Newport Beach hosts lifeguard tryouts Newport Beach...

Newport Beach hosts lifeguard tryouts

Newport Beach lifeguard tryouts were held Sunday near Newport Pier

to fill a number of vacant positions.

Forty-four hopefuls showed up to the pier early, and 41 made it to

the second event.

“We had a very successful and safe event,” said Lifeguard Lt. Boyd

Mickley.

Twenty-seven of the 41 people who tried out have been invited to a

109-hour training program where they are scored on a number of

different exercises.

All the points are then added up and a list is generated ranking

the attendees’ overall performance.

“We start hiring from the top of the list and work our way down,”

Mickley said.

The Newport Beach lifeguards will hire as needed, said Lifeguard

Capt. Jim Turner.

“We won’t know until the end of summer how many employees we’ll

need,” he said. “But we encourage those that made it into the

training program to also try at one of our neighboring agencies --

Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach. The Recreation Department was also

there trying to recruit people to be pool lifeguards or swim

instructors.”