00:00:10.260 --> 00:00:13.040
Can you respond back in the ambulance fire department?

00:00:13.360 --> 00:00:15.200
I don't. We saw somebody

00:00:15.200 --> 00:00:16.800
Go in to save somebody else out there.

00:00:17.300 --> 00:00:19.400
Get somebody down here to meet you. Water.

00:00:20.270 --> 00:00:24.320
Grab a to grab a tore watch that

00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:26.320
(unclear radio chatter)

00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:50.360
One, two. When the disaster happens,

00:00:52.020 --> 00:00:55.000
you will think again and again. If I did this, this wouldn't have happened.

00:00:56.460 --> 00:01:01.160
You do this. Coulda, shoulda, woulda. What do you mean he, he's,

00:01:01.310 --> 00:01:04.200
he's dead. If I got to him soon, he wouldn't be dead.

00:01:15.770 --> 00:01:19.700
This is a drill. This is a motion rescue drill. I'd like to report that to

00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:20.980
You first. Nice job.

00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:23.380
Job. Amazing work everybody.

00:01:24.770 --> 00:01:26.620
Okay, we're gonna do another one right down here in front

00:01:26.620 --> 00:01:29.020
Of it. Okay. We train a lot.

00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:31.380
We have to be prepared for anything.

00:01:33.050 --> 00:01:37.420
This stereotype of lifeguarding. Oh, what a piece of cake drop for the summer.

00:01:37.600 --> 00:01:42.380
Go sit in the sun in your bathing suit on a chair and look at the water. Wow.

00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:45.380
How hard is that? And you know what?

00:01:51.490 --> 00:01:56.060
It's hard. Is it easy to swim against the sweep to get back to that buoy?

00:01:56.520 --> 00:02:00.500
No. You could open your eyes in the water in here. It does not.

00:02:04.090 --> 00:02:05.980
That was bad. Oh, the engine was still

00:02:08.210 --> 00:02:11.180
What catch me coming back for years is the camaraderie and the people.

00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:14.380
You got a lot of new lifeguards.

00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:18.260
If you haven't filled out your tax forms, you have to

00:02:19.790 --> 00:02:22.540
Stake, stake, stake, stake.

00:02:24.190 --> 00:02:28.300
There is a certain culture where there's a love of the ocean.

00:02:28.930 --> 00:02:32.420
There's all the training and all the camaraderie and all the work that goes into

00:02:32.820 --> 00:02:35.620
maintaining your certification and taking the test and the cold water.

00:02:37.600 --> 00:02:39.700
You know, all those things create a community.

00:03:15.320 --> 00:03:16.370
It's a very small town.

00:03:17.160 --> 00:03:20.010
Some people like to call it a drinking town with a fishing problem.

00:03:21.900 --> 00:03:25.610
We're close knit. We see each other at the grocery store. At the school.

00:03:26.790 --> 00:03:29.970
If one of us needs help, 15 of us were there to help.

00:03:32.870 --> 00:03:35.290
But we're a suburban Manhattan.

00:03:37.140 --> 00:03:41.090
We're in a resort community two hours from New York City for almost six months

00:03:41.150 --> 00:03:45.250
out of the year. Our population quadruples and they're here to play

00:03:46.510 --> 00:03:49.210
Summer. It gets crazy. There's different estimates.

00:03:49.210 --> 00:03:52.210
Whether there's 75,000 people here or a hundred thousand people here.

00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:01.250
Here in East Hampton, we have 70 miles of shore.

00:04:03.040 --> 00:04:03.590
There's

00:04:03.590 --> 00:04:07.210
Too much unprotected beachfront to waterproof us completely.

00:04:10.190 --> 00:04:12.090
You get a good rip current or a big, you know,

00:04:12.160 --> 00:04:14.970
onshore break and people aren't familiar with the water.

00:04:14.970 --> 00:04:17.050
There's many more people that they have to go out and save

00:04:30.090 --> 00:04:31.900
F*****g lifeguard ceremony

00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:42.340
up here. Hank. Ladies and gentlemen,

00:04:43.140 --> 00:04:47.300
I would like to introduce Hank up and Hammer. Raise your hand. Hank,

00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:48.553
go ahead.

00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:53.420
How describe Big John? Just big.

00:04:56.330 --> 00:04:59.100
He's probably the one of the biggest men I've ever seen in my life.

00:05:00.010 --> 00:05:03.780
He's so big and I'm so little. I get spit on a lot.

00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:07.540
He doesn't mean to, it just happens. You

00:05:07.540 --> 00:05:10.740
Have to see Big John come to a town board meeting. So

00:05:10.740 --> 00:05:15.420
What do you do? You make the call to nine one one. You say stop here,

00:05:15.450 --> 00:05:16.380
take the boogie board.

00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:20.340
Big John was my algebra teacher in middle school. You know,

00:05:20.340 --> 00:05:21.940
I've learned a lot more than just, you know,

00:05:21.960 --> 00:05:23.820
the beach and lifeguard from Big John.

00:05:24.370 --> 00:05:27.300
When my son was three years old. We bring him down to the beach and

00:05:27.300 --> 00:05:28.180
He was afraid of it.

00:05:28.760 --> 00:05:30.540
Let sell a summer.

00:05:34.970 --> 00:05:38.740
What he has done in fostering our lifeguard programs is just tremendous.

00:05:40.930 --> 00:05:44.020
Everybody in this community has learned from Mejan.

00:05:45.520 --> 00:05:47.460
He has his thumb on everything

00:05:49.700 --> 00:05:51.220
a gave birth to it all.

00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:55.633
Hi,

00:05:56.490 --> 00:05:58.340
Make sure you introduce the family

00:06:03.110 --> 00:06:07.700
right there. Okay. This is my nine children.

00:06:07.700 --> 00:06:08.700
They gave me this picture.

00:06:10.830 --> 00:06:14.540
We're like very close in age. We're all like 16 months, 17 months apart.

00:06:15.150 --> 00:06:18.500
Seven kids in eight years. And those two younger ones came along.

00:06:20.340 --> 00:06:22.260
I remember going to the uh, local Catholic church,

00:06:22.330 --> 00:06:26.300
staying here with my grandmother and my sisters and seeing the whole Ryan family

00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:28.060
come in and take up like a pew and a half.

00:06:30.130 --> 00:06:35.020
I've known the Ryan family since we moved here in the 1970s with as many Ryan

00:06:35.090 --> 00:06:37.340
kids as there are. There was always one in someone's grade.

00:06:40.790 --> 00:06:45.380
Kathy became a lifeguard. Janine became a lifeguard. Johnny. Eddie.

00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:48.740
And then all the girls, Megan Sue became lifeguards for the town.

00:06:49.190 --> 00:06:51.980
Haley Shannon and Mary Kate, Johnny's three daughters.

00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:54.580
They're all lifeguards for him. They all work right down there.

00:06:55.690 --> 00:06:56.580
It's in our blood.

00:06:57.740 --> 00:07:01.700
I was a first in the family to become a lifeguard.

00:07:02.140 --> 00:07:06.340
I did not think I would be a lifeguard when I was 16. Uh, I got certified. I'm

00:07:06.340 --> 00:07:08.460
Currently the captain lifeguard at Atlantic Avenue.

00:07:08.780 --> 00:07:13.700
Lifeguarding would be so much fun and literally my whole family

00:07:13.770 --> 00:07:17.380
does it, so I wanna be like, I wanna be able to do it. Also.

00:07:22.060 --> 00:07:26.710
Glasses on or off? Uh, glasses on.

00:07:27.180 --> 00:07:28.510
Good. Yeah, that's better.

00:07:33.140 --> 00:07:34.910
Well, I'm talking about Johnny, Johnny.

00:07:35.010 --> 00:07:35.590
Johnny and

00:07:35.590 --> 00:07:36.470
Johnny. Yeah.

00:07:36.750 --> 00:07:37.583
I love the guy.

00:07:38.530 --> 00:07:39.990
He was my sixth grade math teacher.

00:07:41.310 --> 00:07:44.590
Johnny's a math teacher with his masters. He's got double masters between,

00:07:44.730 --> 00:07:48.910
you know, teaching fire department of ocean rescue and lifesaving station

00:07:49.490 --> 00:07:53.310
And husband and community member loving dad. And

00:07:54.370 --> 00:07:57.310
He can cram 30 hours into every 24 hour a day. It's amazing.

00:07:57.460 --> 00:07:57.750
They

00:07:57.750 --> 00:08:01.110
See him in the truck going from beach to beach and checking on everyone

00:08:01.250 --> 00:08:04.350
Out to the first red buoy. Hold your position, hold your position.

00:08:04.860 --> 00:08:08.750
He's as committed as his dad is to this. It's definitely the torch being passed

00:08:11.810 --> 00:08:15.510
and he's a positive role model, passion and energy and drive.

00:08:15.970 --> 00:08:17.350
You know, he's the great organizer.

00:08:18.410 --> 00:08:20.790
Johnny Ryan has really spearheaded this community.

00:08:22.750 --> 00:08:26.350
Drowning deaths are at their highest level since 2003.

00:08:27.570 --> 00:08:30.390
One family mourning the loss of three children.

00:08:30.570 --> 00:08:33.150
All of them drowned last night in Galveston Bay.

00:08:33.610 --> 00:08:37.110
Red flags are flying up and down the North Carolina coast. Today,

00:08:37.290 --> 00:08:39.910
The Virginia man attempted to rescue a young girl.

00:08:40.390 --> 00:08:42.550
A rip current pulled him away from shore.

00:08:43.170 --> 00:08:46.310
Rip currents are the leading cause of drownings in the United States.

00:08:51.990 --> 00:08:55.110
A rip is responsible for

00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:59.100
90% of saves that we have.

00:08:59.480 --> 00:09:03.780
And I would say rips are responsible probably for 90% of drownings along the

00:09:03.780 --> 00:09:08.740
ocean. If you turn to swim in and all of a sudden you go nowhere,

00:09:09.680 --> 00:09:12.900
you are going backwards. Guess what? You are in a rip.

00:09:16.520 --> 00:09:20.380
The bigger the wave, the more water is pushed. Ashore,

00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:23.940
big wave comes. Another big wave comes another big.

00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:28.300
Now that water's gotta go out. It doesn't go back out evenly.

00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:32.500
It picks one spot and rips the ball.

00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:36.940
And that's where you get this like flushing a toilet.

00:09:38.520 --> 00:09:40.820
Our typical rescue is you watch a guy,

00:09:41.690 --> 00:09:46.620
he's just dropped into the rip and he turns around and goes

00:09:46.640 --> 00:09:51.460
to swim in and holy s**t. He swims backwards.

00:09:53.450 --> 00:09:56.180
Your first reaction should be relaxed, stay calm.

00:09:56.440 --> 00:09:59.820
I'm allowing it to take you out and then swim parallel to the beach.

00:10:02.440 --> 00:10:05.580
You fight it, you're not gonna make any progress. You're gonna get pulled out.

00:10:08.640 --> 00:10:13.260
One year we had drownings and near drownings from Montauk to South Hampton.

00:10:13.720 --> 00:10:17.420
One right after the other calls were coming so fast,

00:10:17.670 --> 00:10:22.180
every single ambulance was out. We had six or eight or 10 near drownings.

00:10:23.290 --> 00:10:26.190
We had three who didn't make it.

00:10:32.730 --> 00:10:36.430
The call came over the radio and it wasn't even a swimmer in distress.

00:10:36.430 --> 00:10:41.070
It was a CPR in progress. We jumped in, the truck drove down,

00:10:41.490 --> 00:10:46.220
we pulled up on the gathering. They were doing CPR on, uh, this woman.

00:10:48.740 --> 00:10:51.580
I remember the woman just laying there.

00:10:52.880 --> 00:10:55.780
It was horrifying to see, uh,

00:10:58.440 --> 00:10:59.273
Her k

00:10:59.800 --> 00:11:01.260
Her kids on the beach.

00:11:03.080 --> 00:11:07.140
Leslie was going out to help two other children that were in the water.

00:11:12.590 --> 00:11:14.250
She was able to help push them in,

00:11:15.640 --> 00:11:17.740
but was unable to help herself.

00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:21.300
You know,

00:11:21.300 --> 00:11:24.820
you always hoped that you could get a pulse and you could be able to bring her

00:11:24.820 --> 00:11:28.660
back, but it was, it, it wasn't, didn't happen.

00:11:30.640 --> 00:11:33.460
Her husband was standing there watching us do cpr.

00:11:35.160 --> 00:11:39.900
He wanted to just crawl into a hidden place.

00:11:40.040 --> 00:11:43.100
So he just didn't be seen. Just like, oh my God, let's just get her outta here.

00:11:43.100 --> 00:11:44.860
You can't see his wife looking like this.

00:11:47.240 --> 00:11:49.420
You're thinking, okay, this is, this is now real.

00:11:51.680 --> 00:11:53.370
You just look at the water differently. After that,

00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.620
We focused on what can we do? Can we make it safer?

00:12:05.680 --> 00:12:10.660
Can we do it? Yeah, we can do it. Blowing

00:12:10.680 --> 00:12:12.100
The whistles. So the line

00:12:12.910 --> 00:12:15.220
After Leslie Skgl passed away,

00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:20.020
we formed a beach advisory committee to try to come up with ways to prevent what

00:12:20.180 --> 00:12:20.920
happened.

00:12:20.920 --> 00:12:24.660
How could we have avoided this? What could we have done differently? John Sr.

00:12:24.660 --> 00:12:27.580
Was in the ambulance. The young Johns in the fire department,

00:12:28.010 --> 00:12:32.980
they saw a model there with volunteer responders that could work to protect

00:12:32.980 --> 00:12:33.860
the beaches as well.

00:12:36.410 --> 00:12:40.100
When they formed Ocean Rescue, they went to the first people that they knew,

00:12:40.230 --> 00:12:41.500
which was lifeguards.

00:12:43.260 --> 00:12:44.093
Everyone jumped in on it.

00:12:44.580 --> 00:12:45.860
A lot of these guys had day jobs,

00:12:46.590 --> 00:12:49.540
maybe landscapers and maybe working in construction.

00:12:49.810 --> 00:12:52.660
They might have a carpenter working down the street on a house a couple hundred

00:12:52.660 --> 00:12:55.780
yards away. And if that pager goes off that there's a swimmer in distress,

00:12:56.050 --> 00:12:59.220
he's got everything he needs in his car and he can be there in seconds.

00:13:00.520 --> 00:13:02.740
As soon as the call came in, there was a drowning.

00:13:02.790 --> 00:13:04.660
There was confusion as to where it was.

00:13:05.490 --> 00:13:07.580
They were claiming they were at Deerfield Beach.

00:13:07.750 --> 00:13:10.860
There is no Deerfield Beach that sign up there.

00:13:10.860 --> 00:13:13.460
Deerfield relates to Deerfield Lane.

00:13:15.190 --> 00:13:17.340
Buddy of mine was over in Hawaii at the time,

00:13:17.790 --> 00:13:21.060
sends me a picture of a sign and it was, it was simple.

00:13:21.400 --> 00:13:22.820
It was a number and a letter.

00:13:23.920 --> 00:13:27.100
In case there was an incident at that location, you could just call and say,

00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:29.100
Hey, we're here at Barker 25

00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:34.340
and we numbered all the accesses based on fire districts out here.

00:13:35.090 --> 00:13:39.860
This is nine a right here. And if you were to call and saying, yeah,

00:13:39.860 --> 00:13:41.900
it's swimming in distress right now, you're gonna give 'em that number.

00:13:41.900 --> 00:13:43.620
They're gonna know exactly where you are.

00:13:46.090 --> 00:13:48.420
When you get a call in for a swimmer in distress,

00:13:48.560 --> 00:13:50.580
we immediately launch both jet skis.

00:13:51.400 --> 00:13:55.300
We have Ocean Rescue 40 certified guys that are paged out.

00:13:55.520 --> 00:13:59.180
And we will be there in five minutes. We've never missed that mandate.

00:14:00.450 --> 00:14:04.620
What they do to come together as volunteers is something truly unique.

00:14:05.490 --> 00:14:09.540
East Hampton Volunteer Ocean Rescue is one of the only volunteer El Ocean Rescue

00:14:09.680 --> 00:14:11.060
agency in the United States.

00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:15.340
It starts as an idea and it,

00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:17.940
and it grows and not only grows when you have the support,

00:14:19.720 --> 00:14:23.460
the community coming together and buying into the understanding that we are

00:14:23.460 --> 00:14:27.660
trying to waterproof this community. And, and it's working.

00:14:37.870 --> 00:14:41.720
This step here is designed so a,

00:14:41.800 --> 00:14:46.240
a small kid can't climb up. First one we built

00:14:48.060 --> 00:14:51.900
was when I was 45, 30. What's that,

00:14:51.900 --> 00:14:56.140
70 30 years ago. Tower one it was called.

00:14:56.560 --> 00:15:00.100
And we had an Episcopal minister. Bless it. Here we are.

00:15:00.760 --> 00:15:04.260
Guy is got the holy water and we're all blessed ourselves. It was great

00:15:11.900 --> 00:15:12.580
In the summer,

00:15:12.580 --> 00:15:17.200
my dad would lifeguard and you didn't really need to swim in the ocean because

00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:20.840
you hold onto dad's shoulders. And it was so cool. We rode the waves in.

00:15:22.340 --> 00:15:24.960
My mom was a stay-at-home mom.

00:15:25.500 --> 00:15:28.200
She was raising seven children on a teacher salary.

00:15:29.370 --> 00:15:33.920
Every year we would pile in a van, we'd drive to California.

00:15:36.070 --> 00:15:40.380
There was nothing in the van except the two seats, the cooler in the middle.

00:15:40.400 --> 00:15:42.100
And the whole back of the van was a bed.

00:15:42.280 --> 00:15:45.740
And they wouldn't even pull over to change. Drivers like, all right, pat,

00:15:45.740 --> 00:15:50.020
move over, got the wheel. We'd stop at a hotel at night and get in the pool

00:15:51.560 --> 00:15:55.580
and the float were like big truck tire, inner tubes.

00:15:55.640 --> 00:16:00.540
And I remember being in the pool and being in an inner tube and I remember

00:16:00.640 --> 00:16:04.300
my mom and my oldest sister were in the shadow and tossing a ball back and

00:16:04.300 --> 00:16:06.220
forth. And I remember falling through the inner tube

00:16:09.760 --> 00:16:14.700
and going up and down and not being able to stand and not being able to scream.

00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:22.660
My mom eventually saw me and pulled me in and she said to my dad,

00:16:22.900 --> 00:16:24.060
remember distinctly her saying,

00:16:24.310 --> 00:16:29.020
there is no way I'm gonna survive with seven children under the age of nine

00:16:29.090 --> 00:16:33.580
that don't know how to swim. And that first summer in 1970,

00:16:33.590 --> 00:16:35.060
every single one of us learned to swim.

00:16:41.830 --> 00:16:42.500
Hands

00:16:42.500 --> 00:16:43.333
Together,

00:16:43.430 --> 00:16:44.420
Heels together.

00:16:54.980 --> 00:16:58.180
Together. We started the Nipple program Two years ago, me and my dad,

00:16:58.180 --> 00:17:02.020
we were watching my cousins, my little cousins and my goddaughter, you know,

00:17:02.090 --> 00:17:06.460
swim around in like the little shore break. We were like, oh my God,

00:17:06.460 --> 00:17:08.780
how fun and cute would it be if we started a program?

00:17:09.710 --> 00:17:11.860
Eventually they're gonna wanna become lifeguards.

00:17:12.580 --> 00:17:17.460
I like lifeguarding because, um, it's fun swimming. We save peace.

00:17:17.810 --> 00:17:20.980
Both. Some drowning. Yeah,

00:17:21.880 --> 00:17:26.300
you get to swim and you get to paddleboard and a lot of

00:17:26.800 --> 00:17:30.420
fun stuff. If you're done with your period of being on the stand,

00:17:30.420 --> 00:17:31.380
you get to jump off.

00:17:35.460 --> 00:17:38.260
A lot of our lifeguards come right out of the Junior Life Credit program.

00:17:41.070 --> 00:17:45.540
These programs that my dad and my grandfather have started are so important cuz

00:17:45.540 --> 00:17:48.420
you're keeping people safe and there's less drownings.

00:17:53.260 --> 00:17:58.120
You know, they make it fun. Kids are coming down with their watermelon.

00:17:58.380 --> 00:18:03.280
Hey, comes the watermelon Patrol. Look up here. Come you ready?

00:18:04.430 --> 00:18:09.320
Left, left, left, left. Go left.

00:18:14.530 --> 00:18:17.600
Watermelon. Come get watermelon,

00:18:32.750 --> 00:18:36.520
Mary. Okay, wake up. Oh,

00:18:37.270 --> 00:18:40.600
it's time to take test. You nervous?

00:18:41.720 --> 00:18:46.280
I can't fall asleep last night. You be fine lawyer.

00:18:48.430 --> 00:18:51.320
It's right there. Dad said no orange juice. What?

00:18:52.780 --> 00:18:57.400
So what's acid doesn't have vitamins in it. Yeah.

00:18:58.070 --> 00:19:01.080
Take it all you want. Watch it. Pick it up during the test.

00:19:02.420 --> 00:19:03.800
So what are the waves like today?

00:19:08.230 --> 00:19:12.920
That was kind of big yesterday. Not too big. It was big though. Oh, it was.

00:19:13.270 --> 00:19:17.560
When you're down there, look for the rips. It scares me.

00:19:18.570 --> 00:19:19.403
We'll do fine.

00:19:27.640 --> 00:19:31.140
Johnny told me you could be mad at me for telling the whole family to show up,

00:19:31.140 --> 00:19:34.140
but it was like, Nina. Yeah. I don't want anyone here. Good.

00:19:34.140 --> 00:19:37.420
Nobody's gonna watch you. They won't, they won't. Look at you. Mary Kate.

00:19:39.380 --> 00:19:44.140
14 1 5 9 17 27.

00:19:45.890 --> 00:19:48.620
Even though it is 60 degrees, 61 degrees,

00:19:48.670 --> 00:19:50.580
we're gonna be in the water for quite a bit of time.

00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:53.740
We don't want you to get hypothermic. If we wanna make sure you keep moving,

00:20:27.270 --> 00:20:27.820
don't lose

00:20:27.820 --> 00:20:32.820
That victim. It's, I know Jeremy, it's home

00:21:09.480 --> 00:21:13.260
passed. 2014

00:21:16.250 --> 00:21:19.300
Kids are 17, 18. You know when they, they first take the test,

00:21:20.300 --> 00:21:21.900
a lot of 'em can't even drive their own cars yet.

00:21:23.800 --> 00:21:26.180
The reality is the pays not great.

00:21:26.770 --> 00:21:30.900
They could go to hotels and they could make, you know, a great deal more money.

00:21:31.280 --> 00:21:34.140
But they make a conscious decision that they're gonna work for the town.

00:21:35.600 --> 00:21:39.140
And you know, my hat's off to them cuz they're keeping us all safe.

00:21:47.730 --> 00:21:52.600
We're trained to think we're invincible. We're not at all.

00:21:53.370 --> 00:21:58.160
We're at the mercy of the ocean. Every time I go in, I respect the ocean.

00:21:59.430 --> 00:22:00.680
Nothing to play with.

00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:08.660
Ten four central 93.

00:22:09.940 --> 00:22:13.260
I have a ten eight for a subject possible spinal cord injury.

00:22:17.570 --> 00:22:22.460
Beautiful August day, me and my buddy, we were coming back down the beach.

00:22:24.170 --> 00:22:27.830
We saw the guard on the stand, stand up point to the water,

00:22:28.980 --> 00:22:29.813
blow his whistle.

00:22:30.730 --> 00:22:35.670
So I saw a fellow lifeguard face down the water and we all, I mean,

00:22:35.670 --> 00:22:36.503
we all thought the worst.

00:22:38.630 --> 00:22:40.870
I saw a body floating in the white whitewater.

00:22:41.370 --> 00:22:46.110
It immediately my training kicked in and she had blood all over her mouth and

00:22:46.110 --> 00:22:49.990
she could barely move. And there were people around her trying to help as well.

00:22:51.010 --> 00:22:54.510
Got her onto Jeff's boogie board. By that time I was holding her head.

00:22:55.050 --> 00:22:59.510
My first thoughts was, what is that lifeguard doing? Laying there on a backward.

00:23:00.810 --> 00:23:03.750
And then I realized it was one of, one of my guards.

00:23:05.730 --> 00:23:10.190
The next wave that came in immersed her and all of us that were sitting there

00:23:10.190 --> 00:23:14.310
holding her to the point where it came up and it just,

00:23:14.540 --> 00:23:18.470
only part that was out of the water was her face. And you see,

00:23:18.550 --> 00:23:23.310
you saw her eyes get bigger because it wasn't that she was worried about

00:23:23.310 --> 00:23:27.510
drowning, but she knew she didn't. She said to me, looked at me and said,

00:23:27.590 --> 00:23:31.270
I didn't feel anything except the water on my face.

00:23:36.130 --> 00:23:39.950
She went for a dive with her friends and

00:23:40.970 --> 00:23:44.630
top of the lip of the wave hit her toes,

00:23:44.760 --> 00:23:46.780
swung her around a little too fast.

00:23:47.520 --> 00:23:50.100
And she went right into the sand.

00:23:55.250 --> 00:23:58.700
When you see a guard laying there and she knows it, it is,

00:23:59.560 --> 00:24:03.420
she knows she's in trouble. I mean, I hired her.

00:24:03.840 --> 00:24:05.260
She could have worked at a pool,

00:24:05.360 --> 00:24:09.940
at a bay or somewhere else and she wouldn't have had that

00:24:10.260 --> 00:24:11.100
situation happen to her.

00:24:14.460 --> 00:24:17.380
I was just focused on keeping her head still as much as I could.

00:24:18.620 --> 00:24:22.980
I had my thumbs over, over her shoulders and then like this. So my,

00:24:23.260 --> 00:24:26.220
I was squeezing her and I didn't, I didn't leave. Her

00:24:27.810 --> 00:24:32.780
Doctors said any movement of that neck would've paralyzed her and

00:24:32.980 --> 00:24:36.420
jeopardized her body. So Thomas was

00:24:38.150 --> 00:24:38.983
Tough

00:24:40.040 --> 00:24:41.380
And he saved her life.

00:24:43.300 --> 00:24:44.740
I didn't know Thomas. Uh,

00:24:54.300 --> 00:24:55.133
he, he uh,

00:24:58.610 --> 00:25:02.030
he had to be picked up. And his mother, he couldn't even talk to his mother.

00:25:05.850 --> 00:25:08.550
Thomas, what is wrong? What is wrong? He's just sobbing.

00:25:12.860 --> 00:25:13.870
I'll never forget that day.

00:25:16.710 --> 00:25:18.600
Changed my perspective on life.

00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:25.520
I think that made me realize that I wanted to guard my whole life.

00:25:29.320 --> 00:25:31.800
I want to protect the people on our beaches

00:25:37.310 --> 00:25:41.920
Life lifeguarding is more about giving back

00:25:42.860 --> 00:25:43.693
to the community.

00:25:45.100 --> 00:25:48.400
You feel like you've done something. There's a reason why you were there.

00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:50.680
There's a reason why you train just for this.

00:25:52.970 --> 00:25:56.200
There is not a second. If I'm on a beach that I'm not looking at the water.

00:25:58.730 --> 00:25:59.550
Every minute

00:25:59.550 --> 00:26:00.800
That you're at a body of

00:26:00.800 --> 00:26:01.840
Water, whether it's a pool,

00:26:02.360 --> 00:26:02.960
A lake,

00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:07.160
A bay, or an ocean, you are compelled to keep the water safe.

00:26:08.150 --> 00:26:12.200
Tell life God, you own the beach. Not that it's mine and you can't use it,

00:26:12.260 --> 00:26:15.880
but it's mine and I'm gonna make sure it that it's used properly.

00:26:19.030 --> 00:26:22.760
There's no relaxing on the beach. You were always,

00:26:23.140 --> 00:26:28.040
always on guard. What is that saying? Lifeguard for life. Oh,

00:26:28.040 --> 00:26:28.873
that is so true.

00:26:32.340 --> 00:26:37.160
One day it will put me on a surfboard and push me out to see when

00:26:37.180 --> 00:26:39.600
I'm dead and that's how I'm gonna die.

00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:48.220
At four o'clock in the morning, the devil gets to me.

00:26:48.700 --> 00:26:53.100
I wake up and I start to fret. I'm, oh, I do things slower.

00:26:53.600 --> 00:26:57.580
But all of a sudden the negative comes at me and I say a prayer and I start to

00:26:57.580 --> 00:27:01.820
plan my day. And sometimes it overwhelms me, right? But,

00:27:02.200 --> 00:27:05.020
but if I can get on the beach and I can get to my club,

00:27:05.100 --> 00:27:06.780
I can sit on that lifeguard stand.

00:27:09.480 --> 00:27:10.580
I'm at peace with the world.

00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:33.713
One

00:28:35.420 --> 00:28:38.740
Last question. Can you name your whole family?

00:28:39.620 --> 00:28:44.400
Oldest. Youngest with grandchildren. John, pat, Patty, Kathy,

00:28:44.620 --> 00:28:49.440
Janine, Johnny, Eddie, Marie, Elizabeth, Meg, SueAnn, Kenny, Melanie,

00:28:49.810 --> 00:28:54.240
Tommy, Christopher, Nina, Devin, Anthony, Haley,

00:28:54.390 --> 00:28:58.640
Shannon, Mary. Mary Kate, Alyssa, Ryan,

00:28:59.590 --> 00:29:03.800
Emma, Caitlin. Ryan, Sarah,

00:29:04.410 --> 00:29:08.860
Shane, Jane, Lila. Tyler.

00:29:09.080 --> 00:29:13.050
Sierra. Did I see Ethan and Olivia? No.

00:29:14.010 --> 00:29:14.850
I have to do it again.