Training to save lives

Young Chang

Heads turn as a yellow lifeguard boat races heroically toward a

rescue.

It’s splitting the waters and getting cupped in curls of waves. The

only thing competing for viewers’ attention is the engine’s whirring,

audible even from shore.

“It’d be so much fun to be a lifeguard on a boat,” said Scott Lambert,

eyes dreamily following the yellow splash show.

“Yeah,” Katie Erickson said, equally awed.

The duo was waiting with other cadets-in-training for instructor John

Carpenter to return with keys to unlock part of Newport Pier on Tuesday,

a part that would allow each of them to jump off into the water.

Their second day on the program, pier jumps were as glamorous as life

got for the 20 students. But each of them look forward to the day they

can be Newport Beach lifeguards, which is the real thing, past the city’s

Junior Lifeguard and Cadet programs.

“They fall in love with being able to help people,” said Carpenter, a

city lifeguard for 33 years. “The satisfaction of being able to help

somebody and save their lives -- it’s very gratifying to help people in

that way.”

Newport Beach ends up with the best of the best, the training

instructor continued. Successful graduates of the Junior Lifeguard

program often make it into the final cut for the Cadet program. Cadets

are chosen after tryouts that involve a distance swim drill and a

run-swim-run drill. Forty people tried out for the Cadet program, but

only 20 made it in. The best cadets frequently make it as official

Newport Beach lifeguards.

Katie, 16, hopes to one day make it to the ultimate step. She was a

junior lifeguard for four years, which meant she paid to be in a summer

program to learn life guarding, and now is finally getting paid $6.75 an

hour to be trained as cadet.

“I think a lot of people see lifeguards as beach bums with shaggy

hair,” the Costa Mesa resident said. “But I think they don’t realize that

there’s a lot more to it, a lot of responsibilities.”

CADET COURSE

Unlike what we see on “Baywatch,” which Katie admits to liking,

lifeguard training involves time indoors and at the desk as much as days

spent running on the sand.

Carpenter’s program runs for 110 hours over six weeks. Students get

the same training that advanced lifeguards do, which includes lessons in

CPR, first aid, how to handle a buoy, ocean rescues, pier jumps, boat

drops and learning city municipal codes.

“We’re concerned obviously, No. 1, with the ocean and keeping people

safe; however, our scope extends beyond that to the beach,” Carpenter

said. “So if someone is found digging a hole too deep, typically a

lifeguard will stop them and tell them to build a castle.”

He remembers one tragic case years ago when two children dug so deep

into the sand that they reached the side of a berm, tunneled in and got

buried when it collapsed.

Cadets “will learn this stuff in the classroom,” he said. “And the

questions people have: Is this the season to take Pismo clams? Do I need

a license? Can we have fires on the beach?”

The hope is that those in the Cadet program will go on to become the

next generation of paid lifeguards.

Besides classroom work, everyone makes it outside at least once a day,

just to get some sun and a run or two.

The group received uniforms on the first day, which was exciting, many

agreed. When they’re out as a group in matching red trunks and swimsuits,

often with a yellow buoy in hand, strangers sunning and swimming stare at

how official the teens look.

“Now that we have our shirts, it’s like an actual job,” Katie said.

“It feels more formal. It’s really cool because we look the same.”

Katie said she has always wanted to be a lifeguard because she finds

it fascinating that her job would be to help someone. She chooses to do

this in the water because she loves the ocean.

“And I love to swim,” the Newport Harbor High School student said.

Which goes for everyone in her group. But on Tuesday afternoon, the

cadets did more than just swim.

They played rescuer, played victim and even jumped off the Newport

Pier.

“The classroom is good, but it’s out here where the teaching happens,”

said Carpenter, squinting in the sun.

JUMPING OFF

Spencer Pirdy ran back breathless from the water and gushed about what

had just happened.

“A dead fish was jiggling in my hand!” he exclaimed, explaining what

he felt when he dove underwater to simulate a rescue.

Conversations began about whether the fish was, then, actually dead.

The group had just learned how to wrap a buoy and hold it so that at

any moment, it would be releasable. Students then learned the sequence of

making a rescue: run, pop the buoy, high step, dolphin (which means you

dive in and push yourself up from the ocean floor), swim and rescue.

They charged toward the water in groups of five or six and ran back

after each drill.

Once the group started taking turns playing victim, Devon Andrade got

creative and gave Katie a hard time.

“He kept falling under the buoy,” she said.

“I was trying to be a difficult victim that was in a panic,” he said.

Carpenter laughed as the newly formed group showed they knew how to

have fun while learning to do something as serious as save lives.

Moments later, he explained the practical benefits of pier jumping.

Sometimes you’ll have a person needing help far enough from shore that

jumping off the pier would be quicker than running through the surf, he

said. Sometimes you’ll be on the pier when a call comes in. You wouldn’t

want to run through the pier and back down toward water on the sand.

So you jump.

But not really.

“No one should jump off,” Carpenter said. “Just step off. Look forward

and out in front of you.”

Each student got to try it three times. They were to step off of a

splintery little ledge designated for exactly this sort of jumping, point

the toes downward (to avoid slapping the water with flat feet), raise

both arms to pop the buoy, lower the arms back down and do this all while

leaning the slightest bit forward.

“And don’t do a Michael Jordan,” Carpenter said, sticking his tongue

out.

The rush was definitely big. So was the fear right before stepping

off. But students also got a sense of what they would go through to get

to someone in need.

“I look forward to the day when I get to rescue someone,” Katie said.

“It makes me nervous because I wouldn’t want to mess up, but with cadet

training, I’d be prepared.”

-- Young Chang writes features. She may be reached at (949) 574-4268

or by e-mail at o7 young.chang@latimes.comf7 .