New York City’s 14 miles of public beaches opened for the season on Saturday, moving the city one step closer to the official start of summer.
And with the opening of the beaches came the lifeguards.
Before 10 a.m., groups of them made their way to posts across the city, from Orchard Beach in the Bronx to Rockaway Beach in Queens. Not long after, one group sprang into action on Coney Island.
“We’ve already got someone on the jetty,” one lifeguard said to another. And then they were off, jogging out to the rocks, whistles blaring.
The city had 280 lifeguards certified as of Saturday, according to the Parks and Recreation Department. That’s well short of full staffing for the city’s beaches and pools, but 50 more than were available on Memorial Day weekend last year. City officials say that’s a somewhat encouraging sign as the city struggles to address a yearslong lifeguard shortage — a common affliction among parks departments across the country.
Sue Donoghue, the parks commissioner, said she expected overall staffing to grow over the next few weeks as students finish classes and summer officially arrives. There are 374 new lifeguards currently enrolled in training classes, according to the department, and returning lifeguards are expected to join up in time for the height of summer. Last year, the city had certified more than 900 lifeguards by Fourth of July weekend, up from just 230 at the start of beach season.
“Last year, we saw a 45 percent increase in new recruits, and we’re very confident that with the changes we’re continuing to implement, that we’ll see that number even grow,” Ms. Donoghue said.
Despite the improvements last year, the city fell short of the 1,400 lifeguards it needed to be fully staffed. Ms. Donoghue said the department was prepared to make accommodations this year, such as reducing pool capacity, if it didn’t have enough lifeguards available.
Still, she was hopeful that incentives like a slightly increased hourly wage — $22, up from $21.26 in 2023 — and a $1,000 signing bonus for returning lifeguards would help. This off-season, the Parks Department even made an effort to spruce up its lifeguard stations, repainting and adding amenities like fridges and microwaves, to make the job more attractive and comfortable.
Gavin Erickson, 30, has been a city lifeguard for a decade. He started his first beach shift on Saturday in a sweatshirt, overseeing a stretch of sand at Rockaway Beach that was mostly deserted in the morning.
He has worked at the beach for three summers and knows how to spot dangers, like a rip current forming in the choppy, frigid waters.
“You have to know your water, is the main thing,” he said, with a nod toward the empty surf. “Obviously, when the water’s cold, that makes my job easier.”
Many beachgoers said on Saturday that seeing lifeguards out and about gave them a little more peace of mind, whether or not they braved the chilly surf.
Antonio De Leon lives in Brooklyn and visits Coney Island regularly with his wife and daughters, 4 and 11. He was pleasantly surprised Saturday to see lifeguards on duty.
“They do a good job, but my kids know to be careful when there’s no one on the beach,” Mr. De Leon, 32, said in Spanish.
“We honestly got used to just watching out for them more as there weren’t as many lifeguards,” he added.
Vlad Moroz and Anastasiia Horokhivska-Moroz live just steps from the boardwalk on Coney Island. But in the two and a half years they’ve lived there, they said, they had never seen a lifeguard on duty. Instead, when they wanted to swim, they made their way to a different stretch of beach.
“It’s the beach, it gets busy,” said Ms. Horokhivska-Moroz, 35. “It’s better for the whole community, for everyone here, when there are lifeguards.”
Out on Rockaway Beach, Anastasios Zaharopoulos watched from a beach chair as his sons, 12-year-old twins, splashed in the surf. Mr. Zaharopoulos, 45, lives nearby and said he had noticed fewer lifeguards in recent years, so much so that he saw an opportunity for his sons.
“I’m trying to get these two into lifeguard training for their first summer jobs,” he said of the twins, Evan and Achilles.
The boys are still a few years away from trying out — the minimum age for lifeguards is 16 — but Ms. Donoghue is hoping to make it easier for them to do so when they’re old enough.
This year, for the first time, the city held lifeguard qualifying exams and training classes in four of New York’s five boroughs. Before, both the test and the 16 weeks of training sessions could be taken only in a single pool in Manhattan, which meant burdensome commutes for many would-be recruits.
“You want to make it as easy as possible,” Ms. Donoghue said of the recruitment process. “This is one of the important ways that we’re looking to do it, to provide open opportunities for kids closer to home.”
To that end, the Parks Department has partnered with the city’s public schools, using their pool facilities to host the tests and training courses and recruiting teenagers directly from high school swim teams.
The city has also worked to make it easier to pass the qualifying test. In 2023, the minimum standard to pass was relaxed from swimming 50 yards in 35 seconds to swimming 50 yards in 50 seconds. And this year, for the first time, the city offered aspiring lifeguards the opportunity to practice for the test with a swim instructor before trying out.
The city has loosened the requirements to work at some small, shallow pools. The change came after a bitter contract renegotiation last year with the powerful lifeguard union.
As beach season kicks off, Ms. Donoghue is emphasizing the importance of staying safe. Last summer, seven people drowned at city beaches, several of them teenagers who had been swimming when lifeguards weren’t on duty.
For the families enjoying the beach on Saturday, the lifeguards offered some measure of protection. But Mr. Zaharopoulos said New Yorkers should remain vigilant no matter what.
“You have to respect the water,” he said. “Be alert. Be careful. It’s a beautiful monster, the ocean.”
Alyce McFadden is a reporter covering New York City and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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