Beach Guardian Course Expands

The two-week pilot Guardians program for about 50 parents of junior lifeguards this past summer was so successful that John Ryan Jr., chief of East Hampton Town’s lifeguards, will offer a monthlong version coinciding with the junior lifeguard program’s dates next summer that will be open to all adults.

At the suggestion of some of the junior lifeguard parents, who said they wished they’d had similar training as children, Ryan and T.J. Calabrese, who are also the president and vice president, respectively, of the Hampton Lifeguard Association, launched the pilot program, whose chief goal, Ryan said during a recent telephone conversation, was to increase the number of ocean-savvy beachgoers who can be of service to the guards when it comes to anticipating trouble and who can help the guards out when an emergency arises.

“Increasing the parents’ knowledge of beach safety, teaching them about rip currents, teaching them the basics of CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation], and increasing their confidence when swimming in the ocean were our main aims,” Ryan said, adding that “we want to educate the parents so that they’ll be just as confident around and in the ocean as their kids.”

In discussing the program this past July, Ryan said “we’ve talked about how rip currents work, the sweep, wave types, tide changes, using the undertow to your advantage in swimming out through the break to a buoy 50 or 60 yards out … the three things to focus on — dive early, dive deep, and dive long. Diving early is key, to take advantage of the undertow pulling you to the wave and out the back of it.”

“Once we all get out there — I stay back with the people in the back — we don’t come in right away, but after the high-fives and everything, we sidestroke in, looking back at the waves so you know when to swim and when to hold up … this program is making parents a little less anxious and a little more confident — they’re excited to be able to do something their children are able to do.”

Rachel Kleinberg, one of the parents who participated in the pilot program, endorsed the Guardians course enthusiastically during a telephone conversation this past week. The Montauk School’s librarian, whose 10-year-old son, Paul Crills, has been in the junior lifeguard program the past two years, Kleinberg said, when asked what she’d learned, “A lot! We were taught how to read the ocean, how to recognize a rip current, what the equipment the guards have at the beaches is for, CPR compressions, what the signs identifying the beaches mean. Atlantic, for instance, is 3A — so we’ll know what to say when we call 911. And they took us into the water, too. It’s very reassuring when you have a lifeguard swimming along with you. I felt completely safe.”

“We paddled through the break on paddleboards, like the lifeguards do,” she continued. “It was so cool. It was amazing — we learned and had fun, just like the kids. So now I have a set of things that I can do if things go wrong, so that I can address an actual emergency. I can’t wait to sign up for next year’s course, and I know a lot of others who are as excited about it as I am.”

“It’s really great what the Ryans have been doing to waterproof this town, from 6-year-olds on up. We’re lucky to have them. The ocean’s no joke. And it’s nice to know we’re raising the next generation of lifeguards.”

Another participant, Nick Sopkin, said he had been an ocean lifeguard on Fire Island “a thousand years ago,” which is to say in the mid-1980s, so that the Guardians pilot program was a refresher for him, his skills having “receded” as those of his and his wife, Suzann’s daughters, Laura, 17, an East Hampton Town ocean lifeguard now, and Claire, 14, a Cadet in training, have grown under the Ryans’ mentorship, beginning with Haley Ryan’s Nipper classes for 6-through-9-year-olds on Gardiner’s Bay.

“You asked if I’m more confident now … [The Guardians pilot program] reminded me of how much I’d forgotten — I’m no longer 16. What it did was allow me to push myself, to overcome my limits, without risk, in a safe environment. They’re swimming along with you, T.J. and Johnny and the other instructors, as you relearn. With these pros as guides, people can go into the ocean and give it a try without the danger of it. Oh yes, I highly recommend it. It would have been even greater for me had I taken this course 10 years ago.”