John Creed

John Creed

It was about l957 when for some reason the city decided to hold tryouts for lifeguard positions. Carl Mays was the Chief Life Guard and Dennis Jacobson was the Captain, neither of whom could swim 50 yards, so I don't think it was their decision. Perhaps, it was the city council trying to keep pace with other beach communities, who invited swimmers from all over S. Cal. to compete in their ocean swims. Phil Jones and I were roommates at San Diego State, and when the news of a two-mile swim began to circulate we both knew that we may not be guarding the next summer. If you had to swim a mile to save a drowning person you wouldn't make it anyway, so why the pretense? The Laguna lifeguards prided themselves on never losing a swimmer in their history and most of the guards were very proficient and reading the waves, currents, and other telltale signs of a person in danger. 95% of the rescues occurred on big S. swells when the shore break could plant you a few inches in the sand. On these occasions, the guard force was at its best.

None the less, Phil and I decided to give it a try, and along with Chad Burton, another famous non-swimmer entered the competition. Here were all these barracuda's lined up in Speedo's, thin as rails with long muscular bodies that could slice through the water like a dolphin fin. Phil, Chad and I had put on a little weight over the winter and it seemed like a mismatch from the start. As I recall, the water was very cold that day and the swim was to begin at the main tower and conclude down by Brooks St. We hit the water in a walk and began the long pull south towards Brooks. We did the sidestroke, the Ester Williams back stroke. We floated on our backs, did a little breaststroke, talked amongst ourselves, and had made little progress toward the finish. The barracudas had disappeared into the distance, leaving the old guard to fend for themselves. About the Hotel Laguna, while Phil was demonstrating his double backstroke, we voted to abandon this ridiculous effort ' take our lumps, and hope that we scored well on the oral part of the test.

The first question was put to me by Jake, the guard Captain, "What would you do if someone were washed off the rocks at Divers Cove?" I'm not sure what I said, but Jake looked at Dean Westgarrd and Rod Rhiel, the two second in commands, nodded knowingly and said, "That’s exactly right, your hired." Phil and Chad got the same treatment and I think we guarded another year or two, but the writing was on the wall, and we moved on to other dreams and aspirations.

As I look back on the whole experience, I have wonderful memories of being a Lifeguard in Laguna that I wouldn't trade for a million bucks. As the saying goes: its good to be lucky, but its better to have graduated from Laguna Beach High School.

John Creed

August 2004