{"id":314292,"date":"2022-08-17T12:18:24","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T19:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/?p=314292"},"modified":"2022-08-15T20:27:23","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T03:27:23","slug":"junior-lifeguard-program-teaches-life-long-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/junior-lifeguard-program-teaches-life-long-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior Lifeguard Program teaches life-long skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 300 junior lifeguards ages 14 to 17 gathered at Santa Clara Point Recreation Center in Mission Beach on Aug. 4 to be certified in lifesaving CPR and receive training and testing on other water-related skills needed to become full-fledged lifeguards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Junior Lifeguard Program is a meaningful and fun opportunity for youth,\u201d\u00a0said San Diego Fire Department Lifeguard Chief James Gartland. \u201cMany of the participants return year after year and\u00a0often become professional lifeguards. They have a great time with our lifeguards at the beach and\u00a0learn so\u00a0many\u00a0valuable\u00a0skills, including how to help someone who suffers sudden cardiac arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Junior Lifeguard Program offers kids ages 7 to 17 the opportunity to learn from professional lifeguards. There are two, four-week aquatic education sessions offered each summer. Junior lifeguards learn how to enjoy the beach safely, basic first aid, CPR, water rescue techniques, and beach area familiarity.<\/p>\n

The skills they learn in this program stay with them throughout their lives. Often, former junior lifeguards will become seasonal lifeguards and ultimately professional lifeguards\u00a0with\u00a0SDFD\u00a0or\u00a0other\u00a0agencies.<\/p>\n

Some of the aspiring lifeguards were in the CPR classroom on Aug. 4, while others were out on the water in both the bay and the ocean learning and being tested on the lifesaving skills they may need later on.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery other year, we certify our oldest age group, 14 to 17-year-olds, so that kids going into high school, or already in high school, get certified in CPR,\u201d said Heather Rabe Worms, program manager, San Diego Junior Lifeguard Program. \u201cIt\u2019s a two-year certification, so it expires every other year, which is why we do it every other summer. The goal is that we keep the kids coming to our program when they\u2019re 14 or 15 so they get the CPR.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Skills training for junior lifeguards included a toss and recovery of tennis balls thrown into the ocean with participants starting out in a prone position. PHOTO BY DAVE SCHWAB<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rabe Worms noted that the Junior Lifeguard Program is like a prep school for the occupation. \u201cAll of our instructors are oceanfront lifeguards,\u201d she said while noting that \u201cnot all our lifeguards went through the junior lifeguard program. But if you look through the lifeguard services, you will see we have a sergeant who was a junior guard here. And it is not just our program. We have junior guards now in other parts of the state or country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham Allen of PB was one of many aspiring lifeguards being trained in CPR.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s super fun, a great experience,\u201d said Allen of the training adding the program has grown over time. \u201cThey (classes) used to be super small, but now they\u2019re super full. It has grown for sure. I\u2019m seeing people I haven\u2019t seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked why he was participating, Allen responded, \u201cI\u2019m here just to help out, learn CPR, and have a great time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why does Allen want to be a lifeguard? \u201cIt seems like a super fun job and you get to help people out and be part of the community,\u201d he responded adding, \u201cHere we do one day of CPR classroom instruction, then we do a test. It\u2019s been super fun to learn, and it\u2019s not super difficult. For sure, it is a great skill to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the instruction being offered, Rabe Worms said: \u201cThe biggest thing we are trying to teach is life and water skills, ocean safety with respect to the ocean environment. We are trying to get these kids actually interested in trying to become lifeguards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Rabe Worms: \u201cThis is the big recruiting tool for the lifeguard services, our junior guard program. Many of our lifeguards working our beach today have been junior lifeguards at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 300 junior lifeguards ages 14 to 17 gathered at Santa Clara Point Recreation Center in Mission Beach on Aug. 4 to be certified in lifesaving CPR and receive training and testing on other water-related skills needed to become full-fledged lifeguards. \u201cThe Junior Lifeguard Program is a meaningful and fun opportunity for youth,\u201d\u00a0said San […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":314293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"More than 300 junior lifeguards ages\u00a014 to 17 gathered at Santa Clara Point Recreation Center in Mission Beach Aug. 4 to be certified in lifesaving CPR and receive training and testing on other water-related skills needed to become full-fledged lifeguards.","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11547,11550],"tags":[13870,12544,12375],"class_list":["post-314292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-features","category-top-stories","tag-junior-lifeguard-program","tag-mission-beach","tag-san-diego"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314292","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\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}