San Diego Lifeguard Services Lt. Nick Lerma referred to the more than 730 rescues on the Fourth of July weekend as the “Super Bowl of life guarding.”\u00a0 Emergencies were huge, he said. Now, with the prospects of warmer weather, he anticipates this could be a banner summer. \u00a0 Maybe\u00a0 few more rescue “super bowls” are in store. “We had just about the same number of beachgoers last year [during the Fourth of July weekend] but the overcast and cold water conditions [last year] kept people ashore,” he said.\u00a0 Obviously, lifeguards had less to do and kept jackets on during that time. Lerma is in charge of 100 lifeguards who scan from the towers from north to south Mission Beach, handling the sometimes-wayward public that doesn\u2019t always heed posted warnings or loudspeaker announcements. The lifeguard\u2019s playbook underscores\u00a0 three activities, called the rescue triad.\u00a0 “It deals with wave length, air and water temperatures,” said Lerma. “Waves will tell\u00a0 us where the rip currents are. If air temperatures are in the 90s inland they\u2019ll be in the high 70s on the beach.” Lerma said he anticipates a high volume of rescues this summer, noting warm air and water temperatures\u00a0 will contribute to beach and ocean traffic volumes. “The problems begin after visitors find parking,”\u00a0he said. “The average family will put down blankets unaware of any surf warnings. Many families lack swimming capabilities and don\u2019t know how to handle rip currents.” As the water warms, swimmers may have to deal with additional issues like stings from rays or jell fish.\u00a0 On the South Mission tower, lifeguards are also responsible for boating problems. dealing with breaking waves in the canal entrance to the bay. For the more experienced water adventurers, Lerma said San Diego is a great place for surfing, scuba diving and boating. As far as staffing issues, there are a\u00a0 variety of staggered shifts and stations close at sunset.\u00a0 A four-person crew is on duty for night aquatic responses. The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department\u2019s Lifeguards Services division is a 24-hour rescue agency that patrols\u00a0 three miles offshore and conducts coastal cliff rescues, underwater searches and recoveries, swiftwater and flood search and rescue, as well as emergency medical responses. Lifeguards also handle enforcement of city, state and federal laws and regulations, through prevention, citations and arrests.\u00a0 Lifeguards are required to set up and tear down each day. Duties include vehicle and water craft readiness and gathering those orange buoys. Professional life guarding in the city of San Diego started in 1918 with five lifeguards in Ocean Beach and Mission Beach.\u00a0 Previously, they were part of the police and recreation departments. The Junior Lifeguard Program, aimed at youths ages 9 to 17, is an extremely popular outreach program conducted each summer with an annual attendance exceeding 500 young men and women.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
San Diego Lifeguard Services Lt. Nick Lerma referred to the more than 730 rescues on the Fourth of July weekend as the “Super Bowl of life guarding.”\u00a0 Emergencies were huge, he said. Now, with the prospects of warmer weather, he anticipates this could be a banner summer. \u00a0 Maybe\u00a0 few more rescue “super bowls” are […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":271614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Lifeguards step up big when busy summer weekends surface","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}