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March 7, 2010 -

Lifeguards Still Needed and Still Being Hired

Despite massive budget cuts in all areas of state and local government in California, with furloughs and threatened layoffs in the news almost daily, lifeguards are still being hired for the upcoming summer season around southern California.

A schedule of tryouts in the different communities is up at the Orange County Register’s Beach Blog.

The Register also has a report on the conditions and the competitors at the March 6 tryout in Huntington Beach.

We had the chance to watch the tryouts at Laguna Beach a few years ago after brunch with some friends at the Greeter’s Corner Cafe there, and snapped a few photos that might give you an idea of what the prospective lifeguards are in for at these tryouts.

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January 2, 2010 -

New Year

Not much new on coastal access law lately, though enforcement and services are remaining pretty bleak due to California’s ongoing budget crisis.  The reductions in lifeguard services, particularly at state beaches, is particularly bad news and will undoubtedly, inevitably, lead to more bad news.

On the bright side, your host did do some “field research” at the Del Mar Penguin Plunge yesterday with the husband and several hundred of our closest friends.  Happy New Year!

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March 17, 2008 -

Lifeguard Tower Red-Tagged

Interesting that as things heat up again over the use of the Children’s Pool in La Jolla as a seal refuge, the lifeguard tower there gets red-tagged due to the city’s ongoing failure to maintain its property.

The building might be unsafe, but the people in it have too often seemed to be the only one’s in the area capable of mature and reasoned thought. Who will provide adult supervision for the children now?

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February 7, 2008 -

New Lifeguard Station in Coronado

An initiative the would have blocked construction of a proposed lifeguard station along Ocean Boulevard in Coronado has failed to pass, garnering only 47% of the vote. The planned 2,574-square-foot building will contain an office, showers, lockers and lifeguard vehicles and according to the San Diego Union-Tribune article, the construction is planned to start by April.

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February 5, 2008 -

Lifeguards On The Ballot

Good post by Candace at Citizen Voices on election initiatives concerning a permanent lifeguard facility at Coronado.

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November 21, 2007 -

Safety has Style

Nice series of photographs of lifeguard towers over at Hang Ten.

Sure it’s a bit off topic, but it’s a holiday weekend, and your webmaster is using his discretion.

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July 15, 2007 -

Lifeguarding and Personal Responsibility

This is a bit off-topic since the site’s focus is beaches compared to pools, and since most beach lifeguards are public entity employees the liability issues are like apples and oranges, but I wanted to bring up last week’s incident at Great America in Santa Clara, where a 4-year-old drowned in an amusement park wave pool. The mother got a lot of press with anguished wails about the quality of the lifeguarding, including her claim that only four guards were present instead of the park’s claimed six. The Chron’s article does a good job of discussing the legal standard of care and industry practices near the end. Also of interest was this forum thread at firehouse.com (thanks to Google’s News Alerts for the heads up) discussing personal responsiblity as it applies in this case.

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April 14, 2007 -

Santa Monica Lifeguards

The Argonaut has published a good review of a new book by Arthur C. Verge on the history of the Santa Monica lifeguards. The new book reportedly credits the lifeguards and the Santa Monica Lifeguard Service, which merged with the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Service in 1974, with turning Santa Monica into the tourist destination it has become. The book documents turn-of-the-century rescues and the early history of local attraction Muscle Beach, and includes documentation from Verge’s collection of over 2000 historic photographs of the Santa Monica lifeguards.

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March 16, 2007 -

Lifeguard Safety Issues

Same issue, same author, different spin. The Long Beach Press-Telegram is also reporting on the issue of lifeguard vehicle accidents on the beach. The other article (from the L.A. Daily News) was posted here Monday. While both articles were written by Staff Writer Troy Anderson, the Press-Telegram places a different spin on the issue, headlining it as the ‘Unexpected Danger Haunting L.A. Beaches’, contrasted with the less-dramatic writeup on the costs to L.A. County and the lifeguard’s efforts to improve their safety record reported in the Daily News.

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Interesting Sites

70 Percent Good site focusing on reporting and documenting break conditions for waveriders
Coastal Marine Resource Center Non-profit from the New York-New Jersey Harbor Bight
Free PB Opposition to additional beach regulations at San Diego’s Pacific Beach
Race for the Oceans A forum for swimmers and swimming fans to dive in to ocean conservation.
Surfrider Foundation Activities and campaigns for clean water, beach access, beach preservation and protecting special places.
Wave Ride Net Surfing and surf spots