Trying out to save lives

An unusually small number of people showed up at the Huntington Beach Pier Sunday to take the fitness tests required to become lifeguards, but Huntington Beach lifeguards said it wasn’t a problem — a high percentage of them made the grade, plenty to fill the ranks this summer.

Normally 60 to 80 try out, but this year, only 49 showed up, according to Marine Safety Chief Kyle Lindo.

“I was watching the group,” Lindo said. “It’s discouraging when you first get there and you see there are only 49 people. But then you see them in action.”

Lindo said he couldn’t account for the low turnout, except to say that before Sunday he had been confident there were enough because more than 60 signed up ahead of time — meaning there were an unusual number of no-shows.

Aspiring lifeguards had to pass three tests to win a spot in candidate training: a 1,000-yard ocean swim up one side of the pier and down the other; a 500-yard ocean swim out half the pier and back; and a run-swim-run event, where tryouts ran a quarter mile on sand, swam around half the pier and ran another quarter-mile. Contestants had only a 15-minute break between each test.

“A lot of them are excellent pool swimmers,” Lindo said. “But we have to find out what they can do in the ocean.”

Ultimately 38 received invitations to come train with the lifeguards in April, which despite the low turnout is more than they usually accept. But Lindo said they didn’t relax standards in any way to do it.

“These people were outstanding swimmers,” he said. “They know what it takes to be a lifeguard.”

Plenty of them know firsthand what it takes — typically 60% have gone through the Huntington Beach Junior Lifeguards program, Lindo said. Those people have three, four, five or even six years of experience, and in the last year they spend time with the city’s full-time lifeguards in the towers, learning the ropes. Lifeguards know those tryouts well already.

“You get to recognize the faces,” Lindo said. “Thirty of them come in [to the tryouts], and they’re all strong swimmers. You’ll see them in their Edison High swim team sweats or Golden West College sweats, and you know they have experience.”

Those who accept the invitation are headed to a week of candidate training March 31. Training will include first aid, CPR, body language and how to spot victims in the water.

“It’s almost like military boot camp,” Lindo said. “They duplicate the physical aspect of tryouts probably twice a day.”

But training doesn’t stop at rescue tactics, Lindo said. With millions of visitors to the beach each year, lifeguards need people skills as well.

“They’re kind of ambassadors for the city,” he said. “They need to learn customer service techniques, how to interact with the public.”

That’s a tall order for a few dozen lifeguards. According to the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau, the beach alone receives 16 million visitors every year.