The Competitors Acted as if Their Lives Depended on It : Swimming: Hermosa Beach’s three-day national tournament started with junior lifeguards. They demonstrated a lot of skill, and it wasn’t all fun and games.

The flag ceremony fizzled. A contestant threw sand in a judge’s face. And, yes, one competitor did complain of dirty trickery in the paddleboard event. But overall, the National Lifesaving Championships in Hermosa Beach began swimmingly.

Lifeguards from across the nation converged on Hermosa on Thursday for the three-day competition, a test of rescuers’ running, swimming and paddling skills. Kicking off the event was a full day of contests involving nearly 600 junior lifeguards between the ages of 9 and 17. Adult lifeguards will compete today and Saturday.

“It’s the U.S. lifesaving Olympics,” said Bill Richardson, president of the United States Lifesaving Assn., which has been sponsoring the annual competition since the mid-1960s. “We use these kinds of games to showcase lifeguards and to show the public the kinds of skills we use to save lives,” he said.

The games, which were coordinated this year by Los Angeles County lifeguards, started under sunny skies at 8:30 a.m., about half an hour late. Organizers scrapped an earlier flag ceremony that was supposed to begin at 7 a.m. when it became clear that only a few junior guard teams had made it to the beach on time.

“You ask them to bring their flags--you’re lucky if they bring their pants,” said lifeguard Lt. Ira Gruber.

In the junior lifeguard competition, contestants were grouped by age in four groups: 16- and 17-year-olds, 14- and 15-year-olds, 12- and 13-year-olds, and 9- to 11-year-olds. Each group had male, female and mixed events.

Among the first tests was a 400-meter ocean swim.

The moment the starting gun was fired, more than 60 competitors 14 and 15 years old sprinted into the surf. Their colorful skullcaps, required for every event, bobbed on the waves as they stroked their way around two buoys in the ocean near the end of the Hermosa Beach Municipal Pier.

As the swimmers headed toward the finish line in the sand, many of their parents ran along the shore to cheer them on.

“That’s my son! Write him up! He’s a star!” screamed Bill Singley, 46, of Manhattan Beach, as he ran toward his son, Scott, who finished first.

“Scotty boy! Scott! Don’t go away!” Singley, an airlines sales manager, shouted. Drenched and out of breath, Scott patiently stood by while his father snapped his picture.

Said Scott of his victory: “I didn’t expect that! Oh, that felt good.”

The games, which also include rescue races and paddleboard contests, teach junior lifeguards water safety, sportsmanship and rescue skills that they will need to work as lifesavers, organizers said.

“For our son, the junior lifeguard program has made a big difference in his confidence,” said Richard Smith of San Diego, whose son Cameron was among the competitors. “The program is really disciplined. You think children wouldn’t like being told what to do . . . but they really respond well to the lifeguards’ directions.”

Thursday’s contests were not all fun and games.

Syrus King, a Solano Beach 13-year-old who placed fourth in a paddleboard contest, said the competition in the water was fiercer than he expected.

“It was bad,” King said. “Everybody grabs your board and tries to pull you back. Everybody wants to place.”

At the end of that race, one boy threw sand in the face of Richardson, president of the U.S. Lifesaving Assn., who had held the boy back after his paddleboard became wedged between two others.

“I was trying to keep him from being hit,” said Richardson, who was a judge in the paddleboard race. “He was upset because it put him at a disadvantage.”

Although Richardson later talked to the boy about his outburst, he said the youth’s behavior didn’t surprise him.

“The difference between the kids and the older competitors is that an older competitor who disagreed with a judge would get in his face, but he wouldn’t throw sand,” Richardson said. “They take it seriously.”

Youths from 21 junior lifeguard programs nationwide competed in Thursday’s championships. Each junior lifeguard program was allowed to enter a maximum of 15 competitors in each of the four age groups. In Los Angeles County, which has 1,200 junior lifeguards, youths had to compete in local and regional events to qualify for the nationals.

Although most of the junior lifeguard teams represented Thursday came from California, some competitors came from as far away as Florida and New York.

“It’s quite an honor for these kids to be here,” said lifeguard Capt. Gary Crum, a junior lifeguard in the 1950s. “This is where our future lifeguards will come from, and this is what will keep our profession strong.”

Although organizers had expected more than 1,000 entrants in the junior lifeguard events, only about two-thirds of them registered.

“I think it was probably due to the economy--and maybe because of the floods--that some of the Midwest teams didn’t show up,” said Mel Solberg, a Los Angeles County lifeguard who coordinated the junior lifeguard events.

Among the out-of-state contestants was Kimberly Von During, 14, who flew in from Long Beach, N.Y., on Wednesday.

“When we got here I was, like, ‘Wow, I’m in California with the palm trees and everything,’ ” said Von During, who despite her jet lag placed second in the long-distance swim event for her age group. “It’s nothing like home. I want to live here when I get older.”