{"id":421317,"date":"2026-08-02T01:55:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T01:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/421317\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T01:55:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T01:55:31","slug":"seabright-rescue-renews-push-to-recognize-lifeguards-as-first-responders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/421317\/","title":{"rendered":"Seabright rescue renews push to recognize lifeguards as first responders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seabright rescue renews push to recognize lifeguards as first responders<\/p>\n

A rescue at Seabright State Beach has reignited efforts to officially designate California’s open water lifeguards as first responders, with advocates emphasizing their critical role in public safety.<\/p>\n

\"Jazmon<\/a>SANTA CRUZ, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\n

A recent rescue at Seabright State Beach has brought renewed attention to efforts to officially recognize California’s open water lifeguards as first responders, a move advocates say would highlight their essential role in public safety. <\/p>\n

“To us, it’s a no-brainer. We should be first responders, but I think everyone else is starting to realize it,” said Marea Zlatun with Santa Cruz State Lifeguards Association.<\/p>\n

State Sen. John Laird said Ryder Williams’ advocacy following the rescue has helped amplify the push for recognition.<\/p>\n

“He advocated for it. It’s not a new idea, but he really advocated for it. And right now, with him getting an invite to the White House and everybody covering this rescue, he has the bully pulpit, and he has used the bully pulpit to say, we should do this. We should make lifeguards first responders, and I think everybody’s paying attention to this issue right now because of him,” Laird said. <\/p>\n

The Santa Cruz State Lifeguards Association said official recognition would validate the work lifeguards already perform daily. <\/p>\n

“These rescues that we’re performing every day, it’s not an anomaly. It’s our job. And we don’t look at ourselves as being heroes for doing our job. We are just doing our job, which is first responders responding first on scene,” said Zlatun.<\/p>\n

Beachgoers expressed their support for the idea.<\/p>\n

“They put their life on the line to save ours, so. And they’re the first ones to respond when something happens in the ocean. So, yeah, by definition, I think they are first responders,” one beachgoer said. <\/p>\n

“They’re the first to respond. So I think that. Yeah, they definitely should be,” another said. <\/p>\n

“It’s bravery, you know? And, you can’t train that right. So it takes a special person to be able to do that,” said another.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the effort said the designation could also address challenges with pay, benefits, and retaining experienced lifeguards.<\/p>\n

“That’s like one of our main issues is keeping people around because people love this job. Lifeguarding is the best job in the world, but it’s just not financially feasible for people to stick around a long time,” said Zlatun.<\/p>\n

Laird said the idea deserves consideration, but lawmakers have other proposals to address first. He suggested conducting a study to evaluate the feasibility of the change.<\/p>\n

“I think the best situation would be to adopt a bill that does the study that says, how would this work? How much would this cost? When would you trigger it? And then you could take the study and turn it into a bill to actually enact it, and you would know what the answers to many of these questions are,” Laird said. <\/p>\n

He expects lawmakers to revisit the proposal next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seabright rescue renews push to recognize lifeguards as first responders A rescue at Seabright State Beach has reignited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59826,54815,7,9,8,4416,16161,14680,4194,52873,52876,7834,103893,21661,168268,68690,168265,592,51868,168267,19639,166847,1498,5785,168269,27700,4743,168266,23613],"class_list":["post-421317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-advocates","tag-beachgoer","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-effort","tag-first-responder","tag-first-responders","tag-job","tag-john-laird","tag-laird","tag-lawmaker","tag-lifeguard","tag-lifeguards","tag-marea-zlatun","tag-new-idea","tag-open-water-lifeguard","tag-people","tag-push","tag-recent-rescue","tag-recognition","tag-ryder-williams","tag-santa-cruz","tag-seabright","tag-seabright-rescue","tag-senator","tag-study","tag-supports","tag-water-rescue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}