A full work day for a California lifeguard is never too dull. In fact, if you’re tasked with keeping the waters of Huntington Beach safe for visiting swimmers on a given weekend you can expect to make close to 500 rescues in a single August weekend. So on the weekend of August 29-30 a rescue boat crew rigged themselves up with GoPros to give the public a first person view of some of the 470 rescues made in the two day span.
According to California Lifeguard Captain Kevin Pearsall the video highlights a “daily routine” for rescuers. It’s a tad scary to see how quickly the average swimmer is in over their head when they enter the ocean. That time lifeguards are using to rescue casual swimmers means they’ll have even less time, energy and resources to tend to somebody in real “deep waters.”
