County Recurrent: 2022

Dateline: 0700 hrs - 1500 hrs, The Training Center, Manhattan Beach, Calif. The photos before the swim, a reconnaissance video before the swim and some photos during the recheck...

*** Video Alert ! ***

Postscript: It was an exceptionally well run recheck and the entire staff was enthusiastic, supportive and respectful. Kudos to the Training Center and the Department. With that said, the "swim" itself remains problematical from an overall perspective as it is more than fair some days and on other days it can be unfair. The Department continues to disregard the X Factor, e.g., ocean conditions, AND it continues to offer a course that varies in distance from day to day. I am not a labor lawyer, but it seems to me that this recheck swim format raises issues of equal protection principles, etc. under both State and Federal Law. The opportunity to swim the course a second time in the ocean does not make up for the fact that the event itself changes from day to day. There is no certainty. If Mother Nature cooperates you are good. If she does not, you may have to try a second time, and if you fail again, you have to swim it in the pool at a time and place convenient to the Department. The Department should offer a certain event with a certain distance that is identical for every Ocean Lifeguard, e.g., in a pool or outside the surf line swim 500 meters parallel to shore. The Department can additionally require, not timed, each OL to complete the buoy swim (which is, in fact, a run-swim-run). As a group, as a morale booster, every OL hits the surf and swims the two right shoulder buoy course. Invite a Chief and some OLS and Captains to join. Make it both an individual and team building exercise. Boost morale instead of undermining it. Op/Ed: The swim today was short. Very short, IMHO. 25 of 30 Lifeguards, approx., finished the swim (run swim run) under 8 minutes, including yours truly. The remaining five guards, approx., finished under 9 minutes. Comment: There is a clear disparity in distance from day to day, also IMHO. This assessment is based on my having practiced the course on both May 4 (I swam it in 9:11), and on May 11 (I was timed by Training Center staff at 8:51 during an actual recheck class recheck swim). Add in the X Factor of "ocean conditions", and to date since the first recheck in April 2022, I guesstimate (via word of mouth) that approx. 20 plus or minus lifeguards have not completed the swim under the new USLA 10 minute time standard. This is a "morale killer"! Anectdotally, I also understand that two veteran Ocean Lifeguards that finished over 10 minutes this past May 18th, up and quit lifeguarding right there on the spot... And they were reportedly within 20 - 30 seconds over 10 minutes. If true, this is a tremendously lousy way to go out and it is the result of a lack of transparency and fairness in the format of the 500 meter USLA swim standard that has been adopted. Our Department can and should do better. I remain vigilant of the unfairness and lack of transparency in the recheck swim and I will continue to advocate for fairness and transparency in connection with the annual OL Recheck. Respectfully submitted, Will Maguire, Editor "County Recurrent" News (the views expressed here are my own, as an individual, as a U.S. Citizen, and protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as "Free Speech"). All photos and video are Copyright Will Maguire 2022. All Rights Reserved.