She\u2019s been swimming against the tide her whole life \u2014 and she\u2019s not stopping now.<\/p>\n
The Big Apple\u2019s first female chief lifeguard is calling on the city to do more to keep beachgoers safe \u2014 claiming it\u2019s done a \u201cpoor job\u201d interpreting a local law designed to prevent drownings.<\/p>\n
Janet Fash, who started out helping to protect Rockaway Beach in 1979 and continued for 40 years, told The Post that for too long, the city has focused its lifeguards on patrolling only certain areas rather than spreading them out and opening more beaches.<\/p>\n
Janet Fash helped protect New York City\u2019s beaches as a lifeguard for around 40 years. Facebook\/Janet Fash<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York City still hasn\u2019t figured that out, and you know what, it\u2019s not like they haven\u2019t been told,\u201d Fash, 66, recently said by phone from her home in the Rockaways.<\/p>\n
Under city law, at least one lifeguard is required to be present for \u201ccontinuous visual surveillance for reach 50 yards of beachfront or fraction thereof\u201d \u2014 meaning there must be one lifeguard for every 50 yards of beach open for swimming or bathing.<\/p>\n
Fash, the author of a new memoir \u201cLifeguard:<\/a> <\/a>A Love Story,\u201d<\/a> said the city has done \u201cpoor job\u201d of following the law by unnecessarily doubling or tripling up lifeguards in certain areas, leaving other beaches closed.<\/p>\n That means certain stretches get overpopulated and that some beachgoers are then more apt seek out less used spots, even if it means swimming unsupervised.<\/p>\n \u201cNew York City has really done a poor job of interpreting that law,\u201d Fash said. \u201cThey\u2019ll put the lifeguards even on rock jetties, on a chair, while the next [section over, involving] 10 beaches, [is] closed, creating drowning opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n