It’s Not All Sunshine for Lifeguards on Lake Castaic

At first blush, it seems the most relaxing and pleasant of jobs: to spend the day bobbing on a boat on Lake Castaic, soaking up the sun and the passing scene.

“People think we have a kickback job, cruising around on a summer day and bagging some rays,” said Brian Roney, a 26-year-old senior lifeguard who patrols the lake in a motorboat. “The few that see us in action, like when their boat is going down, appreciate us being there.”

Of course, work on the man-made county lake 11 miles northwest of Newhall is not quite like oceanfront duty at Malibu or Santa Monica, where the weekend crowds run in the tens of thousands and ocean currents are a constant danger.

A month and a half ago, however, Castaic lifeguards had to rescue a man in his 20s who broke his neck after diving off a 20-foot cliff into shallow water. And winds on the lake can kick up to 60 m.p.h., swamping boats in frothy water. Drunk boaters can get belligerent. People drown in the lake.

Busy During the Summer

“During the summer, any weekend, any day, you know you’re not going to go through the day without something happening,” said Rob Marlowe, 31, who has worked at the lake 11 years. “That’s why I like the job.”

The “senior lifeguard” designation is given to the nine men who patrol the lake on boats. There are another 37 lifeguards assigned to beach and dock areas of the lake, which has 35 miles of shoreline. The latter group includes women.

The lake is open to boaters from sunrise to sunset every day except Christmas. On a typical weekday, 250 boats use the lake; on weekends, 800 boats are launched from the docks. For safety reasons, only 500 are permitted on the water at any one time.

Last year, according to Roney, the lifeguards rescued 408 swimmers; handled 805 medical emergencies; assisted boats 2,361 times, including raising at least 80 sinking craft; issued 2,600 warnings to people violating boating regulations and 132 citations for such violations.

One person drowned in the lake and another died of a stroke last year, he said. This year, two boys, age 10 and 13, have drowned in the lower lake, or “lagoon,” a smaller body of water separated from the larger, “upper” lake by Castaic Dam.

Marlowe said diving into the water and recovering bodies, something he’s done about eight times in his career, is the toughest part of the job.

“I just never get used to it,” he said.

Usual Duties

The boat crews once helped apprehend suspected boat thieves and assisted the victim of a helicopter crash near the lake in February, but most of the time is spent peacefully.

The lifeguards, who carry no weapons, ride around the lake and keep an eye on the boaters, water- and jet-skiers and fishermen. They give many warnings, and an occasion ticket, for violations ranging from failure to have proper safety equipment, to speeding to possession of alcohol, which is banned from the lake.

“For the most part, there’s an ignorant boating public,” Roney said. “We’re educating the public.”

But it is not a part of the job that gains them a heroic image, he said, explaining: “When I’m enforcing the law and writing tickets, nobody’s happy.”

Avoiding Distraction

The men say they don’t let themselves get distracted by women, even the ones who like to ask lifeguards for bandages for cuts that can’t be found.

During the summer, the lifeguards usually wear only their county-issued red shorts and sunglasses. Occasionally, they add a T-shirt.

Roney, who has blond hair, blue eyes and an athletic physique, and his partner on Monday, Ralph Searcy, 26, who is a tanned, dark-haired athlete, look like lifeguards.

Employed by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, the lifeguards work 10-hour shifts four days a week. Their salaries range from about $1,700 a month to $2,300, Roney said.

Marlowe said he moonlights as a construction worker to give him “a little extra play money.” Roney coaches swimming at William S. Hart High School in Newhall, and Searcy occasionally works as a carpet cleaner.

The lifeguards work in pairs, patrolling the upper lake and its 32 miles of shoreline in three specially equipped boats, two of them 20 feet long. They use one 13-foot boat to patrol the lagoon and its three-mile shore.

‘Haven’t Lost a Boat’

Each of the larger boats is equipped with lights and a siren, first-aid gear, scuba tanks, a salvage pump, firefighting equipment, a depth finder and ropes and battery cables. The lifeguards tow boats with stalled engines or other problems to shore at no charge.

The lifeguards sometimes use pumping equipment to bail out swamped boats.

“We haven’t lost a boat yet,” Roney said.

The summer is “wild and crazy,” Marlowe said, and when it’s over he looks forward to the winter “when the days are shorter and it’s just you and the fishermen out there.”

Roney said he avoids the beach when he wants to have fun. He wants to stay out of the sun on his free time.

“I go to movies because I know that, for four days a week, I’m going to get fried,” he said.

Marlowe said that, when he started the job in 1975, he planned to work only through the summer. “It turned into a career,” he said.

Wants to Be Firefighter

Roney, a Lancaster resident, has been a senior lifeguard for two years. He made the 1980 U.S. Olympic swimming team but couldn’t compete because the United States boycotted the Games that year.

Roney said he eventually would like to work as a county firefighter, a job that attracts him because of its higher salary and “increased activity.”

Not that he is unhappy with the work on Lake Castaic. “It sure beats the heck out of working in a place with no windows,” he said, noting that he’s not “an office person.”

Out on the lake Monday, he looked around, raised his arms and declared: “This is my office.”