You Can't Make This Up

 I was a NYC Lifeguard from 1959 thru 1963. From Coney Island, to South Beach, to Midland Beach to Ocean Breeze. I had multiple "saves" and some in the City Press. But to get the job I had to swim competitively against others and come out in top 400 in NYC. Then I had to take the course; first aid, rescue, even diving with a helmet. Over the five years I had the privilege to meet some of the smartest and hard working people I ever met. Future Billionaires, Doctors, Professors, lawyers, judges, and the like. Everyone of us was going to college, as professionals. For the most part we were all seeking the position for its "class" since as a Lifeguard we had to maintain the peace while insuring lives were not lost. We had to be respected, we were not California egoists, were were there for safety and security.

Now along comes the current Mayor in NYC, as the NY Times notes:

Then Mayor Eric Adams was asked about New York City’s lifeguard shortage at his weekly news conference, he seized the moment to make a point about potential migrant workers.Imagine if the city could quickly hire migrants for jobs that urgently needed to be filled, he wondered aloud, before asking: “How do we have a large body of people that are in our city and country that are excellent swimmers, and at the same time we need lifeguards?”His remarks on Tuesday drew criticism from all sides. Immigrant rights groups called the comments “racist and divisive.” Conservative leaders viewed them as an attempt to legitimize the hiring of noncitizens.Mr. Adams, unsurprisingly, saw things differently.On Wednesday, the mayor explained that he had visited migrant centers in the city and asked people there if they knew how to swim. He was “blown away” by the number of those who raised their hands.

 Just being able to swim is NOT what a Lifeguard must be able to do. Swim 400 yards in competitive time, grab a flailing human, carry them back, provide first aid, etc. Also maintaining security. Not a simple task when 1 million people are at Coney Island.

Try it Mayor, you get to keep gangs apart with nothing more than a whistle! You must speak a bit of Spanish, Italian, even Russian. You are in effect a police officer in a bathing suit. 

So the Mayor believes no English speaking people who have already disobeyed the law will be trusted to enforce it and keep people sage. A NYC Lifeguard at the beach is not some Delaware lifeguard at a pool. We would often go to Seaside Park and laugh at the wimpy lifeguards there.

Perhaps the Mayor should spend July 4th at Coney to see what is up.

Lifeguards in NYC

 

I was a NYC Lifeguard for 4 years. First for a short time at Coney Island and then on Staten Island. In those days one had to pass an annual test. 440 yards in a NYC pool and the top 4 qualified. You could keep taking the test until positions ran out. That means the top 900 or so swimmers in the city were lifeguards.

The pool was on 54th street between 2nd and 1st avenue. It was across the street from the El Morocco. Boxing was on the first floor and pool in basement. Lou Lipsky was the NYC Chief Lifeguard. A short burly guy who was slightly gruff but supportive. 

There was no union. The lifeguards were generally tall and muscular. We doubled as police on the beach. The cops did not want to get sand in their shoes. There was no union. We worked 8 hour days six days a week. We got paid $60 a week. 

The lifeguards were a brilliant group. They became billionaires, world famous doctors, lawyers, scientists, playwrights. It was a group par excellence.

The above is a picture of my most famous save. A young woman had a seizure some 40 yards out. She was aggressive and it was a difficult save. Thus the picture. 

Recently I went back to Midland Beach on Staten Island. The lifeguards were short, somewhat dumb, and not ones I would remember from a Sunday at Coney Island keeping 1 million people controlled.

The NY Times has a piece on why the NY lifeguards are so short in supply. They note:

Parks officials had sought to gain more new guards this summer by simplifying the rigorous test prospective lifeguards take to qualify for the 16-week, 40-hour training course. The test weeds out many potential recruits largely through its 50-yard swim, which prospects historically had to finish in 35 seconds. Faced with high failure rates — last year, of 900 applicants, only about 26 percent passed the test — and complaints from applicants, parks officials extended the acceptable time for this summer’s applicants to 45 seconds. They also pushed for more transparency by mandating that applicants be notified of their swimming times, as opposed to merely whether they had passed or failed. Howard Carswell, a former rescue diver with the city’s Police Department, said his 16-year-old son, a competitive swimmer, withdrew from lifeguard training this year because the officials overseeing it were surly and “generally giving the kids trying to get the certificate a hard time.” He said his son had opted to spend the summer lifeguarding at an upstate lake for better pay. “It wasn’t worth the aggravation,” he said. “It was just a generally depressing environment for kids that are looking to become New York City lifeguards.”

 Now the 50 yard vs 440 yard says a great deal. The 440 was a demonstration of endurance, my save demands endurance. It was not how fast I got there but haw well I did after that. Second, unions now control the process, Lou Lipsky went for quality, unions in my opinion and in my experience collect small minded control freaks. 

It is a shame that the band of brothers who were lifeguards has become a collection of union hacks.