Бывшая спасательница Дебби Фридман рассказала о роли женщин в калифорнийском спасательном деле

Nearly 50 years after Debbie Friedman first reported for duty as a young lifeguard along the San Clemente coastline, she returned to the beach where that chapter of her life began to tell the story of the women who helped change California ocean lifeguarding. Friedman, author of Guarded: Women, Water, and Saving Lives, was featured in the San Onofre Parks Foundation’s Summer Speaker Series on Aug. 19 at the Historic Cottage at San Clemente State Beach. Titled “Before Baywatch: Women, Water, and Saving Lives,” the presentation explored California’s first generation of women ocean lifeguards and Friedman’s own path into a profession that, when she entered it in 1978, was still overwhelmingly male. For Friedman, the location made the evening particularly meaningful. “I went through lifeguard training in 1978,” Friedman said. “It finished on a Saturday, and then Easter Sunday the next day. I didn’t know where Tower One was.” She recalled driving around the campground trying to find where she was supposed to report before another lifeguard found her and gave her a ride down the beach to Tower One. “That’s right below where we sit,” Friedman told the audience. “Almost 50 years later, I’m honored to be in front of you all telling my story.” Steve Long, who introduced Friedman during the event, shared a connection to those early days. Long began lifeguarding at Huntington Beach in 1974 four year before he arrived in San Clemente. “I came here in 1978, and at that time things were in transition,” Long said. Friedman arrived that same year as one of the first women lifeguards along what was then known as the Pendleton Coast. “Debbie Friedman arrived here the same year that I did, so we were rookies together,” Long said. Friedman previously returned to South Orange County in May for events surrounding Guarded, including promotional appearances in San Clemente and Dana Point. Part memoir and part cultural history, the book recounts Friedman’s experiences while examining the generation of women who entered California ocean lifeguarding during the 1970s and 1980s. During her Aug. 19 presentation, Friedman reflected further on how unexpectedly she became part of that history. Her path began as athletic opportunities for girls were expanding following the passage of Title IX. Friedman said San Clemente High School did not have a girls swim team during her freshman year, but by her sophomore year, one had been established. She began swimming competitively and later attended Saddleback College, where a conversation on the pool deck led her to a lifeguard tryout in Huntington Beach. Friedman knew little about lifeguarding at the time. She also did not realize that women were only beginning to enter the profession. “Most of us just didn’t know that we weren’t invited,” Friedman said. She was a strong pool swimmer, but that did not mean she arrived prepared for every aspect of ocean lifeguarding. Friedman said she needed others to teach her about rip currents, ocean conditions and the practical realities of watching a beach. “My experience wasn’t that, you know, I stood up and beat the man and showed up and could do everything just like them,” Friedman said. “I needed some support.” For Friedman, that experience became an important part of the story she eventually wanted to tell through Guarded. New lifeguards needed training and mentorship, she said, regardless of gender. “That first year we needed help,” Friedman said. “And the last thing we needed was to be left alone because we were different.” Researching the book also complicated the idea of identifying a single woman as California’s “first” female ocean lifeguard. Friedman said women were beginning to work at different beaches and agencies during the 1970s, often without those agencies communicating with one another. Even after a woman proved herself at one beach, another agency could question whether she could handle its particular conditions. Friedman herself was among the first women to guard the Pendleton Coast, but she said she has become increasingly conscious of the many women who were breaking similar barriers elsewhere. “I was one of many firsts,” Friedman said. The more people she interviewed, the more Friedman realized that the experiences of early women lifeguards could not be reduced to one narrative. “There’s no female story,” Friedman said. “We were all so different.” Some women found mentors and supportive colleagues. Others entered workplaces where they were isolated or given little guidance about how to develop their skills and advance. Friedman described her own experience along the San Clemente coastline as largely positive, even while acknowledging the pressure that came with entering the profession at the time. “I was still very afraid (of) trying to learn and feeling the responsibility of life and death,” Friedman said. Those differences ultimately shaped Guarded. Friedman initially envisioned something closer to an anthology documenting women in lifeguarding, but the scope changed as she conducted interviews and discovered just how many stories existed. “I kept learning, learning, learning, and it was one of the great joys of the book … meeting so many people,” Friedman said. “I left so much unsaid because I got to speak with so many people.” She hopes others continue documenting those experiences. “I hope people carry on and keep writing more and more, not just stories about women, but telling stories with a woman’s voice about lifeguarding,” Friedman said. Friedman spent 12 years lifeguarding, working both part- and full-time before eventually moving on to another career. But she said the lessons from those years never left her. “Lifeguarding helped me with everything I did afterwards,” Friedman said. The responsibility of responding to emergencies at a young age gave her a different perspective on problems she encountered later in life and work. “You get a really deep perspective that stays with you for life,” Friedman said. That instinct remained even after Friedman stopped working as a lifeguard. During the presentation, she read from Guarded about a rescue she made in 2001 at Platforms, part of Rio del Mar State Beach in Santa Cruz County, more than a decade after leaving lifeguarding. Friedman was at the beach when she noticed someone roughly 200 yards offshore near a dangerous rip current. Out of habit, she had brought her swim fins with her. After realizing the swimmer was in distress and seeing no lifeguard unit nearby, Friedman entered the water. She eventually reached the struggling man, pulled him from the rip and used the waves and whitewater to help move them toward shore. “I knew Hector would have died if I hadn’t gone,” Friedman said. Alongside stories from the past, Friedman used the Aug. 19 presentation to reflect on how much has changed for women lifeguards — and where she believes progress remains unfinished. She recalled a day during her lifeguarding years when women staffed Towers One through Five, relief and two lifeguard units. Friedman remembers the occasion fondly, but said one of the remaining boundaries was apparent when the rescue boat arrived. Boat positions were still largely considered jobs for men. Nearly five decades later, Friedman said women have entered those roles, but progress has remained slow. She also pointed to the relatively small number of women holding leadership positions within some lifeguard agencies. “You don’t see a lot of women in authority figures running departments,” Friedman said. “So that’s something to think about all these years later.” For the next generation, Friedman said developing strong lifeguarding skills remains fundamental. But younger women also have something her generation often lacked: a clearer understanding of workplace standards and avenues for addressing unfair treatment. “My generation didn’t really know where to go if something was unfair,” Friedman said. “We didn’t really even understand what might be wrong behavior.” Her advice was to recognize those situations while continuing to develop as a lifeguard. “We do have to face it and try to stay strong to who you are, know what’s right and wrong, and don’t just give up,” Friedman said. Perhaps the most visible measure of time for Friedman that evening was not found in statistics or job titles, but in the audience. Some of the lifeguards who had helped her navigate those first summers were there nearly five decades later as she told the story publicly. “The same first lifeguards that helped show me the way, mentored me, encouraged me, sometimes laughed at me — the whole gamut — they’re here tonight, almost 50 years later, supporting me,” Friedman said. For Friedman, those relationships are part of what endured from a job she began almost by accident as a teenager. “The friendships that endure last for an entire lifetime,” Friedman said. Long closed the evening by reflecting on how Friedman’s story has continued beyond those early days on the sand. “What a compelling story,” Long said, “and it continues to grow and expand.”