Dateline: Thursday morning, Sept. 21, 2017, at Will Rogers Lifeguard Headquarters. This morning I stopped by WRHQ to swim the OLS Recheck Swim buoy course set up temporarily off of WRHQ.
Two large orange buoys are set up with one buoy about 20 yards north of the WRHQ jetty and perhaps a 100 yards off shore and the second buoy straight off the jetty out front of Will Rogers Tower #12 and also about 100 yards off shore. I clocked in at the 2nd buoy at approx. 9 minutes and finished up on the beach at 12 minutes. This is a longer swim than 500 meters, in my opinion. I would peg it at closer to 600 meters. The powers that be said this OLS buoy course was a "tad bit long" but I think it is more than that... just sayin'...
Easy enough to measure it if you have the right measuring equipment. By way of comparison the OL recheck swim course in Manhattan Beach this past June was much shorter. Indeed, I swam that shorter course in just over 8 minutes, so this OLS course at WRHQ is significantly longer... again, just sayin'...
*** It would be good if someone could measure the buoy course at WRHQ today or tomorrow so that we know for sure, even if just for the heck of it. ***
Below are some photos plus a video I shot this morning, fyi...
Close up, below, of first orange buoy just north of WRHQ jetty...
Close up, below, of the second orange buoy off of WR Tower #12 (as seen through the railing of WR 14)...
*** Video Alert ! ***
First Buoy: The Video
https://youtu.be/5Vyfgx0c2Aw
---
OLS staff on a recheck break, below... shot from a long distance away so as not to be obtrusive...
Out of a great deal of circumspection and deliberation, I chose not to take a bunch of photos of our permanent staff in uniform, even though I know that our audience loves to see photos of their friends and colleagues. I saw young OLS Chris Newman, for example, and do not yet have a photo of him as an OLS... so that will have to wait. JVD opted out of a photo opp. and I did not want to press my luck in asking for a photo of Section Chief Chris Linkletter, even though our So. Section audience would have loved to see a photo of Chris in her black Class A Uniform (thanks OLS Jeff Hart for the correction on uniform color).
LIFEGUARD TRIVIA CONTEST BELOW: What's up with the yellow LACo Lifeguard Truck? Anybody recognize it?
Answer: Probably LACo Lakes personnel (Castaic)... as per OLS Jeff Hart. Thanks Jeff!
10-4
Until next time.....
"County Recurrent" News
http://CountyRecurrent.blogspot.com
(All photos by & Copyright Will Maguire 2017.)
*** *** ***
1 comment:
Back in the day the ocean recheck used to be around the Venice Pier, which I believe averaged 700 meters and the maximum time was 13:00. When we moved it to MB, we attempted to replicate the course and kept the time at 13:00. Not sure what the standard is now, but 13:00 for a 700 is faster than the 10:00 for 500 meter standard.
Post a Comment