eLroy

Toot-toot! 115 decibels from my Day-Glo orange Fox-40 are painfully loud at ground zero, but lifeguards for a quarter-mile radius know what two short whistle blasts mean. I just spotted and initiated my first ocean rescue. Lifeguards from every edge of the vast Field 6 beachfront at Jones Beach, NY, are sprinting to the main-stand in full-tilt, even one guard with half a sandwich still wedged in the corner of her mouth. I jump down six feet from my firmly entrenched wooden lifeguard stand to a small pile of sand that we share the burden of maintaining between one-hour shifts. Remembering to leave my shades behind this time, I grab the buoy and lasso the loop around my shoulder. The sprint to the water lasts seconds, and my eyes have not yet left the drowning patron. I punch through the over-head shore break, and make a quick, clean entry into the same murky riptide sucking the victim out to sea. I porpoise through the shallow surf and then freestyle like a mad-man until I reach him in what seems like seconds. Although his eyes are half submerged and surrounded by bubbles, he immediately latches onto the buoy as I extend it to him with my last stroke. With words of reassurance, I calm the patron out of his frenzy for survival. He is floating now. Another lifeguard appears with the line just as I look back towards land. Together, we hook-up safely with the victim, still grasping the buoy for dear life. As a third lifeguard on shore tows the three of us with the line, I realize that the rip has sucked us out twice as far as when I spotted the rescue minutes earlier, and we are several hundred yards from land. Exiting the ocean with heavy shore-break is tricky, but we manage safely. Exhausted and still breathless from his brush with death, the patron shakes my hand and thanks me. A crowd of beachgoers has collected around my stand, and I slap five with my fellow guards who assisted in the rescue. Climbing back up to finish my shift, I have a newborn sense of what it means to make a difference in someone’s life.