Dick Davis

372 Center

Laguna Beach, CA 92651

Phone 949-497-1022

Guarded --19448-1954 Woods Cove, Divers Cove, Crescent Bay, Victoria and Main Beach

Coached basketball at Glendale High School, U.C. Irvine and San Diego State Un.

Owned and operated health clubs, including the “Girls’ Gym Laguna”.

Retired from coaching in 1990 and currently enjoys playing high stakes poker at Hawaiian Gardens Casino.

The Sea Monster

In 1948 at Woods Cove, Dale Seaman and Bill Griffin, unbeknownst to me created a fake “Sea Monster”. It was actually Dale in the water underneath a black tarpaulin with some poles to hold up the tarp. Bill was in a rowboat out by ring rock (about a 100 yards off of shore) when he screamed and turned the rowboat over. Dale then emerged under the gleaming black tarp that from a distance looked like it could be a “Sea Monster”.

It was a crowded Sunday and everyone saw it. I made everyone get out of the water. Bill righted the boat and came to shore excited about what a huge creature it was. I had called down to the Main Tower and Carl Mays and Charlie Plummer came to Woods with the sirens screaming.

A writer from the L.A. Times arrived at Woods about an hour later. He interviewed me and took pictures. As I recall the article the title read. “Sea Monster spotted in Laguna Beach”. When I found out later it was all a big joke I was pretty embarrassed. I was just 18 years old.

An Appreciation for the Sea

An Appreciation for the Sea

By - Dirk Van Deusen

July 31, 2004

Looking back over the past 50 years, it’s obvious that the ocean, and those who are drawn to it, have been the most powerful influences in my life. I was a Crescent Bay Beach Rat, sprawled out in the summer sun on the hot sand, not a care in the world except for where I’d left my fins and when the next big swell was coming. My biggest idols were my Dad, who taught me fishing, diving and bodysurfing, my Mom who always took good care of us, and the guards who sat in the big orange towers on the sand, watching over the water and the invading hordes of tourists, saving the sorry flatlanders from drowning in their ignorance of the ocean.

I joined the Junior Lifeguards and remember lectures and workouts with the late greats, Dean Westguard, Laverne Dugger and Bruce Baird, together with many other great watermen. I was lucky to have been part of the first group of rookies recruited from the high school swimming and water polo teams in an inspired effort by Dale Ghere to groom a few young local swimmers and surfers for the force. It was a great idea and as a result of going through the rookie program, I gained a new perspective on life in and around the ocean, and my responsibility to others who seek recreation within its blue sanctuary.

Everything I learned growing up in and around The Laguna Beach Lifeguard Department has carried throughout my life and into the present. I was certified in scuba diving during the rookie program and later worked as a commercial diver for abalone, sea urchin and underwater construction. I became a NAUI instructor and taught classes in resorts and on boats in Kona. I’m obsessed with swimming and don’t feel right if I can’t get in a mile swim in Kailua Bay every day. When I sit on the beach, my head auto-scans over the sand and water, looking for accidents waiting to happen and I’ve been able to assist in some situations.

My kids grew up surrounded by my oceanic addictions and have the same appreciation for the sea, although less a necessity for them as it is for me. Damon is an aspiring film director in UCLA’s graduate film program. I look forward to doing an underwater project with him sometime. Corrina is an amazing mom who’s worked in the legal profession and is now studying metaphysics. Her daughter Jillian seems to be the fish that skipped a generation and I’m looking forward to teaching her scuba diving.

Today I went fishing with Mom and Dad, like we do whenever I’m off work, if they’re not busy snorkeling or hanging out on the beach. They’re waiting for me to finish this so they can proofread it.

Looking back over the past 50 years, it becomes obvious that the ocean and the people drawn to it have been the most powerful influences in my life.

Aloha,

Dirk Van Deusen

P.S. Wish I could be in Laguna for the party. Come visit me in Kona!

The White Hat

The White Hat

By Dale Ghere

2004

When I first came to Laguna Beach to guard in 1960 there were a variety of hats worn by the guards. Some were straw hats from Tahiti or some other South Pacific island. Some were from Mexico. Some guards just wore visors. Some didn’t ever want to wear a hat. The hat that was offered by the department was a white cardboard pith helmet. No one seemed to mind what hat was used, so I tried a wide variety of shapes and styles through those first few years. Some hats were to hot, or they wouldn’t stay on when there was a wind. Some turned out to be too heavy when worn all day. Cloth hats got too dirty. It didn’t take too long to figure out that I was looking for some type straw-like hat. Finding the right combination of crown shape and brim design seemed to be puzzling for me. There were many shapes available from Carpenter’s and the Toy Store on Main Beach. Some hats lasted most of the season while others fell apart in a couple of weeks. Through a process of trial and error I finally settled on a cowboy hat that was made for children. The first thing I did to the hat was to soak it in the ocean long enough to reform the brim. I wanted the brim to curve down in the front and back instead of curving up on the sides like a cowboy’s hat. Once the hat was wet and reshaped it took only a few minutes for the sun to make the new shape permanent. It worked fine. It kept both my face and the back of my neck shaded. With a little care and no accidents I could make it through the summer with two hats. Each hat cost me sixty-nine cents. That might not sound like much by toady’s standards, but we were only making a $1.60 an hour when I started. To some degree that hat became my trademark on the beach. People got use to looking for the hat when they wanted to find me. Although the pith helmets were always available few people used them, I hated them. Forty-four years later I still use the same style hat when I am on the beach.

Around 1970 Skip was on one of his tirades to get rid of the older guards. One morning I was the one he thought that he would try to intimidate. As I was preparing to leave the headquarters (the old Boy’s Club at the north end of Main Beach) he said, “Ghere I don’t want you to wear that straw hat anymore. Get rid of it!” He went on to say that it was not professional looking and I should wear a pith helmet so the other guards would also. I explained that I wasn’t about to go to his choice of a hat. He got very mad and said a lot of things about how I was holding the lifeguard department back from being as professional as the police and fire departments. He finished with the threatening statement, “I am going to a meeting at city hall and when I get back if you are not wearing a white hat you’re fired.” After he left everyone asked me what I was going to do. Without much thought I simply walked into the back room, got a can of white spay paint, put my hat on my index finger and gave the hat a spin. As the hat went around I sprayed the crown and brim white. In a short time the paint was dry. I put the hat on and went to work at the Main Beach Tower. Skip never said anything about the hat again.

A few years after I stopped guarding Jim Stauffer and Bruce Baird were trying to decide on a type of hat that would provide good sun protection for the guards and something that everyone would be willing to wear. By the mid-70’s people were beginning to get serious about reducing the possibility skin cancer. Jim and Bruce finally decided on a straw hat that had a brim that was larger than my hat, is heavier and more durable than the one I use. Bruce thought that the straw was a good material, but he thought that it might not be visible enough for people to quickly identify a guard among all the other people on the beach. He wanted a hat that was recognizable by everyone on the beach. Jim then suggested that they spray the crown and brim white like Ghere did. Thus was born the “Lifeguard White Straw Hat.”

Bruce eventually gave some hats to the staffs at Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. Jim took the hat idea with him when he started Lifeguards International and started guarding the county beaches. In quick succession the white hat moved along the coast to other departments.

It is always interesting to me to see how an event unfolds like a flower until it is fully developed. There was no single event or situation that generated the “White Hat”, it was a series of things that occurred over a period of several years, which brought about the final product. Because the outcome was good the White Hat has endured.

Today as I travel along the coast and see guards walking to work or sitting in their towers with their straw hats I am reminded of friends that I admire like Bruce and Jim. I think about the young people wearing the hats and I admire them for their dedication, talent and preparation. I know that each of them has been willing to pay a high price for the right to wear the hat. I was given many gifts as I learned to be a guard. There were men willing to take the time and make the effort to prepare me to be capable of accepting the baton that I would be handed. That hat is no longer just a hat. It is part of the mantle that is offered to those who have qualified to become part of the brotherhood of beach lifeguards. I am pleased that for so many years I had a roll in the process of training capable, talented and determined young men who wanted to become lifeguards (sorry girls, we were not enlightened in those days).

Dale Ghere

Guarded 1960-1974

I guarded at St. Ann’s Beach for several years and eventually moved to Main Beach where I took on the Junior Lifeguard Program. Eventually, with LaVern Dugger’s blessing, I started the Rookie Training Program in 1968 The Rookie program is still used today, July 8, 2004.