High-Tech Lifeguard HQ Is a Hit

Huntington Beach lifeguards on Monday welcomed the start of summer in the best possible way: with a new two-story headquarters building equipped with everything from surveillance equipment to a separate locker room for female lifeguards.

“This is probably the nicest headquarters on the coast,” said Eric Ching, a marine safety officer. “Maybe even in America. It’s definitely in the top 10, I guarantee it.”

Added Michael Eich, who coordinates the city’s junior lifeguard training program: “This is like heaven. For years we were put up in buildings that were substandard, really. The city did us right by doing this.”

What lifeguards can’t see through an expansive window, they can see on video screens that display scenes from along the beach, monitored by remote-operated cameras. And if a lifeguard needs to issue a quick warning or admonition, he can simply use the public-address system that reaches the 3.5 miles of beachfront within the city’s jurisdiction.

There are no more sand-crusted logbooks because supervisors now enter incidents into a computer and send e-mails to their bosses.

A massive garage houses 14 emergency vehicles and seven various-sized watercraft -- a far cry from the old garage that was so small that the side mirrors had to be folded in before vehicles could be stored. And the garage door is on a computer that monitors who opens it and when.

The department’s female lifeguards are enjoying locker rooms just for them, with enough showers that they no longer have to wait their turn.

And now they have their own washer and dryer.

All of this is a far cry from the old days, when lifeguards in their towers counted themselves lucky just to have a working telephone. To get headquarters’ attention, they would tap on the cradle three times.

Today, the lifeguards assigned to the 22 towers not only have new phones, but walkie-talkies that allow them to communicate directly with city police.

It’s all part of a $12.3-million renovation program that even includes low sinks designed for beachgoers to soak their injured feet after being stung by jellyfish and stingrays -- and an exterior decor adorned with mosaic surfboards and bodyboards, made to look like the flags of countries connected to surfing.

At the adjoining building for the 1,100-member Junior Lifeguard Program, youngsters will learn skills in a large lecture hall and, after testing them in the surf, will return for warm showers -- a distinct improvement from the old trailers that housed the 40-year-old program.

But the best thing about it all, said Lt. Kyle Lindo, marine safety chief at the center, is that it’s all new.

“The old building was structurally unsound,” he said. “We’re in a building that’s not going to fall apart. It’s a marine environment, so things corrode, things rust, things degrade.”

But for all the upgraded technology, the heart of the system remains the lifeguard in the tower, orange buoy in hand.

“That,” said Eich, “will never change.’