Two Orange County Lifeguards Head for New Zealand to Soak Up New Techniques for Saving People’s Lives

“You can’t get a college degree in lifeguarding,” said Michael Ashe, 28, a Lake Mission Viejo lifeguard, “so you become better through experience.”

One of those experiences will be a five-week stay in New Zealand to learn that country’s lifesaving methods, including the use of inflatable rescue boats and helicopters.

Ashe, along with Huntington Beach lifeguard Kai Weisser, 26, was selected from 1,200 eligible lifeguards for the program, which starts Monday, and two lifeguards from New Zealand will visit Orange County beaches next summer to complete the annual exchange program sponsored by the Western United States Lifesaving Assn.

This will be the first year that a “flat water,” or lake, lifeguard will participate, but Ashe noted that besides his regular job as a lake lifeguard, he works one day a week during the summer as a Laguna Beach lifeguard.

“We want to learn their lifesaving techniques and bring back the information to share with lifeguards here,” said Ashe, who not only serves as a lifeguard but acts as training officer for the 27 lifeguards on duty at Lake Mission Viejo during the summer.

“We make a comparable number of rescues per area we patrol and the number of people who visit our lake as does the beach lifeguard,” said Ashe, who added that his aim is to prevent accidents and not just wait to rescue victims after mishaps occur. “We’re trained to see a developing hazard, so that’s why we recorded 1,200 preventable accidents in 1984.” He noted that his lake lifeguards also had 881 boat rescues in the same year.

There’s no real difference in the job performance of the beach or flat-water lifeguard, Ashe said. “We basically have the same personality and we all have the same feeling about the job,” he said. “If there’s a difference it’s the makeup of the beach and the lake. At the lake, the hazards are always there and they never change. At the beach, the tide creates problems.”

And if anything, he said, “I think I work harder (at the lake) than at the beach.”

Cypress resident Carol Kulok, 41, who gave up cigarettes during the Great American Smokeout, has completed a month without smoking.

It might seem strange to hear and see Lt. Bruce Knapp, 26, strutting up and down the flight line playing his bagpipe for Marines who pick up rocks and other “foreign objects” at the El Toro Marine Corps Air station.

“Picking up debris from the flight line helps save lives and jet engines,” said the fighter-bomber pilot, “so I help break the monotony of it all by playing the bagpipes. It’s as simple as that.”

Although Knapp has a full complement of traditional Scottish wear, including kilt and tartan, he wears his regular uniform when playing the pipes on the air station. “I am on duty,” he explained, but he pointed out that he is fully outfitted in Scottish wear when he plays with bands and private groups, as well as at St. Patrick’s Day festivities.

The Virginia native said he also takes his pipes during war games, and “at night when we’re relaxing outdoors, I get a chance to entertain the troops.”

Acknowledgments--Dana Point Elementary students Lacey Tirone, Jon Gingrich, Jamie Wheeland, Travis Faaborg, Anthony Dellerba and Michelle Bray each raised more than $200 in the Richard Henry Dana school’s recent jog-a-thon, which grossed $22,840. They were the top fund-raisers of 850 students who participated.