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THURSDAY, JULY 4, 2013FIVE QUESTIONS WITH KYLE LINDO...RETIRINGBY AARON ORLOWSKIORANGE COUNTY REGISTERLIFEGUARD CHIEFHunting Beach Lifeguard Chief Kyle Lindo, 53, retired last month after 27 years as a city lifeguard, 11 of those as lifeguard chief. Like most lifeguards, he says, he got into lifeguarding because he needed a summer job. It quickly became so much more.With his official responsibilities behind him, Lindo is looking forward to spending more time with his 9-year-old son, Noah, who is already enrolled in the Huntington Beach Junior Lifeguards program, plus a myriad of sports. Driving Noah from soccer to cross country to book club will take up much of dad’s post-retirement time.The Register sat down with Lindo recently to touch on the high and low points of his long career.Q. What was the happiest or proudest moment of your career?A. It’s a small group of lifeguards. It’s large in that we have 120 seasonal lifeguards, but there are only 13 permanent lifeguards, so it’s like a family. We’ve all been here. It sounds odd and maybe staggering to say I’ve been here 27 years, but all the permanent lifeguards have all been here that long.... You create family-like bonds.0. How has the Huntington Beach Lifeguard programchanged over your 27 years?A. I remember in my lifeguard training we used to actually have to get a partner and lip-lock for CPR training. We didn’t have mannequins. I remember people having significant lacerations and surfboard injuries where you could see bone and blood, and you just put your hand on it and applied pressure. No gloves. No gauze. So now you don’t do that without putting gloves on. You don’t do CPR without putting a mask on. But the core of how we protect people, the perimeter defense system and being a good backup to your teammate, those things haven’t changed at all.0. What was the gnarliest experience you've had as a lifeguard?A. I could joke and say it was the last budget meeting I had, but it’s a tough career and you see a lot of really horrific things. I’ve seen suicides and drownings. It’s that first fatality that you come upon that you have to deal with. The toughest thing, as a chief, is to help your own staff when they have their own first incident. We’re hiring people that are 16, 17 years old and they have to respond to a suicide or a drowning and it’s really hard for them. For some people, they really don’t get through it. Some people decidethey don’t want to work as a lifeguard.0. What kind of legacy do you hope to leave behind?A. Most people have no idea what lifeguards do, that at our 3.5 miles of beach we rescue more than 4,000 people from drowning every year. People don’t know that we do underwater search and recovery, that we are deputized peace officers. We do a myriad of emergency medical technician procedures. We are jacks of all trade of public safety. Most people think, oh you’re a lifeguard so you must be some kid that sits in a tower and just watches people, but youPHOTOS: HANNAH POTES, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTERNoah Lindo, 9, hugs his father, Kyle Lindo, at Huntington Beach. Noah is following in his father footsteps and is involved in the Huntington Beach Junior Lifeguards.■y«\Hvjr\ey ^X'__Kyle Lindo has retired from Huntington Beach after 27 years as a lifeguard, 11 years of those years as chiefare responsible for a lot. I’ve tried to spend time educating people. Hopefully that would be my legacy.0. What will you miss most about being a lifeguard?A. It’s the locker room. You see it in pro sports -the professional athletes they don’t really miss the game so much as they miss their teammates. I’m fortunate in that I’m passing the torch a little bit; I’m still down here every day. A lot of our permanent lifeguards have their kids in the junior guards program and we interact and socialize.- Interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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Fullerton News Tribune
Fullerton, California, US
Thu, Jul 04, 2013
Page 38
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