Junior Lifeguard Program in the 1960s

Junior Lifeguard Program

Laguna Beach Lifeguard Department

During the 1960’s

By Dale Ghere

In 1961 LaVern Duggar became the Chief of the Lifeguard Department for Laguna and with his leadership many changes were made that have continued. It wasn’t until the late 50’s that Laguna offered a strong competitive exam to become a lifeguard. The qualifying swim was a race from Main Beach to Mountain Road. In the early days qualifying to be a lifeguard was based on a person’s reputation. Was he known as a good diver? Could he surf? Was he brave? Would he body surf big waves? Could he play beach volleyball? Was he known as a good athlete at Laguna Beach High School? Was he a local and did the chief know his parents? Could he row a dory? Could he swim out and pull someone to safety? If enough of these were yeses then the person became a guard. Short swims were enough to prove that the young man was a skilled swimmer. In the early days of the lifeguard department swimming for speed or proving that you could swim long distances were not considered important. Apparently the philosophy was to keep a good eye on the water and react early enough to make a rescue so speed was not needed. There was no consideration for a long distance swim because rescues in Laguna were generally inside or near the surf line. It worked, no one ever drowned on a guarded beach.

That system worked for a variety of reasons. Laguna didn’t guard very many beaches, the crowds were relatively small and the department only needed 8 to 10 local boys over 18 years old to fill its needs. During the 40’s Laguna hired boys as young as 16 and 17 because the older boys were all off to war. By the late 50’s Laguna was covering more beaches, the crowds were growing every year. The lifeguard department had to search out of town for more and more people who could become lifeguards. Many of the boys came from inland cities and knew little about the beach, but they were good swimmers and water polo players. Duggar had the foresight to see what was going to happen. Laguna would need more guards with each passing year and there would not be enough local boys to fill the growing needs of the city. Duggar was correct in his anticipations. Through the 60’s and into the 70’s the lifeguard department grew from 20 to over 50. Duggar felt that someone in Laguna needed to start training local boys to meet future demands.

In 1964 Duggar decided that I was the person he would select to fulfill his goal. I accepted his offer with enthusiasm and started making plans for the next summer. I loved to teach kids about the beach and now I was going to be paid to do it. I would teach from 10 to noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays for six weeks during the summer. The skill level of the kids would vary from weak to excellent. Their ages would range from 12 to 15. I would start early in July and continue for six weeks. There would be no charge to the boys. Duggar’s challenges for me were to produce kids who were skilled watermen, encourage them to spend more time in the water and encourage them to become lifeguards. My first thought was, “This is going to be sweet.”

There had been youth training programs clear back into the 30’s, but the purpose of the programs was different. The original purpose was two fold: first, to help a person to become more self reliant and knowledgeable about the beach and second was to train a young boy how to help a lifeguard. My plans would retain those goals. These goals had been important to the guard department in the early days because there was either no phone available for the guard or at times it did not worked. Each lifeguard was alone in his own cove. For many years the lifeguard department did not have its own emergency vehicle. When back up was needed the local ambulance driver picked up guards at the Main Beach and transported them to places where they were needed. This was time consuming and did not always provide the proper support. It was good to have the help of a local kid who was on the beach everyday.

When I started teaching we worked on swimming skills, surf entries and body surfing. Every kid used surf mats, surfboards and paddleboards. Each one would follow me through the blowhole at Wood’s Cove, jump into the Giggle Crack at Diver’s Cove and when the surf was small would climb on the rocks at Bird Rock. Pain avoidance was a strong motivator that caused every kid to listen with intensity not common to the classroom. It didn’t take long for each of them to get it figured out. In school you left a little lead in the wrong box when you didn’t understand the lesson. At the beach you were likely to leave a little skin on the rocks if you didn’t understand the lesson. Missing the timing on a wave gives a different personal result from being told that you missed a question on the last math test. Going over the falls, bouncing off of the bottom or being washed across the rocks gives one a good reason to rethink what they were supposed to do. As the waves washed the blood off of someone’s shoulder or forehead it gave the others time to concentrate on what they should be doing.

We spent hours going over first aid techniques, practicing resuscitation, CPR and making beach rescues. We spent a lot of time discussing how tides affect wave structure and how the contour of the bottom influences the shape of the wave and controls currents. Everyone learned how to spot a rip and how to use it to their advantage. Every kid was connected with at least one guard. The whole group would walk/run/swim to every beach and listen to the guard explain the peculiar characteristics about his beach that required special attention. By the end of summer every kid knew something about every beach in Laguna, even the beaches that were not guarded.

Time was spent encouraging the older guards to take the junior guards surfing or diving or rowing or paddling after work. I wanted each kid exposed to as much water time as possible. I encouraged the guards to give the junior guards the opportunity to help them as much as possible when they were on the beach. I asked the guards to teach the kids how to look for possible rescues and how to move people out of dangerous situations before it turned into something more serious. The idea was stressed that if they wanted to be a guard they needed to get on a swim team and to play water polo in high school. I kept discussing the point that I was trying to give them the advantage over out of town kids when it would come to time to take the test to be a lifeguard. They learned that the fastest swimmer didn’t always win. We had lots of time to compete with each other to learn this lesson. Knowing how to catch a wave, use a rip, dolphin through the surf line, deal with rocks, swim a straight line, where to run on the beach and when taking the longer route would all work to their advantage. When the surf got big we would hold a body surfing and mat surfing contest. George Moore was always more than willing to provide all the rafts I needed. Several summers I took a group of the best kids to Santa Barbara to enter the junior lifeguard competition. There they usually won such events as paddling, swim relays, running and beach flags. Each kid grew in strength and ability during the summer and that was obvious to everyone.

The summer ended with two main events: a swim and a party. Throughout the six weeks the kids did a lot of swimming. Short swims just through the surf line and back to the beach. Longer swims around points or down the coast from beach to beach. The last swim was from Victoria Beach to Crescent Bay. I selected only the best swimmers for this swim. The younger boys were assigned to paddle with a swimmer. The paddlers were to keep the swimmer on course and to provide safety for the swimmer. For all of the boys this was their first long distance ocean experience. For most of the swimmers it took about an hour to an hour and a half to complete the swim. Lifeguards, friends and parents were all there to greet the swimmers as they emerged from the ordeal. Completing the swim was an experience to be remembered for a lifetime.

The party was always at Heisler Park, just above Picnic Beach. It was a great time for everyone. All of the supervisors and their families came, every guard and of course all of the junior guards attended. Lots of food was enough of an incentive to get every guard to make the effort to attend. The markets in town provided all of the free food I needed to put on the feed. Hotdogs, chips, potato salad, beans, watermelon and drinks made up the normal menu. Everyone could eat until they were stuffed and I would still have food left over for the guards to take home. The storeowners were always gracious to provide more than I asked for.

The real highlight of the party was the awards. Everyone competed in their own age group so it provided lots of opportunities for me give out prizes: best swimmers, body surfing champions, mat surfing contest winners, best runners, most improved, most outstanding and of course the winners of the Vic to C-Bay swim. All of these kids got special awards, but due to the generosity of the merchants in town I was able to give every kid something. Cameras from Bill Thomas, fishing equipment and fins from Leonard Brockman’s Sports World, pole spears and lots of diving equipment from Santmyer’s dive shop, hats from The Toy Store on Main Beach, bathing suits and beach stuff from all over town were made available for me to give away. It was a fun time.

While I was developing the junior guard program Duggar asked John Cunningham, Tim Davis, Paul Golfos and Jim Herdman to develop programs for the younger kids, ages 8 to 11. Their programs strengthened my program. We were getting kids to join at the age of eight and they would come every year until they were fifteen. By the time a kid was fifteen he had been trained for seven years. The fifteen year olds that I was training had more beach experience than did any of the new out-of-town guards. They knew that and so did I. The Junior Guard program was successful in many ways, but one thing that I could not overcome was the “age thing” for boys. At sixteen they just did not want to be a junior guard. They were old enough to drive and they thought that they should be able to guard or they would get a job somewhere else. I could see that the whole purpose of everything that I was trying to do was going to fail; they were ready and wanted to guard, but the city would not hire them until they were eighteen. The argument was that to place a sixteen year old on a beach by himself would not be wise. How to solve this problem became the major question that I struggled with. After lots of thought I went to Duggar and asked him if I could start what I would call the “Rookie” program. Duggar agreed, in 1968 I started hiring boys to lifeguard only at Main Beach who were16 and 17. With this plan a young guard would never be without a supervisor nearby. The training became intensified. By the time a boy turned 18 the lifeguard department could hire a waterman who had ten years of beach experience. The problem was solved.

For the girls who read this story; girls were not included into the Junior Guard Program because there were no local swimming programs that produce swimmers good enough to keep up with the boys. All of that has changed and today there are lots of very fine female athletes who have become lifeguards, especially girls from Laguna Beach High School. Well-done ladies!!!!