Episode 9 - Preparing for Summer with Marine Safety Chief Kai Bond

As Laguna Beach prepares for another busy summer, Mayor Mark Orgill sits down with Marine Safety Chief Kai Bond to discuss the people, planning, and preparation that keep Laguna's beaches safe. From lifeguard training and emergency response to ocean rescue operations, and beach safety education, Chief Bond provides an inside look at the vital services the Marine Safety Department delivers every day. Tune in to learn how Laguna Beach's lifeguards prepare for the summer crowds and what residents and visitors can do to help ensure a safe and enjoyable beach experience for everyone.

Transcript

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I'm here today with Marine Safety Chief Kai Bond, and we're going to be discussing some of the surge issues that happened during the summer as we prepare going into the summer. Uh we believe that it's going to be one of the busiest summers on record, and I'm interested to see what the chief has to say about his plans going into this summer. How are you, Kai? I'm doing well. How are you, Mayor O'Reill? Good. So we have the summer ahead of us. Beautiful Laguna Beach. It's what we're known for. We're going to be inundated with tourists, right? And I guess the end of the day, you know, ever what happens behind the scenes. That's what I want to talk to you about. I know that you guys have your hands full. I've since I've been on council, I've been able to actually get a little peek behind the scenes. And it's very impressive. You guys do a wonderful job. And uh, but I have to say I I was quite amazed how much there is to do and how how many rescues you guys do just is incredible. So let's just talk about a couple of things to get started and help the community better understand what you guys have and some of the challenges and successes that you guys um uh face every year. So talk about the prep your your preparation going into summer. It's it's it's a really good question because it's really interesting. It involves a lot of our staff first and a lot of other departments. Uh we couldn't do it without the support of every other department in the city. Um but but you have to talk about training first. Um not only do we train our part-time staff, but we we spend a significant portion of our time training our full-time staff on everything imaginable, whether it's just rescue techniques to our um our EMS responsibilities, making um you know our employees EMTs, um in every facet of of that training, and um it's really, really important to not only our operation, but you know, the result and what we provide our community. Um and then along with that, you know, it it's there's the other components include like getting all the towers out onto our beaches. As you know, we have um quite a large operation. Um we have 50 towers on our beaches, and during a peak summer day, we have an 100 employees working at one time, in tandem with having the largest youth program in the city, which is the junior lifeguard program. So there's quite a lot going on, but as far as preparation, it's just the training, the hundred-hour rookie academies that we do, the recurrent training for all of our employees that are returning, and then of course our full-time training, which just spans the medical side of it, the rescue side, our rescue vessel training. It's it's it's quite a lot that happens behind the scenes. It just overwhelmed me. Let's break it apart a bit. Okay. So what it what tell me about your full-time training. So these are for lifeguards that are here full-time. Correct. And they go through continual training. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, absolutely. So we have 17 full-time uh employees. Um, and and our marine safety officers go through extensive training, whether it's whether it's uh rescue vessel training, whether it's citation training, whether it's it's technical rescue training, um that includes in the water, out of the water, because as you know, Laguna is a beautiful place, but what makes it beautiful makes it really dangerous. So a lot of rock rescue training, which I'm sure we'll talk about a little bit more as as we get through our interview. Um and and that just touches on just a little bit of what our full-time staff does to meet the needs of our communities and visitors. So um, and then aside from that, our full-time staff is responsible for training all of our part-time staff. So we roughly have about 150 part-time employees that work for our organization. Um W What's the length of the training period for the uh part-time lifeguards? And do they come to you with experience? Um sometimes. That's a really good question. Sometimes they do, and and sometimes we appreciate when they have no experience because we can teach them um how we do it uh in in the city of Laguna Beach because our terrain is much different. But um the initial training for a seasonal ocean lifeguard or a rookie lifeguard when they they first step onto the beach is a hundred-hour uh seasonal ocean lifeguard rookie academy. And it takes them through um all the aspects that that you need to go through to initially become a lifeguard on our beaches. And that training consists of essentially three components. There's a medical component, there's there's um which is a practical, hands-on um uh situation. There's a written component where you take lots of tests over those hundred hours, and then of course, um, you know, most people like this, some people don't, is the physical component. So, what we look for in a new employee is somebody that's really a well-rounded individual that can do all three of those things really well. And it's incredibly competitive. The top candidates typically will get jobs, and we we we create a hiring list. And um, you know, this year we ran two academies, and um we're still shaking out some of the numbers, but we're likely to hire somewhere between 30 and 40 new employees for the city you're gonna be. So when you say competitive, do you mean with other uh marine safety departments? No, it's competitive within that rookie academy. So so the best way to describe it is we play golf, right? Right. So the the lower the score, if you get a zero, it's a perfect score. You know, so you're you're shooting for really low numbers. If you um let's say go through a practical exam where CPR is involved or there's an ocean rescue involved, if you don't do so well, you're gonna get lots of points, which is not really good. So you're ranked within the academy, and that's the list that we use to hire people. And that's just the rookie academy. Right. It's amazing. So let's talk about some of the the you we recently what has it been a couple of years now that we purchased or got our hands on a boat. Yes. And now we have two? Um that's on the horizon. It's on the horizon. It's on the horizon, yes. Give us a little snapshot of what's happening with that. So um I I think it's really important to kind of back up just a little bit and talk about um uh just a couple things. When I started there, um actually when I was a junior lifeguard, we had a rescue vessel. And then for whatever reason, it it it it left our city. We didn't have one any longer. And um about two years ago, we were we were gifted um in a transfer of property a vessel from the state of California, which were incredibly appreciative, and with help from donors and and help from the council, we were able to reinstate that program, and that program's called Wave Watch. And it's it's literally um changed the way as a marine safety chief that I look at our operation because what we have done effectively is um not only caught up to some of the other agencies that are surrounding us, but we we've um in simple words, we've eliminated traffic. As you drive through the Laguna, you know that it's very difficult to get around, and it's difficult for our field units to do so as well. But now we're getting to these areas that are um difficult to get to, um, some of our rocky covers without the um being impeded by other cars. We get there quickly, we get there efficiently. We're able to get employees off that boat and deliver the highest level of service possible because that vessel carries the advanced life-saving equipment that we couldn't carry before. And the timing was perfect, right? I mean, so how many extra miles of beach did you inherit when we took over the South Laguna beaches? Yeah, so when we assumed South Laguna operations, we we gained about just a little over two miles of our operation. But um I have to point out that there's a lot of isolated covers. So we we essentially almost doubled the amount of towers that we have and the coverage needed. Um so the timing was was excellent, um, just to be honest with you, because we um the the Wave Watch is a model of efficiency. And um we certainly appreciate the support that we got, not only from the state of California, not from our donors, but it or council, it's the collective um support that we got in order to make that happen because it's been amazing. And recently I somebody had told me that the your department is, I don't know, ranked pretty close to like maybe third or fourth largest in Southern California. Yeah, so we're we're one of um if if you take away harbors, because some some agencies will count that, we're one of the largest organizations in in the state of California. Um there's certainly ones that are much larger, LA County, San Diego City, but um we're we're pretty close as far as mileage, uh tower coverage, and um you know the the responsibility that we have um for our beaches and our community. Right. So it makes sense that a department of that size would have the Wave Watch program. Of course, all the right tools to make all the right decisions and to save um as many people as we possibly can. Right. So what are the let's talk about safety. Um, you know, the type of rescues you do, what people could do better to stay out of harm's way. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I I think if we're talking directly to um the person that's showing up to the beach um with their family, um, particularly in Laguna for the first time, the the the message is that we want you to check in with the lifeguard. I know I know that people will look at the news and see the waves are two to three feet, but it's important to check in with the lifeguard at the beach you're going to because they're going to know what the specific conditions are and and how those that family can have the safest day. Of course, learning how to swim is is a critical component of it, but being able to check in with the lifeguard, understanding the ocean conditions, and and honestly, like the the um the exclamation point at the end is is to um really respect the environment that you're in. You know, the beach is one of the most inexpensive places to go to enjoy a day with your family. Um, you know, as as an employee of the city and you know, someone that that's around this town all the time, we we appreciate when people um take what take home what they brought from the beach, pack in their trash, and be respectful to the environment that we're always trying to protect. Yeah, well thanks for bringing that up. Environment is a big deal, right? Laguna Beach, we have these beautiful beaches, and then we're always struggling with the negative impacts uh that overcrowding causes, right? Trash, correct, uh degradation of the tide pools, things of that nature. And then I know it makes your, you know, your guys' uh job a lot harder. You got folks running around on the rocks. That to me, when I look out there and I see folks way out on the rocks, and you know, you never know when that one wave is gonna come up and just take them down, it always worries me. Um and I know you have plenty of examples of that exact thing happening. Yeah, I I I think another safety measure that people can take is is drop your phone. Drop your phone, stop looking down at it and be aware of your surroundings because the rocks are beautiful, people are attracted to them, but um it's it's really important to understand what what's happening in the ocean and how it can affect you on the rocks. There's been people um throughout my career that have gotten um seriously hurt or injured by not paying attention to those conditions, and um, you know, to to um obey, to listen to what the lifeguards say, to to see signs that say that rocks are closed or an area is closed, and and to follow that direction because we're we're not doing it for fun, we're doing it for safety reasons, and that's incredibly important, um, not only from a safety side, but from uh you know a marine protection side of it. Right. So we have a couple of beaches. Uh we have Main Beach and Aliso Beach. And Aliso Beach has parking, they both have restrooms, Aliso Beach has a snack bar component to it, so it has some nice amenities. And uh, you know, when I get calls from family or friends that really haven't been down here much and they say, hey, where should I go? That's usually where I direct them just because it has those conveniences. And it always seems like they're I don't know, they're well monitored, they're set up in such a way to where it just seems a little bit safer for you know for people that are more novice. Um, and I know some of our beaches down south in particular are extremely, extremely dangerous, in my opinion. Um, do you have any thoughts on that? Where to send people? Yeah, and and I think you hit the nail on the head as far as amenities go. Um in both locations, there's there's things like a playground that kids would enjoy, a bathroom, um places to eat and close-by parking. You're absolutely right. But our environment, potentially on any beach within any city, can be dangerous. And um those conditions are changing constantly. And that's why we have the staffing that we do. Um Aliso Beach and Main Beach are kind of those non-negotiables for me as a marine safety chief of this is we're gonna staff this beach no matter what, every day. Because we know that people are drawn to it, particularly our visitors, and we want to make sure that they're having a safe day, and there are hazards on those beach all beaches all the time. Um but um I I think that's the right advice, but but to add to that, when those people go to the beach, I would ask them to check in with the lifeguards at Main Beach and Aliso as well. So you say all the time on those two beaches, you mean year-round? Year-round. Um, and and there are, you know, if it's raining cats and dogs, maybe we won't have one on there, but um we we try to staff both of those locations consistently 365 days a year, um, as we do other locations too. Um you know, 10th Street. You know, we've had incidents down at the Sea Cave at 10th Street, and uh we want to assure that people are safe, rain or shine, you know, uh in that area. So there are a couple locations where we have uh we consider high impact locations and and we staff those every day. So is there anything that the community members could do to make your job any easier? Um quite honestly, um I I I do feel a lot of support from our community members. Um I I I think um one thing that would be helpful um is is to continue that message, uh somehow perpetuate that message of stewardship and safety. Um when um visitors come into town, you know, point them in the right direction of our lifeguards. Um one program, or actually two programs that I really like to plug is is SALT. Um SALT is an acronym, it sounds for Surfers Awareness and Life Saving Techniques. So um, and and just at the previous council meeting, we awarded somebody who who actually went through the SALT program, the Thurston Um Surf Coach. Um lifeguards can't be there all the time 24 hours a day. And we have a program where we teach local kids and any others that want to be involved on how to effect a rescue when lifeguards aren't available and the proper steps to calling for emergency services, the nine using the 911 system. Um and we've seen some incredible results with that and some really positive outcomes. So SALT's number one. And then two, uh as a uh as a you know uh advice to residents, um, I would say enroll your child in the junior lifeguard program. There is no better um uh program. It's it's so much fun. It teaches the kids confidence. It's it's not just all the ocean things, you know, it's teamwork, it's confidence, it's an understanding of the marine environment. And of course, all of the ocean things fall into place as well, but it's just a wonderful opportunity for the kids to interact with the biggest gift that we have, which is the ocean right out in front of us. So um I I would encourage every resident that has a child to enroll them in that program. And um, you know, it it seems like it's a rite of passage, you know, for most kids in the city. So um I I think those are my two plugs for for residents. Yeah, it does. And um beyond that, my I actually enrolled my son in the uh, I guess you would call it the toddler. I don't know. Do they still do that up at the high school where the the babies you just teach them very young? Yeah, I can't remember the name of the program, but but yeah, they have a started on me a bit because he ended up turning into a fish, and then when the lifeguards used to get on me down here when we'd go to the beach because he was such a good swimmer and what being a little guy, and he would just take off and go out way out, and they were like, hey, get that kid back here. Right. But uh yeah, it it ended up working good, and and he is a an excellent swimmer. So let's talk about some of the statistics. How many rescues do you guys do in a typical year? And has it changed much? Have you noticed uh a shift over the last show several years? So we we do have quite a few rescues comparatively to um to other agencies. This past year we had uh a little over 12,000 rescues, which is which is a lot. Rescues happen a little bit differently in our city. Um we do have shore break, and these rescues can can happen kind of um quickly. They happen often, and they happen like almost unnoticed. It's not something that you see on television where um there's a person that floats out in a rip current, although we have that. It's not our typical rescue, but it it's something that happens in a lot more of a uh a faster fashion along our shoreline. But I you know I hate getting into the rescue statistics. I'd rather talk about the preventative and educational contacts that we make, because to me that's much more valuable. Um a rescue to me is is a potentially a missed opportunity to educate somebody, to provide them with the knowledge to be in a better spot or to understand what our rip currents are like or to understand what finger rips are like. So as far as those types of contacts, we have like a half a million of those types of contacts throughout our department through this last year. So that's something that I'm incredibly proud of. Ideally, in in a perfect world for me, those rescue numbers would go way down. Right. And the prevention and educational numbers would go way up. I'd love to see that flip. Right. Yeah. And I wanted to point it out just so the you know, our community, this uh podcast is primarily for the community members that I just uh like to point out and keep the community informed on things that are happening behind the scene. And I know you guys, there's so much happening, and you know, that's the good part. You go unnoticed for the most part, right? Right. Uh, but you are extremely appreciated. And I do hear positive things about your department. In fact, I've never heard a negative thing about it. You guys are lucky. Oh, well, thank you. You guys have the yeah, everybody loves marine safety in town, right? We try our best. Yeah. So that that's great. Um any other final thoughts that you'd like to share with the community as we head in into this complicated, very, very busy summer? Yeah, I you know, it it's the basic safety message with with um a little bit added. It's it's when you come to the beach, check in with the lifeguard. We're incredibly friendly and we want to talk to you. And and we want to um, you know, our number one goal is to prevent our accident and injury, you know. And um we do that through our public education, through our programs like SALT, like the Junior Lifeguard program, to just assure that everybody comes to the beach, is respectful of the beach, and has a safe and enjoyable day, and gets to return home to their families and and and have a wonderful experience in the city of Laguna Beach. So um I I think those are the most important points and in our way of um protecting our community. I appreciate that. Let me just briefly touch on the Rangers and the lifeguards. Um so I know that that you guys coexist, right? You're they're down on the beach uh oftentimes when you guys are down there. Right. And I know we've been talking about enforcement, you know, and there's trash, there's alcohol on the beach, there's tide pool people in the tide pools, and we do have a docent program. There's folks in the docents in the tide pools. How is the communication between you, docent, and the um uh the rangers? So we have an incredibly good relationship with our partners, whether it be the docents or the rangers. Um as far as from an enforcement aspect, um, lifeguard's primary duties are are obviously prevention and ocean rescue, but there is an enforcement component to it. Um usually what will happen is if we we approach somebody, whatever the municipal code they're they're violating, we'll we'll ask for compliance, and and typically the answer is is yes, we'll we'll comply. In the case they don't We do rely on our friends from the police department to come down, whether it be the Rangers or uniform officers to help us with gaining compliance in those situations. Same thing goes for our Tidewater docent. We train regularly with that program and that group. And it's important that we we promote the same message, you know, whether it um what depending on the agency, that it's that it's the same message, it's very clear, and we're following through because I think that's really important to the community as well. And as I've worked with the city manager and some of the other departments when we've talked uh regarding, you know, some of the enforcement down on the beach, it always is brought up that the we have to be very careful and sensitive to the lifeguards because their eyes need to stay on the water, you know, to do their job, right? Yes. You distract them and then you know you have a problem. Let's talk about the um recently the city council's decision to restrict the use of the pop-up canopies, and talk to us about the primary reason we've done that. There's a couple reasons. Um I think uh one of the most important reasons and kind of the catalyst for the discussion was to um maintain sight lines for our lifeguards. Our beaches um, and I'll just compare it to neighboring cities. So Huntington Beach and Newport, they have really wide beaches, um, meaning from shoreline to street. Um and and we don't have as much sand real estate as they do. So um it's very difficult when there's a lot of canopies or easy ups in the way for lifeguards to see the water, which is a safety issue. Um, and and that was kind of the start of the conversation um with council and and and um helped with the end result of the upcoming ordinance for umbrellas only, essentially. There are two zones um that have been um designated as canopy zones on Main Beach and at Aliso to provide people an option and they will be um delineated and and signage will be installed so so people understand what the new municipal code is. Um but it primarily from a lifeguards perspective, it's to preserve line of sight. Yes. So let's be clear about that so folks can get out the word. There are two designated beaches that the canopies are allowed now going into this summer, Main Beach and Aliso Beach. There's a a portion of each one of those beaches where they're allowed, and the rest of the uh beaches they are not allowed. That's correct. Okay, and so we just all need to work together to get out that word, and you guys are gonna have an interesting job this year uh enforcing that new ordinance. Um I I I think so. I think um as we approach summer, um we're gonna see uh quite a few people come to our beaches. It it coming off of the march that we just had, meaning um just the amount of crowds, the amount of people, the impact of our beaches, I'm assuming that summer is going to follow suit. And you know, my job, my primary job is to prepare our staff to combat that type of activity in in the most responsible, educational, um, safest way possible. So I I'm looking forward to it. I know it's gonna be a challenge, um, but but that's why we're here. That's why Marine Safety is here, to to make sure that everybody has a safe day. And I I appreciate that. And that's why I wanted to talk to you going into the summer, and also Chief Calvert, I'm going to talk to him. And I know it's frustrating for the community, and there's a lot of inconveniences. And like I said, and you just said, it's going, we both feel like it's going to be probably the busiest summer on record. And, you know, the only thing I can think of is we all need to work together and try to make it, you know, find solutions going forward. We're not going to have all of the perfect solutions, but we can continually try to manage it, right? I just believe everything that you do, if you manage it, it's going to be better than not managing it, right? It'll never be perfect, but you can at least manage it and um mitigate some of the impacts, and that's what my goal is. So I appreciate it and good luck this summer. Thank you. I appreciate it. Great. Thank you, everybody, and we'll talk soon.