New Lifeguard Firm Wins County Pact : Beaches: U.S. Ocean Safety, a partnership formed by two longtime lifeguards, is now on the lookout for 60 new employees.

They both have been lifeguards since their teens. Now, Michael Gaughan and Jack Lincke find themselves in need of 60 of those rescue officers of the water.

The two Orange County men recently formed a company called U.S. Ocean Safety to provide lifeguards to patrol 15 county-run beaches.

“There’s never been a call for this many lifeguards at one time before,” said Lincke, 44. For the past 10 years, the county has contracted with Lifeguard International Beach Services, a Laguna Beach firm, to supply lifeguards for its 15 beaches. The firm was founded in 1979 to patrol a section of the county’s coast and, since 1985, has been responsible for all 15 county beaches.

But this year, U.S. Ocean wrested the $632,000 contract away from Lifeguard International and will be out to hire 60 lifeguards by April 7.

“This whole bidding thing has been an interesting process for two guys coming from an education background,” Lincke said, “but Mike and I have had a lifelong involvement with the beaches and love for the ocean, and I was real confident that we would get the job.”

Gaughan and Lincke said they have invested at least $30,000 of their personal savings in the company and have put all other activities “on the back burner to get this off the ground.”

Lincke has been a lifeguard since 1959 and last served as a rescue-boat operator for the state of California. He also is a part-time teacher of health and physical education at Orange Coast College and owns Laguna Paddleboards, a small firm that makes rescue boards. He said his paddleboard business sells about 45 rescue boards a year at $600 each.

Gaughan, 49, has been a lifeguard since 1957 and last served as a lifeguard supervisor for the city of Newport Beach. He is a part-time instructor of oceanography, physics and mathematics at Orange Coast College and has also worked as a private marine-accident investigator.

Gaughan said he will merge his accident-investigation business into U.S. Ocean’s secondary area of emphasis, which is to protect the coastal environment. This will include coastal oceanography and engineering, and marine environmental studies.

“The coastal zone is the most dynamic area on earth, and we need to protect it,” Gaughan said. “The oil spill at Huntington Beach points out the need for annual coastal environmental inspections of ships and their methods. Independent environmental-auditing firms could give businesses in beach areas that objective viewpoint that the government can’t.”

Lincke said the firm will have to prove by fall that it can succeed in protecting beach-goers before it can go on to its secondary area of protecting the beach ecological system.

The partners said that their firm will be responsible for patrolling four beach areas: Sunset Beach, the beach at the Santa Ana River mouth, Capistrano Beach and nine beaches south of Laguna Beach.

Seven other beaches in the county are run either by the state or individual cities. The state manages Bolsa Chica State Beach and Huntington State Beach in Huntington Beach; Crystal Cove State Beach south of Corona del Mar and Doheny State Beach in Dana Point. The cities of Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach hire and train their own lifeguards.

The county rejected bids by Laguna Beach and Newport Beach to provide lifeguard service for the Santa Ana River mouth and the South Laguna beaches because the cities did not want to accept liability for beach accidents.

Authorities from both cities said they were confident that U.S. Ocean will do a good job for the county.

“These guys have an excellent background in lifeguarding and are professionals in marine safety,” said David Harshbarger, marine director for Newport Beach.

But Jim Stauffer, owner of Lifeguard International, said the pair’s extensive marine-safety experience is not enough to successfully serve the county’s needs.

“They are good lifeguards but poor businessmen,” Stauffer asserted. “We never bothered the county with our problems and just did our job, so that might have misled the county and others into thinking that it’s a simpleton’s job.”

Lincke said the county’s Environmental Management Agency wouldn’t have hired U.S. Ocean if it didn’t believe that his company could get the job done.

Lincke added that an advisory board composed of several local business executives will provide U.S. Ocean with experienced management advice.

U.S. Ocean will conduct a lifeguard qualification test on March 4 at Aliso Pier south of Laguna Beach. The 60 men and women who score the best in the test will go through an intensive, 56-hour training program and be certified by the U.S. Lifesaving Assn.

“We’re looking for people with not only physical skills, but also people skills and good ocean knowledge,” Lincke said. “Those skills will fit with our theme of the prevention of accidents before they happen.”