On the water -- Life as a guard

June Casagrande

Al Irwin and Rick Othmer were around when abalone and lobster were

free for the plucking from local waters. Othmer, a lifeguard for 10 years

beginning in the early 1950s, has fond memories of clam bakes with fellow

lifeguards, cooking fresh local seafood over fires right on the beach.

A lot has changed since Newport Beach’s first lifeguards scanned the

shores in the 1920s. But, at the same time, a lot has stayed the same.

Irwin and Othmer will compare lifeguarding past and present at a

dinner event Thursday hosted by the Newport Beach Historical Society and

Friends.

Irwin, who joined the lifeguards in 1933 and became captain in 1941,

will explore the profession’s earliest years in Newport, starting with

the 1920s when the lifeguards first combined with the Fire Department.

Then Othmer will pick up the ball, looking at lifeguarding from the 1950s

until present.

“I was just making 90 cents an hour -- hard to believe,” Othmer said.

There were times, he remembers, when he would rescue eight or more

people from riptides a day. A graduate of Newport Harbor High who had

none other than Irwin as a swimming coach, Othmer would swim out with a

metal flotation device that looked like a torpedo and then haul in the

stranded swimmer.

Othmer first started lifeguarding on Balboa Island. Then, with a

little more experience under his belt, he moved to the ocean side at 15th

Street. His final years as a lifeguard were spent cruising the beach at

Corona del Mar in a Jeep -- an innovation just introduced in 1947.

But more than the rescues, more than the warm days enjoying the

beautiful beaches, Othmer remembers the camaraderie.

“There were just 20 of us in those days. There’s about 180 now. So we

would have beach parties. We all loved our jobs.”

FYI

WHAT: Dinner and presentation on the history of the Newport Beach

Lifeguards, presented by the Newport Beach Historical Society and Friends

WHEN: Thursday. Wine, soft drinks and mingling begin at 6 p.m. Dinner

begins at 6:45. Talk is at 7:30.

WHERE: American Legion Post 291, 215 15th St., Balboa Peninsula

COST: $15

PHONE: For reservations and information, call Bill Grundy at (949)

675-6161.