Waves of Fresh Talent Hit Beach : Junior Lifeguards Seek Soggy Statewide Glory

After spending a winter swimming in chilly Northern California ocean water and dodging great white sharks, Brannon Schell, 13, trotted from the waves off Huntington Beach on Friday with the face of a happy camper.

“Hey, no sharks down here, and the water’s as warm as a heated pool!” Brannon said.

The youth, a member of a Santa Cruz County lifeguard team, was one of 1,100 boys and girls competing in the West Coast Regional Junior Lifeguard Championships.

And he wasn’t kidding about the sharks. Three weeks ago, a great white attacked a surfer about 8 miles south of Ano Nuevo State Reserve, severely damaging muscle and tendons in the swimmer’s right forearm. Last year, a great white sighting prompted lifeguards to curtail the junior lifeguard program for two weeks at Manresa State Beach near Watsonville, where Brannon trains, according to his father, Michael Schell.

“Down here in Southern California, they feel really safe, especially after a shark attacked a surfer in Santa Cruz County three weeks ago,” said Schell, who--as a member of the Santa Cruz Longboard Surfing Union--has encouraged his son’s participation in the lifeguard program.

“It’s an aquatic avenue for parents who appreciate the ocean,” he said. “I’ve been a Little League baseball and soccer parent, but my true love is the ocean. And this activity isn’t detrimental to your body, say like football.”

Organizers try to make sure that the competition “stresses fun” and de-emphasizes competition, said David Simcox, a high school teacher in Tustin and coordinator of the championships for the past 15 years.

Still, Simcox acknowledged: “We do have some rivalries going on here, especially Orange County versus L.A. County and a North-South regional thing too. With 22 teams and 1,100 kids, the rivalry gets intense.”

He proudly pointed out that among the current crop of adult lifeguards on staff at Huntington City Beach, 80% are graduates of the junior lifeguard program.

During the competition, which caps the four-week junior lifeguard program, nine events are held, with challengers divided into four age groups. Events include a half-mile ocean swim, a paddleboard relay through breakers 2 to 4 feet high and a grueling run-swim-run race.

For a $9 fee, each junior lifeguard gets a T-shirt and a chance for an individual medal, a team trophy and the admiration of their coach for another year.

Gunnar Roll, 25, a Northern California lifeguard instructor, brought a tough but small team of 20 junior lifeguards down from Capitola, Santa Cruz and Manresa and La Selva state beaches.

“For the most part, Southern California lifeguard teams have depth,” Roll said. “In L.A. County, you get 1,500 kids enrolled in the junior lifeguard program, and Huntington Beach has about 720.

“In our whole area of Santa Cruz, we only got 120 kids enrolled,” Roll said.

When the team drove over the Interstate 5 Grapevine into the San Fernando Valley, young members who had never been to Los Angeles, kept asking, “Where are the Rolls-Royces? Where are the palm trees?” he said.

“It was a shock, a real eye-opener for them to see a real big city and all the graffiti,” Roll said.

The program brings many ocean-oriented families closer during the summer months.

Huntington Beach resident Tony Driessen, 13, is the youngest son of Christoffel and Helen Driessen and the fifth Driessen to participate in the junior lifeguard program. On Friday, Tony swam to a first-place finish with Kevin McGookin, 12, during a rescue race.

“We’ve been supporting this program for 18, well, 19 years now,” the youth’s father said. “My oldest son was the first, and he’s now 31.”

The Driessens’ daughter, Dianna, 18, works summers as a state lifeguard and still holds the pier swim record, set when she was 14. And both parents are avid swimmers.

“They learn CPR, water safety and gain knowledge about ocean currents,” said Helen Driessen, who also participates in masters events at Golden West College.

“I feel sorry for kids who stay home and spend the whole day watching the boob tube when they can have a great time out here at the ocean,” she said.