course took fire rescue members anywhere from 25 to 40 minutes to complete. Members stood by and cheered on each other as they battled the 500-meter swim, mile run, and paddleboard test.

“Any one of those activities by themselves but then do them all three together is a tough assessment,” says Lt. Jonathan Evans, MBFR Public Information Officer. “The better physically fit we are, the better we’re going to be for the community.”

Myrtle Beach experienced its first ocean drowning of the summer Sunday morning after a wave crashed over the victim, a 35-year-old man from Georgia.

“When you see something like that, I think it helps motivate you a little bit more,” says Lt. Evans.

As participants finished the course, their completion time was read aloud. Lt. Evans says rescue members do show different skill levels, but that’s exactly why they take the test.

“But again, it shows everybody’s skills there and what we need to work on,” explains Lt. Evans.

Whether it was the activity or just that the paddle board portion of the course came last, it seemed to be the worst part of the course to several participants.

“The hardest part today was definitely the paddleboard,” said one member in passing.

“Paddleboard was the hardest,” agreed another participant.

A third chimed in agreeing, “The paddle at the end, just cause you’re tired.”

Lt. Evans says they’ll consider completion times and feedback on the course to choose an area of concentration in future trainings.

“It shows if we have a lot of guys that are having difficulty maybe with the rescue board then that’s something we want to focus on next time we do our training together,” says Lt. Evans. “If we need to do more swim times and get in the pool or the ocean more then we can do that. Just general fitness, where some guys just need to step up their regiment a little bit. It kind of shows where everybody’s at.”

The department’s new ocean rescue jet ski also hit the waters for the first time Monday to monitor responders as they completed their water tests. Lt. Evans says they’ll use it on calls to respond more quickly when a swimmer is in trouble.