Posted by Scott on April 05, 2004 at 09:07:35:
In Reply to: Laguna Beach Lifeguard Staffing posted by Deb Karimoto on April 03, 2004 at 10:25:15:
Deb, I dont have too much to say about the topic as I feel obligated to watch my children and ensure their safety as well as my own. Im sure that once the city gets sued enough they will change their policies and benefits package to keep more lifegaurds staffed. A couple of summers ago I was doing a beach dive in Laguna. As I was exiting the surf, which was a bit heavy but "doable", there a woman/girl also exiting and having some difficulty. She was doing "the crawl" out of the surf and obviously having a little trouble as she was obviously new to the sport. I was keeping an eye on her to lend a hand if she got in trouble but she was doing OK on her own. About that time a lifegaurd came running down the beach as if this person was about to die and she was screaming, "TAKE THE REGULATOR OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!!!!" as she was running toward this diver. I know this lifegaurd had good intentions but I just had to put my 2 cents in and told her that this diver is doing exactly as she was trained to do and by leaving the reg in her mouth she is allowing herself to breath air instead of water. Anyway, I dont know if she was a part-timer or not but it really irritated me that she yelled inacurate advice to this new diver especially if she had no dive training herself.