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Edited By Ron Donoho
The Somber Reality of Lifeguard RacesPat Richardson hopes the “home surf” advantage will come into play. A city lifeguard sergeant, Richardson enters his fourth year as captain of the San Diego contingent competing in the United States Lifesaving Association (USLA) championships.
This annual lifeguard olympics—featuring swimming, rowing and beach-run contests—is August 10-12 at Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach (for more info, go to www.usla.org). As Richardson sees it, lifeguards are professional athletes. “We get paid to be physical,” he says. “We’re pro athletes—but we don’t do it for the money. (At this point, Richardson interrupts a telephone interview to assess one of 34 water rescues—all part of a day’s work at La Jolla Shores.)
The 2000 USLA championships will get a publicity boost from exposure (so to speak) on MTV. While coverage no doubt will focus on beefcake and swimsuits, San Diego lifeguard and USLA games veteran Leslie Mendez says Baywatch comparisons don’t hold water.
“We don’t really walk around in our swimsuits all the time,” says Mendez. “It’s more shorts and pants. We’re not out in Speedos unless we’re making a rescue.”
Byron Wear won’t be in his racing Speedo, but the San Diego councilman is a former city lifeguard lieutenant who served as executive director of the USLA during its fledgling years. Wear’s office has been promoting coverage of this year’s competition.
The USLA event provides a backdrop for recent criticism of a lifeguard-staffing dearth on state beaches. In early June, a Del Mar man was caught in a riptide and drowned at Torrey Pines State Beach. Experts say that death could have been avoided if there had been a guard on duty.
There are just six full-time guards patrolling 13 miles of state beaches in San Diego County before Memorial Day and after Labor Day, according to Ed Navarro, district superintendent for the San Diego Coast District, a department within State Parks & Recreation. About 40 “seasonal” guards are added during the summer.
“Those numbers should at least be doubled,” says Navarro. Wear agrees, and says Governor Gray Davis’s office has been made aware of the understaffing.
The San Diego city beaches are much better staffed, according to city lifeguard chief B. Chris Brewster. He says 17 miles of city oceanfront—and Mission Bay—are protected by 85 full-time lifeguards, a number that bumps up to 240 in the summer. Brewster believes the state should follow the local model and “ramp up,” or slowly increase, the number of guards employed on beaches just before summer, as schools let out and the surf temperature becomes more inviting.
Also a competitor, Brewster neatly ties together work issues and the impending USLA championships: “It’s a prestigious thing to win an event. The goal behind it is to stay in excellent physical shape. But it’s much more prestigious to get a medal of valor [for a lifesaving water rescue] than a win at USLA.”
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