Safety Concerns Keep New Lifeguard Trunks on Shelf

Lifeguards at county beaches aren’t wearing their new Izod swim trunks this week because the county fire chief is concerned that the pockets may hold too much water and could impede rescues.

At special swimming tests this week, fire officials timed lifeguards in a Culver City pool to determine whether the mesh-lined pockets of the Izod swim trunks drained less effectively than last year’s Speedo trunks.

The results were inconclusive, county Fire Department lifeguard division Chief Randy DeGregori said.

The new Izod shorts were only slightly heavier in the water than the Speedo shorts, he said.

“We even tried a pair of board shorts that the surfers wear that are about three inches longer [than the Izod shorts] and that didn’t have a much different result,” DeGregori said.

No final decision had been made to replace the new trunks. Until further notice, however, all 700 lifeguards along 72 miles of coast will wear their old Speedo swimwear, officials said. Female lifeguards wear the shorts over swimsuits.

Many lifeguards are relieved to be wearing their old uniforms, because they said the new red, white and black striped outfits, which feature large Izod logos, are unprofessional and difficult to distinguish.

The new trunks are part of a $3.2-million clothing donation to the county by Izod’s parent company, Phillips-Van Heusen Corp., in exchange for 10 free beach permits for marketing events and for the right to promote itself as the “official swimwear sponsor of the Los Angeles County beach lifeguards.”