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I took my kids to Disneyworld in Florida a few years back, and was impressed to notice the lifeguards pointing into the all corners of the swimming pools as they walked around and did their checks.

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I was a lifeguard there in the late 90s. They taught it to us back then as well. But for politeness, you have to do the Disney two-finger point. I was taught that pointing with an index finger might be misconstrued as pointing at a person and come off as rude or offensive.

Two fingers or the knife hand.

It wasn't policy, but when I lifeguarded, I'd point out all of my checks as well.

There's another water park that does something similar in the pools. There are lifeguard chairs stationed around the pools as usual. There are guards in the pools as usual. There are also guards roving the edges of the pools doing visual inspections. To check over the edge, the lifeguard leans over the pool and purposefully traces a sight line with a full-sweep head motion.

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