By Jennifer Marino
People would have drowned if Jared hadn't been there, said his father, Bob. Saving lives isn't anything new for the Adler family. Bob, 50, has been a lifeguard for 30 years. His works full-time as a financial advisor and weekends on the beach. The eldest Adler, Jameson, 20, was a lifeguard for four years before entering the Naval Academy last year. Daughter Katherine, 17, has lifeguarded for two years and currently works at the West Bathhouse pool at Jones Beach. Jared, 15, was part of the first group of 21 junior lifeguards at Jones Beach. Then there's their mother, Margaret, who is "the driving force behind us all," according to Bob.
Jameson can't think of a better job. You get paid to sit on the beach, he said.
A family of lifeguards isn't an odd occurrence at Jones Beach. At the West End 2 beach alone, 20 children of lifeguards followed in their parents' footsteps, and these guards have formed a familial relationship. In the winter, 15 families go to Canada together to ski and snowboard. "It's an extended family of friends," said Bob.
Despite the damp weather this summer, there have been many rescues on the sunny weekends, up to 100 on one beach. The rescues are almost always a team effort. "You can't run a rescue alone," said Bob. To prove it, Jameson explained how a typical rescue works, using broken bits of shell as victim and rescuers.
When a victim is spotted, a lifeguard blows his or her whistle twice as a signal that a rescue is beginning. Then a guard swims out to the victim with a buoy, those red (or white) torpedo-shaped things carried by the infamous lifeguards of "Baywatch" -- a terribly inaccurate show, according to Bob. The buoy helps keep the victim afloat while another lifeguard swims a rope out to the rescuer and the victim. A third guard on the beach feeds the line to the second guard swimming out. Then the two guards and the victim are towed back to shore.
The line is used because riptides are often what leave swimmers stranded, and it's often too dangerous for a single lifeguard to try to swim a victim back to shore.
Last summer, on a Sunday in June, Bob and Jameson had the rare chance to participate in several rescues together. Sometimes Jameson swam out with the line while Bob fed it to him from shore, and sometimes they worked the other way around. Parents and children rarely work the same beach, however. Bob had headed over to Jameson's beach, the Central Mall, to watch him work. It happened to be a busy day there, and the Central Mall crew needed Bob's help.
All the Adlers (except Jared, who's not yet a working lifeguard) have made rescues in the ocean, and Katherine has made several in the pool this year.
The lifeguards at Jones Beach spend one hour at a time up on a chair, and then one hour down. They're never technically off-duty, but during their down hours they can eat, surf, patrol in a kayak, swim, run or lift weights. The Adlers enjoy surfing and kayaking, and Jared and Jameson have been known to run for miles on the boardwalk. Even in rainy weather, the guards have to sit in the chairs under umbrellas and "watch the seagulls," as Bob put it.
In addition to lifeguarding, all three kids have been on swim teams. Katherine is on the Long Island Aquatic Center team, and recently finished third in an ocean mile swim off Rockaway beach. Jameson remembers his mother driving them to all their classes, swimming and CPR among them. He wasn't too fond of swimming class as a kid because of the Speedo swimsuit. "It's not cool," he said. But Margaret keeps them motivated. Bob says his kids are "high maintenance" with all the activities they're involved in.
Bob keeps busy volunteering as the head trainer of Jones Beach's junior lifeguard competition team. The program is for 9- to 15-year-olds. He was also a leader in the lifeguard union, and helped get funding for new equipment, including kayaks and trucks, in 1991.
As for lifeguarding, it seems to be a healthy addiction. Of the 80 lifeguards that were hired with Bob in 1974, 30 are still working. They are dentists, chiropractors, lawyers, cops and fireman full-time and lifeguards on the weekends. And as for the younger generation, Bob says that at the beach, "There's no place to get into trouble."
