Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
STILL WATCHING
At closed beaches, lifeguards carry on with their duties
FORT LAUDERDALE —
The beaches might be empty, but not the lifeguard stand.
Just because South Florida’s beaches are closed doesn’t mean all those expert swimmers who guard miles and miles of shoreline are kicking back at home.
In Fort Lauderdale, they’re still on the job, making rescues and helping police make sure people don’t venture onto the sand, city officials say. Lifeguards in other coastal cities, from Miami Beach to Delray Beach, are also doing their part to keep the beaches clear due to emergency stay-at-home orders and the coronavirus.
The news doesn’t always go over well.
One man spit at a lifeguard in Hollywood. Another tried to escape by diving into the ocean when lifeguards in Fort Lauderdale told him he couldn’t be on the sand. Both men were arrested.
New role as enforcers
Like the rest of us, South Florida’s lifeguards are eager for life to get back to normal.
“This is not what they expect when they come to work, to not see anyone,” said Bruce Wilkie, marine safety chief for Hollywood. “And the people they do see they have to kick off the beach.”
South Florida beaches have been closed for weeks.
But boaters are still anchoring offshore to fish and dive. And sometimes, they need rescuing.
In recent weeks, Fort Lauderdale lifeguards have come to the aid of divers who needed help making it
back to their boat, said Stephen Gollan, a spokesman for Fort Lauderdale Ocean Rescue.
They’ve also helped police chase down a man who walked onto the beach. When told to head back to the sidewalk, he ran straight toward the ocean and jumped in, trying to make a run for it.
The lifeguards got on their paddle boards and went after him.
“They had to bring him back in,” Gollan said.
Police were waiting for him, handcuffs and all.
In Fort Lauderdale, 110 lifeguards take turns patrolling 4 miles of beach.
Before the pandemic, they were front-line responders at the beach. And that hasn’t changed even after the beach closed in midMarch, Gollan said.
Lifeguards are still rushing to the rescue when people are injured in bike and car accidents along A1A.
“Our lifeguards respond to any medical emergencies,” Gollan said. “If there’s a car accident or someone has a heart attack while out for a run, [they’re there to help].”
On the front line
In Hollywood, lifeguards are equally busy.
Some are working later shifts to help police keep people off the sand, Wilkie said.
That means their day ends at 7 p.m. instead of 6 p.m.
“We have almost 5 miles of beach to cover and Hollywood has a lot of access points,” Wilkie said. “So it’s hard to keep people off the beach.”
On occasion, the lifeguards get a little help from residents who live along the beach.
“We’ve had condo commandos call us and tell us they see someone hiding in the bushes and sitting on the beach,” Wilkie said.
With the oceanfront Broadwalk closed, many cyclists are heading to Surf Road, just one block over. And Hollywood’s lifeguards are there to help if anyone gets injured on their ride.
In the meantime, Hollywood’s lifeguards are training hard.
“Our lifeguards still have a mandatory workout every morning and they have requalification tests coming up next week,” Wilkie said. “They have to pass them twice a year.”
Boca Raton’s lifeguard towers have not been manned since the beach closed.
But lifeguards in Delray Beach are still on the job helping police keep visitors off the beach, said Dani Moschella, a spokeswoman for Delray Beach Fire Rescue.
They’re also training, doing long runs and swims.
One training exercise had them swimming and paddling to a buoy and back to simulate a rescue for a distressed swimmer.
“The training has been conducted in small groups, keeping social distancing in mind,” Moschella said.
In their spare time, they’ve also tackled maintenance projects, she said.
So far, they’ve repaired rescue boards, painted storage boxes for beach wheelchairs, cleaned swim area buoys and pressure cleaned the lifeguard towers.
In Miami Beach, lifeguards are stationed at beach entrances to ensure emergency orders are being followed. Not only are they keeping people off the beach, they’re also making sure cyclists stay off the beachwalk before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m.
“We are also still responding to water-related issues when needed,” said city spokeswoman Melissa Berthier.
Last week, Miami Beach lifeguards helped the U.S Coast Guard try to find a missing diver in Government Cut.
“Fortunately, the diver was found off of Eighth Street, three quarters of a mile offshore by the Coast Guard’s helicopter,” Berthier said.
Here to help, too
In Pompano Beach, lifeguards are at the beach every day making sure no one steps on the sand. They’ve issued 420 verbal warnings to people intent on walking onto the beach. And 40 times they’ve had to summon a Broward sheriff’s deputy for backup to enforce the beach closure order.
They’re also hard at work helping people, city spokeswoman Sandra King said.
Since the beach has been closed, they’ve given first aid to one person and rescued a kite boarder who’d lost his surfing board.
In the past month, they’ve taken questions from 291 people and made 12 public assists, including helping an elderly woman who needed help getting out of the water in an unguarded section of the beach.
They’ve also had to direct boats and Jet Skis to stay outside the vessel exclusion area 108 times in the past month, King said. That area, marked off by buoys, is meant to keep vessels from coming too close to shore.