No Sweat : People who make their living outdoors pass on some hot tips for keeping cool enough to weather the long days of summer.

When summer temperatures soar in the San Fernando Valley, a workday can turn into a test of tolerance. There is an antidote, of course: it’s called air conditioning. But what about those people who must toil without benefit of electric cooling, people who work outside under the omnipresent sun?

They must face summer’s daily possibility of triple-digit temperatures. The average high for a Valley summer day is about 95 degrees, according to Al Chen, a meteorologist at the National Climatic Data Center, in Asheville, N.C. The highest temperature ever registered in the Valley was 113 in 1971.

“The Valley is usually 10 to 15 degrees warmer than in Los Angeles,” said George McKillop, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Los Angeles.

McKillop said the winds aren’t strong enough to bring the cooling ocean air to the Valley. The air is also blocked by coastal ranges, he said.

How do people who work outside in the Valley keep their cool? What follows are the stories of five--a mailman, a painter, a lifeguard, a maintenance worker and a mechanic--who have learned to cope with the heat.

Ed Ramirez, 31, is accustomed to heat. His stint in the U.S. Army included six months in Panama, which he said makes the Valley seem frigid.

As a sergeant, Ramirez took a course called “jungle training,” in which he learned to survive in extreme heat. That course prepared him well for his current career. Ramirez is a mailman.

He works different routes in Chatsworth, frequently walking four or five hours a day. “You don’t want to walk too fast,” said Ramirez, who lives in Sylmar. “You can get a sunstroke real easy.” But he does move at a brisk, disciplined pace.

Ramirez dresses for survival. He wears a long-sleeved shirt, shorts, black nylon socks and black leather shoes, an outfit that, he said, is comfortable and cool. “People in the office think I’m crazy for wearing a long-sleeved shirt, but it keeps the sunlight away.” So do his hat and sunglasses.

To avoid heat cramps, Ramirez skips a late-morning lunch and waits to eat until he finishes his long route. He keeps two liters of water in his mail truck, which is also equipped with a fan. Half of the water is gone in the first two hours.

But heat isn’t Ramirez’s biggest concern. Dogs are. Walking carefully, Ramirez peers around every corner of each house, wary of a canine attack. He carries dog repellent just in case, though he has never had to use it. On a recent day, Ramirez didn’t proceed to one front door when he spotted a noisy husky. “I don’t know that dog,” he explained.

But no matter how hot it gets, Ramirez says delivering the mail beats being inside. “I used to work in a factory all day,” he said, “and just looking at four walls for 10 to 12 hours a day will make you go crazy.”

Klaus Roerich, 49, has spent his life in the paint business. At 11, he started working part-time at a paint store in East Berlin, advancing to apprentice at 14. The Valley’s blazing temperatures don’t faze him because he knows what nice weather means to his livelihood. “In Germany, you could only paint during the three summer months because it was so cold. Here, you can paint all year.”

And he does. Although he owns his own company in Van Nuys and can delegate work to others, Roerich said he enjoys hard physical labor. He paints at least three days a week, working on an apartment complex, a condominium, or a private home. He’s experienced enough to have a strategy for the sweltering heat.

“As a painter, if you stay in the sun for too long, you’re dead by noon,” said Roerich, who lives in Van Nuys. “You’re too exposed.”

Roerich tries to outsmart the sun by “running around it.” He starts to work in the shade and moves rapidly, always staying one step ahead of the encroaching sunlight. Or he’ll wait until the building blocks out the sun for just the time he needs. Fortunately, he said, many of his jobs offer this protection.

Roerich hates to paint inside. “The smell outside doesn’t kill you like it does inside. It mixes better with the air.”

He is more tolerant of the heat than when he arrived in the Valley in 1965. “I didn’t think I’d be able to handle it, but it isn’t that bad. I wouldn’t want to be back in Germany, that’s for sure. It snows there.”

“Believe it or not, I don’t like being in the sun,” said Dena Stevenson, trying to keep from laughing. “I’m very susceptible to it.

“Every time you turn around, you hear something about skin cancer. I’m very worried about it.”

For someone not enamored with sunlight, Stevenson, 24, of North Hollywood, spends a lot of time in it. As manager and lifeguard at a Granada Hills swimming pool run by the city of Los Angeles, she is outdoors all day. This is her eighth summer working at Los Angeles pools, and probably not her last.

She enjoys teaching swimming, and being around youngsters. But she works at warding off the sun.

“I’ll jump in the shower or jump in the pool when it’s real hot,” she said. “It’s nice to get away from chlorinated water for a change, although you’re out five minutes and hot all over again.”

Other remedies include drinking plenty of iced tea and ice water, and sitting under the huge umbrella that protects her when she’s in the lifeguard seat.

“You need to keep out of the sun to keep your attention on the swimmers,” Stevenson said. “After about 20 minutes, you’re bored with the whole thing. If you were hot, your attention span would be even less.”

One factor in her favor is constant movement. Sometimes she is teaching; sometimes she is supervising. Or she’ll step inside the administration building for a few minutes. “That’s when I decide to delegate things.”

Ruben Ruiz loves the sun. He tried working indoors as a machinist for a while and detested it. He felt like a prisoner.

Today, Ruiz, 44, of San Fernando, is liberated. He is a maintenance worker at the Sepulveda Dam Complex golf courses in Encino, mowing the fairways and greens, and changing the cups and tees. Although he is frequently doing strenuous physical labor in the sunshine, Ruiz has a distinct advantage.

“I come in at 5 a.m. every day,” he said, “and finish by 1:30 in the afternoon. So I miss the hottest part of the day. I don’t mind getting up early for that.”

Nonetheless, Ruiz is exposed to the heat during the last few hours of his shift. To protect himself, Ruiz always wears long-sleeved shirts and tries to stay out of the sun as much as possible. Luckily, the golf course has an abundant supply of trees, which offer shade.

“Sometimes I do get light-headed,” he said, “but it’s part of the job, and I’d rather have that than feel the confinement of being indoors.”

Joel Sundell isn’t sure where he will be every day, but he does know he’ll be working with heavy machinery and that, for the next few months at least, the weather will be extremely hot.

Sundell, 28, of Riverside, is a heavy-equipment mechanic for Baldwin Park-based W. E. McKnight Construction Co. He works in the Valley on a regular basis. On a recent Tuesday, he was practically stuck to what looked like a giant bulldozer. When describing his work, Sundell uses terminology such as “welding near an hydraulic leak” or “raising up a line.” Finally, he said, “Whatever breaks, we fix it.”

He was working at Victory and Balboa boulevards in Encino, where a lake and park are being constructed. Sundell pointed excitedly to something in the giant bulldozer. “See that exhaust pipe. That thing is boiling.”

So was Sundell. He was sweating and covered with oil and dirt. “I love this job. I know it’s hot, but I love it.”

Sundell has been working as a mechanic since he graduated from high school. He leaves home shortly before 4 a.m., and doesn’t get back till about 9 p.m. He works six days a week. To deal with the heat each day, he brings a huge pitcher of Gatorade, and 1 1/2 gallons of water. He wears sunglasses, too.

Still, he’s not too macho to state his case.

“I’d much rather work anywhere else than the Valley,” he said. “It gets very hot here.”