Learning how to become a junior lifeguard
Credit: Kidsday staff artist / Olivia Osbourne, Wheatley Heights
The towns of East Hampton and Southampton both have junior lifeguarding programs in the summer. The programs train kids to become junior lifeguards.
The training teaches how to deal with rip tides, how to help people in distress and how to perform different rescue techniques. The rescue techniques include the cross-chest, torpedo rescue, beach patrol with a rope, and the four-man rescue.
One of the big highlights for the junior lifeguards is competing at the end of the summer to see which town has the best junior lifeguards. Kids have to be younger than 16 to participate.
Kids 16 and older can train and take a test to become a certified ocean lifeguard. Many of the junior lifeguards in the East Hampton and Southampton programs go on to work for these towns as ocean lifeguards.
Bonnie Downs and Allison Whittle’s writers club, Tuckahoe School, Southampton
