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Just Another Rescue
Leo Oorts

    I find it humorous when lifeguards constantly interrupt each other, bragging about their heroic rescues. “Dude! The surf was double-overhead as I body surfed my way down the face into the six victims and clipped all of them in…” Then another guard steps into the conversation and blushes while explaining how great looking the victim they rescued was. We all have our impressive stories to tell and when we do pass them on to younger generations, I see it as a positive. It shows that we have immense pride in what we do and reflecting back to those insane moments is a simple exposure of the proud job we have done. An exposure in which we are vigorously taught during training not to expose, you’ll miss another darn rescue. So as many other guards do, I press my lips together and keep quiet and think the events over as I drive home into the glaring sunset. It is then when I realize and ask myself, how many awesome stories of critical rescues go untold? I don’t know the answer and I doubt we will ever hear them all, but I would like to tell you of one rescue I made as a third year guard, which continues giving me goose bumps.
   The sun begins to sink into the horizon as the wind continues to howl. Tons of visitors for a Saturday evening still remain in the bumpy ocean. You’d figure they exit the warm water with little sunlight left, but at 72 degrees who wants to leave? Every tower remains open as I anxiously wait to complete an 11½ hour day in Tower 11, my favorite tower. Ring! Ring! Sweet, time to go home, oh, never mind it’s Fleetwood wanting to trade towers for tomorrow. Dang, how do I talk my way out of this one? Continuing over the scratchy phone line I quickly see a dark shade appear before a fluffy whitecap. No way, that has to be a dead stinky seal, right? “I can’t smell it yet… Oh man, I got a rescue outside right.” I strip down in a flash like any HSBLA member would and jam down into the water line. Pop the buoy, high step, dive, dolphin… dolphin, fins, look for signals and… nothing. Just great, late session rookies on my shoulders. Taking my breaths between the troughs of whitecaps I see nothing but do hear a yell for help. Swimming farther and farther out I begin to question my sense of direction. Suddenly I spot the victim and approach him within a set of strokes only to find the typical, pro body boarder with a light weight t-shirt/jean wetsuit and feet for fins, coming from the 909. At this moment there are several thoughts running through my head: be nice, smack him with the buoy clip, quick and easy rescue, create a donut clip or swim with him. I didn’t think he would climb the ladder, forget about his board and sink to the bottom. I am wrong and this puts me in panic mode. As I dive down my imagination runs wild and I picture myself on the cover of Jaws, with a Great White heading for me. After pulling him above surface I instantly become the human buoy and go under. Actions are taken really fast when your adrenaline is burning through your veins and without even considering it, as full-time lifeguard Pearsol has said, I use my “big boy voice.” This settles the victim and in the moment of silence quickly following, it is now when I realize this victim really needs my help. I can barely see his eyes through his long hair wrapping around like a squid, slightly glazed with tears running down the sides. All negative thoughts and feelings rapidly disappear as I take on the role of the rescuer with the victim. With the sound of the clip I commence a tough return dragging an exhausted swimmer. During my backstroke the moon begins to appear as the sun disappears. Reaching shore the victim is surprisingly in good condition as he expresses his fears of being trapped in rip. He waits for the unclipping and gives the most genuine handshake and sincere thanks, one that I’ll never forget. I turn around and run back as if nothing has happened. “What happened out there?” asks Lifeguard II Selna, as he pulls up in the oversized Dodge. “Not much…” I reply, “…just another rescue.” I lied of course, what happened out there is hard to explain and has moved me within. Driving home in the dark, flashbacks of the victim underwater keep my heart racing. I never want to go through that event again and I hope no one will have to.
    From this rescue I feel that I have learned the morals and values a lifeguard should pertain to. I know I will continue to learn more as the years flow by and as every summer new guards rise into the conversation of sensational rescues. I’ll nod and congratulate them like every other guard will, but each one of us has our rescue, our moment that we keep to ourselves. We know we work with some of the best lifeguards in the nation with some of the toughest rescue conditions.  We take pride in it, and until now I have kept it to myself.