By Dominique Ficalora
The stretch of the boardwalk around National Boulevard is crowded by beach cruisers, two-wheeled invaders in pastel colors, chrome handlebars, carrying riders in bright helmets. For a half-hour, the bikes keep coming, the young teenage riders hurrying to lock their bikes to anything they can and then disappearing under the boardwalk in bunches.
The kids run out onto the sand, past the lifeguard headquarters, scattering in pre-determined directions. The 12- and 13-year-olds in Group B wear green swim caps. Group C is the 10- and 11-year-old rookie junior lifeguards, who wear orange caps. Group A is the oldest, 14- and 15-year-olds wearing bright yellow.
The groups meet by the shore, some behind the lifeguard shack, others strewn across the sand. The kids keep filing onto the beach until there are more than 250 of them — tanned, fit and excited.
One recent day they were buzzing about a trip to Splish-Splash. Permission slips would be collected later, but this wasn’t summer camp. This was 8:45 a.m. on a Tuesday, which meant junior lifeguard training in Long Beach. Some 20 instructors work with the trainees for three hours, until 11:45 a.m. “Then they go back to their beaches and sit the rest of their shift,” said Rosemary Daly, co-director of Long Beach’s junior lifeguard program.
The instructors are Long Beach lifeguards who volunteer to work with the 260 junior lifeguards in the program. There are also lieutenants, like Central Crew’s Dorothy Burke, who devote their time to overseeing the lifeguard instructors. Many of the instructors and lieutenants are particularly fond of the program because they went through it themselves. “Most of our instructors were once junior lifeguards,” said Daly.
There is an instructor for every 15 junior lifeguards, a lifeguard-to-junior-lifeguard ratio that helps instructors deliver instructions correctly. “Our instructors are fantastic — they’re absolutely fantastic,” Daly said.
“The kids idolize them,” said Ellen Schilling. Schilling and Mary Littlefield volunteer their time to work as assistant directors in the junior lifeguard program.
The trainees begin their day by jogging on the hard sand. Then they stretch, and in between stretching and time spent in the water, they play games on the sand. “If there’s bad water, we’ll play land games that day,” Daly said. Even when the ocean isn’t rough, land activities are incorporated into every lesson, helping the juniors develop snappy reaction time and running fitness.
J.T. Forkin, 13, said that one of his favorite parts about being a junior lifeguard is playing beach flags. “They put out these long rubber hoses,” he said. “Then everyone lays across from the hoses. When they blow the whistle, we all run for the flags.”
“It’s like musical chairs,” Daly said. There is one fewer flag than there are junior lifeguards. The person who doesn’t manage to capture a flag is eliminated, and the game ends when only one junior lifeguard is left standing.
J.T.’s friend and fellow B grouper, Delaney Pues, likes the water activities more, especially the lifesaving drills. “We do rescue competitions,” she said. During these events, the juniors are taught to work with the “torp,” the red, torpedo-shaped buoy used for rescues.
Though all of the trainees learn rescue techniques, the emphasis is on preventive lifeguarding. The juniors are taught about potential hazards in the ocean — holes, sandbars and currents — before they become dangerous.
Daly said she believes it is important to train the junior lifeguards to manage rip currents, which are known to suck people away from the shore and are the most common cause of drownings. “When swimmers get caught in rip currents, they panic and fight,” Daly explained. “They need to let the current take them. They need to get sucked out and swim across where the water is safer.”
The junior lifeguards are taught not to panic if they should ever find themselves in a rip current. “We show them how to swim in it,” Daly said. “They have to learn to get out of flash rips.”
The children learn a great deal about water safety. “Our main goal is to keep as many kids as safe as possible,” said Daly.
All junior lifeguards are required to take a swim test before beginning the program. Daly said that many of them are competitive swimmers already. “Do you know what it’s like to be a swimmer?” Daly asked. “They spend so many hours in the pool, all through winter. Junior lifeguarding is like the apple pie, the treat for being such a good swimmer.”
“It really is fun,” said J.T.
“You have fun, you get to meet people,” said Aileen Carey.
“You get to keep up with friends in the summer,” Aileen’s brother Conor said, finishing his sister’s sentence. “This will help us become lifeguards.”
Many of the junior lifeguards go on to become lifeguards in Long Beach or neighboring towns. Daly said she believes this program prepares them for the rigors of lifeguarding here or elsewhere by teaching them about the ocean, and how to swim safely in it.
“It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been very rewarding,” said Tom Daly, co-director of the junior lifeguard program. The Dalys started training junior lifeguards after traveling extensively through California and Australia. They noticed that many other towns had junior lifeguard programs, but Long Beach did not. When they returned to Long Beach in 1988, they began the program with just eight kids.
“It was with our own children,” Rosemary said. The program has been going strong for 20 years, and participation in it has grown rapidly ever since.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
Photos By Andrew Vardakis/Herald
