Dean Westgaard

Dean Westgaard

By Dale Ghere

2005

The day I was hired to be a lifeguard for Laguna was the first step into a lifestyle that I had never imagined. In the beginning I thought that I would go to work on the beach somewhere, get off work at six and do a little surfing in the evening. Beyond that I really didn’t have any other plans. I only knew one other person in the whole city and he planned to do the same thing I was going to do. As far I was concerned life was looking pretty good.

First year guards made about $12.00 a day in the summer of 1960. I thought I was about to become wealthy. Before the first day of work Kiwi and I found housing in an old restaurant that was located at the entrance to Three Arch Bay. Today the north half of the building is a dental office. The other half became a parking lot. Four of us went together to rent the restaurant. We each paid $30.00 a month. How much better could life get than to live on the beach with three other guards, get paid for going to the beach all day and surfing as much as I wanted?

On the first day of work I was assigned Woods Cove, but when I told them that I didn’t know where it was they decided to place me at a beach that they could just point to. So off I went to St. Ann’s. I didn’t know it, but my life was about to take a whole knew direction. I would meet people over the next few months and years that would help me to mature, to gain confidence, to set life long goals and develop a career. Dean Westgaard would become the catalyst for many of the changes that finally stuck. When I became a guard I thought of the beach as a place to work. Dean taught me that it was a place to develop a life style. There was never a doubt in my mind that he took lifeguarding seriously. He was the one that taught everyone how to improve their guarding skills. Everyday started with him telling stories or getting someone else to tell a story about how a rescue or first aid was handled the day before. He would walk us through every event and reinforce what had been done right and what might have been done to improve the situation. Dean’s primary objective during the day was guarding lives, everything else was secondary.

What began to excite me most about guarding was what people did before and after guarding all day. As days turned into weeks and weeks into months my life ambitions were taking some dramatic alterations. I had come to Laguna for summer employment. At the end of summer I would then return to college. As the summer progressed my goals started to change. All of the other guys were doing such exciting things. I was ready to make some changes.

The door to diving was opened for me. I could not believe what could be acquired with just a short dive. At St. Ann’s beach abs, lobsters, and halibut were abundant. Dean and his family lived just above my beach. He would come down almost nightly and go for a short dive if there were calm surf conditions. I couldn’t believe what he was taking home for dinner. I started diving right away. I found that he made it look a lot easier than it really was. When he watched me collect my first ab he knew that I didn’t know what I was doing because it was a black. He patiently explained the difference between good and bad abalone. I next learned to dive for halibut and then I moved to lobsters. After a while I even found a few scallops.

Dean saw that I wanted to learn all of the beach skills. He next moved me into the old dory that was left near the Main Beach tower. I couldn’t believe the bounty that could be produced with a short row down the coast. This beach life just kept getting better. I got paid for going to the beach; I could surf before and after work and I could collect a free dinner on the way home--lovely.

Before the end of summer I had my new life mapped out. I would guard until October. Then with my pockets full of money I would buy a new rhino surfboard and go to the north shore and ride big surf until January. I would then go to the mountains and learn to ski well enough to get on the ski patrol. I planned to work in the mountains until the snow went away and then I would buy a woody and surf up and down the coast until summer returned. I was on a roll.

When I shared this dream with Dean he started spending more time on my beach. He also invited me home for dinner a few times. Each time we would wind up talking about where I was headed. He asked if I liked what I was doing. I said that this was the perfect life. He then said that I needed to go back to college and get a teaching degree so I could guard during the summers. We had a lot of very long discussions about my goals.

Dean lost the first round of discussions. I didn’t go back to school and I did go to the islands with some other guards. It was an incredible winter. It was my first experience with waves well over twenty feet. I did come home and buy a 1948 woody for $200. I did take off and surf from Rincon south to Mexico, but in the end Dean’s influence was just too great. I went back to school and got a teaching credential. I guarded summers until 1974 and after 34 years of teaching I retired in 2000.

During the first few years in Laguna I thought that I was the ‘chosen one’ that Dean had selected to mentor, but as the years passed by I realized that I was really just one of many that was given that privilege. We all gained from his influence. Each one of us that guarded with Dean felt fortunate to have known a man of his character. That is why the Laguna Beach Lifeguard Headquarters carries his name.

Hopefully every young person has a hero, someone to emulate and follow. The night I discovered that he had died I went to the beach and cried uncontrollably. A friend and a mentor had been lost. I have been comforted to know that his influence on my life would touch both my children and grand children. I miss him a lot.