Beached Hero : Safety: A lifeguard honored for wintertime rescues is ousted for missing orientation and a checkup. He calls it a technicality.

One day J. P. McClelland was a hero, a summer lifeguard honored by Ventura County officials for rescuing swimmers in the ocean waters during the off-season when no lifeguards were on duty.

The next thing he knew, he was a lifeguard without a beach.

For seven summers, the county had hired McClelland to keep an eye on surfers and swimmers on Oxnard’s coastline. And each summer, before the season started, he passed a rigorous test administered to the bronzed and well-muscled guards who patrol the waters.

He passed the test again this summer. But he was ousted from the program for missing his orientation and his scheduled physical checkup.

“They’re pushing me out on a technicality,” said McClelland, a fast-talking 27-year-old who sports a deep tan and a crew cut. “The county made a big deal about helping people on my own time and all I wanted in return was my job.”

County officials said McClelland simply failed to follow the steps required of all prospective lifeguards.

“It has been a standard policy for over 30 years that all lifeguards begin the season on time,” said Frank Anderson, manager of Channel Islands Harbor. “If he had followed through like everyone else, he would have been out on the beach.”

In early June, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors honored McClelland and his surfer buddies for saving swimmers during the off-season when budget constraints make it impossible to staff lifeguard stations.

In April alone, they made more than 20 rescues at Silver Strand Beach, where strong riptides and surf can suck swimmers out to sea or pummel them on the rocks.

“I do hereby commend and honor J. P. McClelland for heroically rescuing beach-goers at Silver Strand Beach during the winter of 1991-92,” read the commendation presented by Supervisor John Flynn.

McClelland folded up the award and returned it to Flynn after the supervisor said he could be of no assistance.

“We have a civil service system that precludes me from interfering with hiring practices,” Flynn said in an interview. “You just can’t be an elected person and interfere with every job application.”

A self-described former surf punk, McClelland believes that he was done in by a lousy reputation he had when he started the job years ago. He ran with a tough gang, the Silver Strand Locals, that bullied unknown surfers and cleared the beach of out-of-towners.

He did jail time for beating a surfer and stealing his wet suit.

While admitting that he failed to take his physical and attend the orientation as scheduled, McClelland said he also has had a series of run-ins with administrators of the lifeguard program who, he contends, were out to get rid of him.

And after he passed his lifeguard test in early June, he said he apparently gave them the opportunity.

Before the program started, McClelland went surfing in Mexico. He left a note for harbor officials letting them know that he had rescheduled his physical checkup and that he would make up for the missed orientation.

The note wasn’t good enough for those who run the lifeguard program.

Harbor Capt. Jack Peveler, who oversees the summer lifeguards, said that McClelland had no authority to reschedule his physical and that the orientation was mandatory. In the end, Peveler said McClelland forfeited his job to someone who was willing to follow the program.

“He was given every opportunity that every other lifeguard working today was given,” Peveler said. “If he had followed through, he would have been working this summer. He chose to go and recreate this year.”

The sting of dismissal is especially painful this year, McClelland said.

Being a lifeguard has changed him somehow. Having responsibility for other lives, he reasoned, has made him more responsible for his own.

And he’s now the father of a 15-month-old girl named Morgan. For Valentine’s Day, he had a tattoo stitched on his upper arm--a couple of hearts wrapped in a ribbon bearing his daughter’s name.

“I’m not the punk I was when I started this job,” McClelland said.

But maybe he slipped up this time, McClelland admitted. Maybe he expected preferential treatment. Maybe this is another lesson in growing up.

He has spent the summer raising his daughter and diving for sea urchins in local waters. He has done more surfing than ever and he helps out with his father’s boat salvage business.

And, after all, the lifeguard towers aren’t going away. There’s always next summer.

“I’m a lifeguard for life,” he said. “You get into it and that’s who you become.”