By Anna Real
Staff Writer
Summer is defined as a time for stress free fun, but is not the case for some overachievers at Mira Costa.
The Junior Lifeguard program includes a program with student leaders, known as cadets or selected teenagers to assist professional lifeguards. The recent cadet tryout took place on February 28 at 4 pm in the Mira Costa pool.
“Most cadets are around 16 or 17,” Junior Lifeguard employee Kyle Daniels said. “We usually have roughly 60 to 70 kids trying out for only 50 spots each year.”
The Junior Lifeguard program is run by professional lifeguards that teach children about ocean safety, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, and conducts beach workouts. The many children that tryout get divided into different beaches where cadets assist the instructors to maintain the crowd.
“Cadet duties usually varies by beach,” senior Joe Luck said. “At Manhattan, I had to do a lot of leadership type stuff for the younger kids. At some of the less crowded beaches, cadets can actually perform rescues and watch the beach. Every cadet is required to give lectures about water safety and first aid during the Junior Guards program.”
After passing the tryout, cadets are put to work in long training sessions during the school year and summer.
“Usually there were specific training days every other weekend during junior guards, but we also had to do training during the weekdays,” Luck said. “A couple weekends in April and May, two or three in July, and in August we had to do about 30 hours of shadowing lifeguards. Graduation my year was either in late August or early September.”
The cadet’s tryouts are similar to the tryout of a professional lifeguard. In competition for a position, cadet and professional lifeguards both strive to place in long distance swims and runs.
“The tryout consists of a pool qualifying swim and a 600 meter ocean swim in March,” Daniels said. “The tryout is then followed by an interview, overall a pretty easy tryout.”
In order to prepare the cadets and possibly their futures as lifeguards, the training program imitates many lifeguards’ duties. The cadet training takes place often in order to help the cadets prepare for their summer program.
“The training is pretty difficult,” sophomore Davis Pratt said. “But my goal is to educate kids about the ocean and show them how to have fun at the beach with their friends so it will be rewarding.”
After training in the program, cadets can receive volunteer hours and college credit.
“The program is pretty difficult but it is rewarding,” Pratt said. “I plan on trying to get some college credit and volunteer hours as a cadet.”
The cadet program has a reputation for being difficult but rewarding and fun for the summer. It is said to be a chance to be a leader and have a laid back summer.
“It was really fun being at the beach with my friends everyday and I felt really confident in my abilities as a leader after working with lifeguards,” Luck said. “It’s definitely easier than summer school, but there’s still a lot of work involved. It seems like a huge drag doing all of the assignments they give you, but it’s really fun to be at junior guards for the majority of the time because most of the time I was just swimming, surfing, or playing games.”
When the training is over, instructors send cadets to different beaches depending how well they did in the training class and their overall places in the workouts. The cadets can be moved to all the beaches the junior guards program has to offer such as Manhattan, Hermosa, El Segundo, etc.
“I’m hoping for Manhattan, but no matter which beach I get, I won’t complain,” Pratt said.
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