Surf City, Here They Come
Clay Estep may be a wiry and fit triathlete, but after a long-distance swim in the Santa Monica surf two weeks ago he staggered out of the 56-degree water shaking uncontrollably and verging on hypothermia. Los Angeles County lifeguards wrapped him in a blanket and comforted him before he finally was able to walk away.
On Saturday, the 35-year-old Estep again emerged from the surf, but this time he was strong and smiling--and fast enough in a field of more than 100 swimmers to qualify to become one of those lifeguards.
The Los Angeles High School biology teacher was the 40th and final candidate to make the cut into the prestigious Los Angeles County lifeguard corps in a decades-old rite of spring, the ocean swim “examination.”
“The water was just so damned cold but I said to myself, ‘You are a good enough swimmer, just keep on pulling,’ ” said Estep, a former college swimmer whose mother, Isabelle, traveled all the way from Indiana to root for him. “I’m thrilled. I just have to thank God.”
It was a day of elation for the 40 chosen ones and dismay for the many more who did not make it, as hundreds of friends and relatives watched from the beach in Santa Monica. Those who finished on top clutched tongue depressors numbered with their order of finish and immediately prepared for job interviews.
Next, it will be on to lifeguard rookie school and to the county’s more than 70 miles of beaches. Those who survive will join the 600-member lifeguard corps, earning a starting wage of $15.30 an hour, believed to be the highest in the nation.
Saturday dawned with strikingly mild conditions for the competition just south of the Santa Monica Pier. The sea was nearly flat and water that had hovered in the mid-50s for weeks crept closer to 60 degrees.
The field, about four-fifths men, gathered behind a long strand of yellow police tape. Then, with a shotgun blast from lifeguard Chief Don Rohrer, the Speedo-clad field dashed into the surf. A small armada of guards on paddleboards, in rubber Zodiac boats and in “Baywatch” patrol boats guided the swimmers along the course, which at about 1,400 yards was longer than some swimmers had expected.
All of the county’s veteran guards can recall their position of finish when they joined the service. It’s a rite of passage and old-timers root for the toughest conditions possible--to winnow out pretenders and “pool swimmers” who might not be able to cope with tough days in the ocean. Some of the veterans scoffed a little at Saturday’s mild conditions.
“That’s OK. In 10 years when these new lifeguards look back to their qualifying swim, they will all say the surf was huge and the water was the coldest ever and that there were four Olympians swimming,” said 15-year veteran Jim Boulgarides. “Lifeguards are like golfers with their stories.”
The candidates won’t even have to stretch the truth this year on the credentials of their rivals: Among the pack were two recent USC graduates, both of them four-time All-Americans fresh off the U.S. Olympic trials, and the top finisher, Randy Eickhoff, a 30-year-old real estate consultant and state lifeguard who represents the United States in international lifeguard competitions.
“We had no idea this was such a big deal. I thought it would be a few people milling around on the beach,” said Mike Merrill, 22, a USC butterfly specialist who finished ninth. “People were pumped for this.”
There were four women among the top 40, but gender and physique were often misleading indicators of swimming prowess. Fleshy Stephan Sleeis, 18, for instance, qualified easily ahead of his more mesomorphic counterparts. “Some of these people, if they got me in the pool, they would waste me,” said Sleeis, an avid surfer. “But the ocean is my place.”
For some, qualifying completed a lifelong dream.
“I have been going to the beach my whole life. When I saw the women lifeguards as a little girl I would look up to them and get really excited; just the thought that they could do it too,” said Kelly Gaydowski, 20, of Mar Vista and UC Davis. “Now I’m going to be part of it all, wearing the red uniform--the whole thing.”
