Watch: Zoomer Editor Mike Crisolago Tries Out Canada’s Gruelling SWAT Training

A year and a half ago I visited the headquarters of Toronto’s Emergency Task Force (ETF), Canada’s largest SWAT Team, where Officers Derrick Goobie, 58, and Steve Campbell, 60, the longest-tenured ETF officers in the city, suited me up in close to 100 pounds of SWAT gear and put me through a series of ETF training drills.

By the time the day was out, one thing became perfectly clear: if you’re counting on me to save your life by sprinting up multiple flights of stairs wearing a lung-busting bulletproof heavy vest and carrying a massive battering ram and weapons, chances are you’re not going to make it. To be honest, I probably won’t make it either. It’ll be a mess, really.

Luckily, there are officers like Goobie and Campbell to do the real-life rescuing. I just get to tell you about it, like in the video above, which chronicles my day with the ETF. Watch, enjoy and be thankful that if you’re ever in need of a SWAT Team to come crashing through the door to rescue you, there are people like Goobie and Campbell on the job.

And for my full story about Goobie and Campbell’s careers and the intense demands of the job, check out the May 2015 issue of Zoomer magazine, on newsstands on April 13.