To the rescue: Junior lifeguards hone skills at competition training camp

The participants from Volusia and Flagler counties optimized their life-saving skills and sharpened their competitive edge.

  • By Michele Meyers
  • | 1:05 p.m. July 24, 2026
  • Ormond Beach Observer
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A blur of yellow and red rash guards and baggies flew toward an orange cone strategically placed on Ponce Inlet beach. The junior lifeguards and beach scouts were there to participate in the Volusia County Lifeguard Program’s final day of the competition training camp on July 10.

The program was started 46 years ago and has been used to educate local youth about water safety, lifesaving techniques and ocean ecology, according to the Volusia County website. Every summer, 300 to 400 kids try out, then, once qualified, attend one or more of the four camps. Campers must be 9 to 15 years old, be able to swim 100 yards in two minutes and 15 seconds or less, tread water for five minutes and swim underwater for 10 feet.

Junior lifeguard coordinator and EMT Hailey Monahan, who is also one of the public information officers, said the summer program serves as a major recruiting tool for the county and is one of the largest water safety programs in Florida.

Monahan is a Volusia County native. Born in DeLand, she was raised in boating, fishing and going to the beach with her family. She was on the swim team in high school when some of her friends decided to try lifeguarding. Monahan said she knew that helping people was important to her, so she tried out and got the job at 16. This is her second summer as the program coordinator.

“I like to run the program [because] I like to see the impact it has on the future generations of lifeguards.
— HAILEY MONAHAN, Junior Lifeguard Coordinator

“I like to run the program [because] I like to see the impact it has on the future generations of lifeguards,” she said. “It’s really important to have lifeguards out on our beach in Volusia County. I’m getting to inspire these kids that want to come to work for us. It’s pretty cool to see kids that were 9 and 10 years old that started with me and now they’re my helpers.”

Tryouts are held on multiple dates in May, followed by four camps scheduled for three weeks in June and the second week of July. The competition training camp is scheduled last and helps junior lifeguards prepare for the United States Lifesaving Association’s Junior Regional and National competitions. Regionals were held in Gulf Shores, Alabama, on July 13, and junior nationals will be at Fort Lauderdale on Aug. 4.

The last day of camp is a plethora of lifeguard-racing staples: the iron guard, run-swim-run, rescue relay and beach flags. These combine the core elements of surf lifesaving techniques and hone competitive skills.

Auggie Lindemann competed in A Group, 13- to 15-year-olds, and placed first in three of the events and third in beach flags. He said he comes from a family of swimmers. His brother Eli was an ocean rescue lifeguard in District 4 in New Smyrna Beach, where his sister, Maddie, is currently a lifeguard.

“I just love being at the beach, hearing the waves and just being in the water,” he said. “Sometimes I feel more comfortable in the water than on land.”

Monahan said 10 to 20 of the junior lifeguards will be heading to junior nationals to compete. As the event approaches, she said the exact number of athletes attending will be known.

“I think we have some really incredible athletes,” she said. “We’ve got a handful of them that we’ve been coaching on the side, and we’ve been inviting them to some lifeguard practices. We have a team tryout to get some more work in before nationals, but this week was the big push to get ready.”

Lifeguards Gavin Ziegler and Faith Neal helped Monahan run the four-week program. Ziegler wants more kids to learn about becoming junior lifeguards at a younger age. He started lifeguarding at 18, but said he would have loved to start earlier.

“The focus of this camp is to bring more eyes to the sport and help spread interest,” Ziegler said. “Start kids at a younger age; that way, they grow up and are inspired to be lifeguards.”

Neal said Fourth of July weekend proved to her that there is a shortage of lifeguards.

“This camp’s important for competition, and as a summer camp for our community, but at the end of the day, it’s really important that we get lifeguards out of it because we’re short-staffed,” she said.

Monahan said she is motivated to introduce kids to a new sport and inspire them to get involved in the junior lifeguard program.

Fourteen-year-old Gabby Chavez said she has been going to the camp for three years and hopes to follow in her dad’s footsteps. Her father, Manuel Chavez, was a lifeguard in Volusia County for three years and went to the USLA National Competition with the team in the late 1990s.

“Lifeguarding was a great part of my life growing up,” he said. “I was lucky enough to be able to guard with great people. One of the best things I’ve ever done. I hope that all these kids get to enjoy it. They’re out in the ocean learning about everything from animals to the currents to the waves. They’re in shape. They’re out in the sun, and they’re not on some kind of phone or iPad.”

Monahan hopes the junior lifeguards take away a passion for lifeguarding and a healthy respect for the ocean.

“Being able to have an impact on them, to teach them about the dangers of the ocean and how to recognize and help someone in distress is really cool and also very important,” she said.

 

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