A Celebration of Women in Lifeguarding

When Ann Naughton first started working as an ocean lifeguard in the 1980s, she was expected to buy her own uniform.

While the Town of Southampton purchased matching trunks for all the male lifeguards who worked at the beaches from Mecox, Sagg Main and Flying Point out east to the western beaches of Ponquogue, Tiana and Pikes, the small group of female lifeguards were on their own when it came to suiting up for work. There simply were not enough of them for the town to consider buying them their own coordinated bathing suits.

A lot has changed since then.

Beachgoers who set up chairs and umbrellas for a day of sun and fun at ocean beaches across the South Fork this summer will no doubt notice the collection of tanned, fit women in matching bright red bathing suits surrounding the tall white lifeguard chairs. On any given day, those women are hard at work, sitting side by side at the top of the chair, eyes trained on the water, occasionally leaping off, grabbing a rescue torp and diving into the waves to help swimmers in distress. They’re driving Jet Skis through rough surf, using the strength and stamina they’ve honed from countless hours of rigorous training to guide an exhausted swimmer back to shore through crashing waves, using upper body strength to pull a rescue landline back onto shore.

Both Naughton, now the chief lifeguard for Southampton Town, and Johnny Ryan Jr., the chief lifeguard for East Hampton Town, oversee a huge staff of lifeguards who work at dozens of ocean beaches during the busy summer months. At least 50 percent of them are women — in fact, both chiefs said if they sat down and crunched the numbers, that effort would likely reveal that the female employees slightly outnumber the males.

Gender equity has been slow to arrive in a lot of other industries, but when it comes to ocean lifeguarding, huge strides have been made in the last two decades. Women of all ages and from all walks of life now take and pass the rigorous and demanding ocean lifeguard certification test every year, earning their whistles and, yes, the matching red suits embroidered with the town logos.

Naughton was a trailblazer for the women she now hires and works alongside during the summer months, but she wasn’t the only one. East Hampton resident Burke Koncelik was one of the first women to pass the ocean test and work as an ocean guard at town beaches. Heidi Irwig was another woman who worked for East Hampton Town when men still far outnumbered women in the job. Lifeguarding was simply a family tradition for the Ryans — the large clan of siblings were eager to follow in the footsteps of their father, John Ryan Sr., perhaps the biggest ambassador for the value of lifeguards in the local community. Kathy (Ryan) Piacentine and her sister, Janine Ryan, two of seven girls in the family, passed the test early on as well, and most of their sisters eventually did the same. Piacentine said her father deserved credit for helping to open doors for women in lifeguarding back in those days. In the 1970s and 1980s, Joe Dooley, a legendary lifeguard and former Marine, ran ocean certification courses for Suffolk County at Smith Point.

“My dad was learning to become an examiner and he said to Joe, ‘how come there are no women here to take the test?’” Piacentine recalled. “And he said, ‘it’s too difficult for them.’ And my father said, ‘well, I’ve got seven daughters, so we’ll see about that.’”

Piacentine said she and her sisters were not content with lifeguarding at the bay.

“It was boring on the bay,” she said. “Who doesn’t want to go to the ocean instead of the bay?”

Suffolk County Legislator Ann Welker also worked as a Southampton Town lifeguard in the early days, at Flying Point Beach in Water Mill. She rode to Smith Point with her brother to take Dooley’s test, and said she still remembers how intimidating it was, how cold it was that day, and how big the waves were. (She ultimately passed the test that day—her brother did not, but passed the second time around). For many years, Welker was the only female lifeguard working at Flying Point, but said the rest of the crew treated her like family.

Those women and others laid a foundation, and helped create what is now a strong tradition of gender equity in the field.

It’s been great to see, Naughton said.

“The equality has gotten so much better, and the respect factor. Back then, there was a lot of doubt, like, can she do it? You really had to prove yourself.”

During the time when Naughton, Welker, the Ryan sisters, and others were first starting out in the job, they didn’t have many role models to look to. That has changed a lot, thanks in large part to the huge growth in popularity of the junior lifeguarding programs offered by both towns.

The Ryans have been the catalyst of the East Hampton Town programs, and the formation of the Hampton Lifeguard Association, the competition team that has become one of the best in the country, taking a large contingent of both junior and adult lifeguards to compete in the United States Lifesaving Association Nationals every year. The competition is made up mostly of guards from East Hampton, and children from the East Hampton juniors program, but many Southampton Town lifeguards and junior guards have also joined the HLA team over the years.

In addition to nationals, there are many regional and local competitions that allow adult guards and juniors a chance to show what they’ve learned. Distance runs in the sand, sprint relays on the sand and in the water, rescue board relays and torp rescues are part of the competitions. It’s a way to add a competitive sport element to lifeguarding and lifeguard training, which adds an element of fun and motivation, especially for juniors, many of whom are eager to take the lifeguard test when they turn 16. The programs prepare them well for those tests. Many of them start in the junior programs at a very young age. Both towns offer “Nipper Guard” programs for children 6 years old, and even younger.

Ryan has poured his heart and soul into the junior lifeguarding program, and sees many benefits from it. Part of the original intent was to “drownproof” the community, a phrase he and his father popularized in recent years. The program helps to ensure a constant stream of future employees to staff the busy beaches in the summer. But Ryan said he has seen the huge benefits the programs have had for women as well.

“The female lifeguards were maybe 10 percent of the staff when I was growing up,” he said. “Now we’re at 50 percent or more. A lot of that comes from the programs we run. Ocean lifeguarding, even stillwater [bay beaches], it’s much different than lifeguarding in pool water,” he continued. “You’re dealing with currents, different types of elements. People get in real trouble because of currents and surf conditions, and getting through that, being confident in your skills [as a lifeguard] comes from the junior program.”

Role models are easy to find now for children and teens who come up through the programs, or even simply pay attention to what’s happening when they’re at the beach with their families. Many juniors who went through the programs went on to major success at the competitive level. Women like Amanda Calabrese, Emily Ward, Bella Tarbet and others have become local celebrities to hordes of young girls and boys who sign up for the programs and want to follow in their footsteps, winning championship titles at USLA Nationals.

The gender equality that’s been achieved in ocean lifeguarding over the last 20-plus years has proven something women like Naughton have always known — that women are just as capable as their male counterparts.

“That job taught me grit,” Welker said. “I think women have so much grit once they realize that they do. We put our heads down and we get the job done.”

“Women can do the job, just like any other job,” Naughton said. “I became a volunteer firefighter, and that’s very male-dominated, but women want to be part of that, too. So it’s great to see how it has evolved and that there’s so many women in lifeguarding.

“Back in the day, there weren’t as many female role models you could lean on,” she continued. “That’s the way culture and society was then. But now, the way the numbers have increased, people don’t even give it a second thought.”