More than 1,200 lifeguards from across the United States are competing on central Fort Lauderdale Beach this week, sending a message to beachgoers: They don’t just sit around and look pretty.
Lifeguards have to pass an assortment of strength, agility, speed and first aid exams. Their jobs require endurance and discipline, as they not only rescue swimmers who are drowning. They revive people who have overdosed on drugs or suffered heart attacks on the beach. They get everyone out of the water when a rip current is coming. In Fort Lauderdale, they’ve been known to run on to Ocean Boulevard to help when there’s a car accident.
“People say to me, ‘What a cool job, you sit on the beach all day long,’ ” said Fort Lauderdale lifeguard Francesca Bongiovanni, who has guarded for 15 years. “There is so much more to our jobs than water incidents.”
Some lifeguards love their training so much they enter competitions to upgrade their already athletic talents, participating in rescue, rowing, swimming and relay races.
One of these showdowns, the U.S. Lifesaving Association’s National Lifeguard Championships, has taken over the city’s beach during the often-quiet August season, with colorful team tents, flagpoles, kayaks and loudspeakers set up at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park. The competition takes place annually in August, at beaches around the country, during Drowning Impact Awareness Month.
A disturbing number of child drowning deaths in the past two years has alarmed many Floridians. Last year, 120 children, a record-high, drowned in Florida, and 2026 appears headed in the same direction, with 74 fatalities reported by mid-July.
Florida leads the nation in child drowning deaths.
Chris Yoda, from Monmouth County, New Jersey, wins the beach flag as he goes up against Pompano Beach’s Mason Pizzo during the U.S. Lifesaving Association’s National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Many of the lifeguards interviewed at the championships said they regularly rescue people from the water who thought they could handle the ocean’s depth and currents and suddenly find themselves pulled under.
Lt. Gio Serrano of Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue’s Ocean Rescue Division said swimmers who get caught up in rip currents comprise most of the drowning rescues he has seen. Many of these beachgoers were “overconfident” in their swim abilities, he said.
Ramon Calvo, of Dania Beach Ocean Rescue, paddles his surfski to a semifinal qualifying finish on Wednesday, Aug. 5. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Lifeguards say they warn beach patrons to follow instructions and stay near their towers, but swimmers often wander out of the safe zone or intentionally disobey. To get through a rip current, Serrano recommended swimmers stay calm, tread water and look to their sides, where they may see waves breaking, a sign that they are near shallow water and can make their way to shore.
Serrano said he wants beachgoers to know lifeguards are full of tips such as these that can save them during a crisis.
More than 30 lifeguards are competing in the championships from Fort Lauderdale, which has 45 full-time and 55 part-time guards who staff 20 towers along 3 miles of beach. In the past year, the guards performed 300 water rescues and 65,000 preventive actions, such as blowing a whistle or stopping unsafe play, said Alexandra Bagwell, the city’s chief of Ocean Rescue, which serves as the event’s host.
Katherine Noel, of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, bests her competitors in beach flags during a championship event on Wednesday, Aug. 5. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Among the competitors is Fort Lauderdale lifeguard Gerson J. Caraballo Vicario, who said his favorite race is rowing.
“There is so much effort involved in rowing,” he said. “You have to navigate. You have to turn around. It’s a good way for the public to see we have skills. They don’t normally see this part of us.”
The races include a 2K beach run, surfskiing, run-swim-runs and an Ironman/Ironwoman course that includes swimming, a surfboard, a surfboat and a beach sprint.
Sash Hemmens, a competitor from Orange County, California, compared the rough Pacific Ocean where she works to the calm Atlantic Ocean at the championships, which she said resembled “a lake.”
Camille Newman, of Miami Beach Ocean Rescue, participates in the paddle relay race. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Ramon Calvo, of Dania Beach Ocean Rescue, paddles his surfski to a semifinal qualifying finish on Wednesday, Aug. 5. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Lifeguards paddle surfskis in the mens open division during the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Petak family, from left; Magnolia, 11, Maple, 13, Maeza, 9, Manna, 7, grandma Susan, and mom Amy watch the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. The two oldest girls competed in the junior division on Tuesday. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Kristen Ojito competes in the surfski race during the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Mason Pizzo, of Pompano Beach Ocean Rescue, beats out a competitor at the start of the beach flags event during the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Alice Henley, of Dania Beach, competing for Miami Beach Ocean Rescue, paddles in during the paddle relay race at the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Dan Lenahan, of Deerfield Beach ocean rescue, begins the run portion of the paddle relay race during the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Cyrus Writer, of Dania Beach Ocean Rescue, competes in the mens open division of the surfski race during the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Melaney Berns, of Sussex County, takes off with a pack of lifeguards during the beach flags event at the United States Lifesaving Association’s National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Josh Remaniak, of Sussex County, left, and Pompano Beach’s Jules Giroire battle it out in the beach flags competition during the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Lifeguards compete during the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Desi Stoyanova, of Miami Beach Ocean Rescue, competes in the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Ashlyn Roselle, of Sussex County, goes for a beach flag during the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Eva Davenport, of Carolina Beach, competes in the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Brayden Roberts, left, and Alexander Bailey, both of Emerald Coast, are shown during the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Lifeguards compete during the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Katherine Noel, of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, bests her competitors in beach flags during a championship event on Wednesday, Aug. 5. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Chris Yoda, from Monmouth County, New Jersey, wins the beach flag as he goes up against Pompano Beach’s Mason Pizzo during the U.S. Lifesaving Association’s National Lifeguard Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
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Camille Newman, of Miami Beach Ocean Rescue, participates in the paddle relay race. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
She came with her husband, Hayden Hemmens, who is also a lifeguard. They met at the championships in 2014.
She said beachgoers are mostly respectful and appreciate the work of lifeguards, although they typically don’t like when she tells them to get out of the water.
A native of South Africa, she said she gets paid more in the United States than in her native land, where she was also a guard. Still, she and her husband maintain a side business to make ends meet.
“There’s no money in this sport,” she said. “You have to have a passion for it.”
The United States Lifesaving Association’s National Lifeguard Championships are free and open to the public at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park, 1100 Seabreeze Blvd., from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Paid parking is available at the beach. Go to usla.org/events.