By: Zoe Howard
Features Editor
Senior Megan Seth spent her summer rescuing beachgoers at Huntington and Bolsa Chica State Beaches.
Seth began the Junior Lifeguard program in Los Angeles County, LACo, approximately 6 summers ago before becoming a CA State Ocean Lifeguard. She also was a Cadet in LACo, but wanted to become a lifeguard sooner, so she didn’t continue the cadet program the next summer. For State Ocean Lifeguards, the minimum qualification is to have a driver’s license, but in LACo you must also be a high school graduate and over the age of 18.
“I loved my [Junior Lifeguard] instructors because they always put me in a great mood and got me excited about becoming a lifeguard [in the future],” Seth said.
To train for the open water swim tests that were in April 2019, Seth would swim around the recheck buoys near Marine street in Manhattan Beach that are used by LACo Lifeguards. Seth is also on Costa’s surf team which helped her prepare for the swims.
“I was interested in getting a summer job where I could do all of those things that I loved,” Seth said. “I heard about Huntington State from another girl at Costa who just graduated, so I thought it would be a great opportunity before I could try out for LACo.”
For Huntington State Beach Lifeguards, the tryout is by time, however, sometimes the lifeguards will need to adjust the time based on when most people come in from the swim. Seth passed both the 1,000-yard open water swim under in 20 minutes and a continuous 200-yard run, 400-yard swim, 200-yard run in under 10 minutes, which qualified her for the next step.
“I think I have always known I wanted to lifeguard at some point in my life, like in high school or summers between college,” Seth said. “This is because my dad is a lifeguard so I have grown up at the beach and became interested in the job at an early age. My sister has also been a lifeguard for 2 years and she is twenty-years-old right now”.
Once Seth passed the background check and submitted all of the paperwork, she was able to start the training program at Huntington State Beach from 6:00 am to 6:30 pm or 7:00 pm. During the 8-day program, Seth underwent multiple physical events each day, as well as lectures and training for first aid.
Everything I do in my free time is at the beach and all my summers kind of just lead up to [starting this program to become a lifeguard],” said Seth. “All of the points from every event and test were added up to rank the candidates, and I graduated top of my class from the rank.”
The training covered many topics including CPR, trauma patient assessments, and medical assessment. Seth participated in many drills for sand entrapment and ocean rescues and practiced boat drops, boat tows, and jet ski rescue drills. Seth was tested on all of this, and people were regularly cut for not passing physical events or written tests. The academic testing was on the lectures, which included anatomy, physiology, first aid, and lifeguard operation procedures. Seth also had scenario testing for all procedures to get CPR certification.
“I love how I know I can apply my favorite sport and just my favorite thing to do to a greater cause and help other people,” Seth said. “I also love the adrenaline from making a rescue or dealing with a medical [situation]”.
Seth graduated on June 30th with approximately 47 other lifeguards and worked the next day. Seth typically works shifts scheduled for 8 hours, but based on the amount of water coverage needed from how many people are in the water, she sometimes has to work more. The longest shift Seth ever worked was 11.5 hours.
“I have made a lot of rescues,” Seth said. “The first one was a little scary just because it was new, but you get used to it and learn to go early on everything so that most rescues are preventative actions.”
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