Those Years Stay With You

Bonnie Stockton (Clifford)

1980-1984 Shaw’s and Diver’s Cove

March 9, 2012

Having grown up inland, I had never given much thought to becoming a

lifeguard until my swim coach suggested it my junior year. That was Dave Simcox, who

still runs the JG program at Huntington City. I had always loved the beach and even

though I wasn’t lucky enough to grow up in one of the beach towns, I wasn’t unfamiliar

with it. My Dad used to surf a lot back in the 60’s with Whitey Harrison, Stanford King

and Matt Brown, who were old time surfers in the Orange County area. When I was

small, we used to go to Doheny every weekend back before the jetty was built for Dana

Point harbor. While my dad surfed, I spent hours getting pummeled in the surf, coming

out water logged and the crotch of my bathing suit full of sand! But I digress.

My junior year of high school I tried out for a state position. Good Luck! There

must have been 200 guys there! Dave Simcox took Dana Drucker, myself and a couple

other girls to the try outs and what an experience! He had us smear Vaseline in our

armpits to protect us from the cold. The rest is just a blur. Lots of splashing and kicking

and getting swam over, literally. We all finished, but none of us made the cut as the

competition was too great. Later that spring, Dana went to try out in Laguna and was

hired. Unfortunately I was out of town that weekend and had to wait until the following

year.

Senior year I decided to give it another shot. First I tried out at Huntington City

and made it into training. I completed training and was on the hiring list for that season.

Dana suggested that I come to Laguna and try out there as well. Boy am I glad that I did!

I quickly fell in love with Laguna and its people.

The tryouts in Laguna were completely different than I was used to. Much more

humane and polite. At the bigger beaches, no one thought twice about grabbing a

competitor by the shoulder in the water and swimming right over them. It was just how it

was done. I did that to someone in try outs and later found out who it was. In training, I

believe it was Casey Coogan who came up to me and said “You’re and animal! You

swam right over me!” Then I felt kind of bad. But that’s just how it was done!

I must have been some kind of freak, because I actually enjoyed the training.

After already having been through training in Huntington with a much larger group and way gnarlier conditions, I had a blast! Bruce Baird, Mark Klosterman and Mike Dwinell were our instructors. I’m not saying it was easy by any means. In fact there was another girl who started out in training with me who actually dropped out. I was so surprised when she did, thinking “but why? It’s fun!” Of course the water was cold, and we had days where we had to do a long ocean swim, then come in and immediately sit down to take a test. And of course Bruce picked the ugliest day when the ocean was covered with white caps and very cold and windy out. Then, running up the beach, which you couldn’t feel because you’re numb from the knees down. And then try to talk and you can’t quite form the words right because even your tongue is numb!

In Laguna, there was never a dull moment. If you weren’t busy swimming,

running or taking a test, you may just be laughing til you sides hurt. I will never forget

sitting in the class room and looking up to see Klosterman wearing resusci-Annie’s face

over his, all tucked into his sweatshirt hood. It was one of the funniest things I ever saw,

with the nose all dirty from so many fingers holding it closed. I look back now and

realize how fortunate I was to be trained be those guys, some of Laguna’s best, who

could push you to your limit one minute and lighten the next with some humor.

Compared to training in Huntington, Laguna’s training covered more of a variety

of situations. In Huntington, you have huge rips with some wicked long shore currents to

deal with. Along with a lot of crowd control issues. Laguna seemed to focus more on the

guard having to adapt to a variety of situations, in addition to being on your own in some

situations until backup could get to you. This requires the guard to be able to think on

their feet. And also to have the skill to handle all possible emergencies; extensive first

aid training was required, rock rescues, cliff rescues, SCUBA diving. In Huntington, one

of the things that weeded out a few of the trainees was pier jump training. Ah heck! Us

Laguna guards did that for fun!

My rookie year guarding was the best summer of my life. Every morning we had

an hour workout on the beach. We worked Main Beach under close supervision and got

a couple days running relief. That was the best! You got to become familiar with all of

the different beaches and got to know everyone in the department. I sill remember our

first meeting up at City Hall after our first 2 weeks of work. One of the supervisors went

around handing out envelopes and I opened it up to find my first paycheck. I almost

laughed out loud. I had almost forgotten that I was getting paid for all this!

All in all, I did hear from Huntington by the end of my first summer at Laguna. By

then I was hooked. No way would I even consider changing beaches. The camaraderie

amongst the guards in our department is such that you remember those people that you

work with for a lifetime. You form friendships for life and even if you haven’t seen them

in years, when you do, it is way better than any high school reunion. The work, the

parties, the experiences help to mold you into the person you become, and always in a

positive way. I think that we can all agree that those years stay with you always.

Bonnie Stockton (Clifford)

1980-1984 Shaw’s and Diver’s Cove