Lifeguards: Keeping Watch

The biggest beach rescue days aren’t the ones with huge surf but sunny days with warm water and medium surf that lull beach-goers into a false sense of security. Orange County lifeguards--who rescued more than 15,000 people last year--try to anticipate trouble by evaluating beach-goers’ water skills. Teens and young adults most often misjudge their swimming abilities. Lifeguards make five preventive warnings for every rescue. But when they spot danger, here’s how they swing into action:

1. Lifeguard phones dispatcher to report he or she will be making a rescue

2. Dispatcher alerts adjacent lifeguards to cover rescuing lifeguard’s area and summons backup vehicle and/or boat.

3. Lifeguard enters water with buoy and fins

4. Lifeguard hands victim buoy and helps attach it, if necessary.

5. Lifeguard tows victim to beach, using a backstroke to watch and give instructions to victim and to keep an eye on waves.

RESCUE BUOYS

Lifeguards use different flotation devices to rescue people. Both buoys have harnesses attached by a rope that the lifeguard uses to tow the victim.

Peterson Tube: A flexible buoy that can be attached around a victim’s chest.

Burnside Buoy: A hard plastic float with handles. Useed for rescues near rocks or piers--can be maneuvered between victim and hard surface.

George Freeth, who introduced surfing to the California coast, also invented the first such rescue buoy.

Dangers

Biggest hazards: inshore holes, where ocean-goers find themselves suddenly in water over their heads, and rip currents.

Rip currents--which account for 80% of ocean rescues--are powerful channels of water that pull swimmers away from the shore. Rather than trying to swim against a rip current--which is exhausting--swimmers should escape it by moving parallel to the shore.

Tower: Telephone; Binoculars; Fins; Buoy

Trucks: Rescue boards; Backboard (for spinal or neck injuries); Radio; First aid kit

Boats, Jet Skis, all-terrain vehicles and trucks have radios so they can respond to emergencies.

Lifeguard Close-Up

* The length of a lifeguard’s shift depends on weather and crowds: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 10 a.m. until not needed, 11 a.m. until not needed; on balmy evenings, late shift sometimes lasts until 8:30 p.m.

* Lifeguard starting pay: $11-$15/hour

* Log of typical busy day: rescues, preventive work, lost children, first aid major and minor, law enforcement

SAFETY TIPS

Here are a few additional beach safety tips, recommended by the experts:

* Upon arrival at the beach, swimmers and surfers should check with the lifeguard about water conditions

* Be sure you know how to swim

* Swim near an open lifeguard station

* Never swim alone

* Watch the horizon, not the shore, to see what’s coming

* When using a Boogie board, make sure to attach it with its leash

* Swim with fins for extra power

* Stay calm

* Don’t be afraid to wave one or both arms if you need to be rescued

* Wear lotion with a sun protection factor of at least 15 and reapply often

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Beach Rescues 1997 1998 (through June 1 Newport Beach 7,014 312 Huntington State Beach and Bolsa Chica 2,700 350 Huntington Beach 2,015 91* Laguna Beach 1,883 112 San Clemente City 1,161 57 San Clemente State 325 20 Seal Beach 667 n/a Doheny State 276 5 Crystal Cove 110 0

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(*through May 1)

Source: Individual beaches, lifeguards, California Surf Life Saving Assn. and Industrial Design Research; Researched by MIMI KO CRUZ, PAUL DUGINSKI and APRIL JACKSON/For The Times