Junior Lifeguards East Bay Parks
My 5th grade son is really into water. He is on swim team and we boogie board together a lot. I know the state parks has a really cool junior lifeguard program at various spots on the coast, but coming from the northeast bay, going to Half Moon Bay (the closest one) is a tall order. I see the East Bay Parks has a junior lifeguards at Temescal and Lake Anza. Has anyone had experience with this? My son will be 11, trying to see if this would be a good fit. I also see that UC Berkeley Aquatic Park has paddleboard camps - any experience with those? Also if anyone has other ideas for water based camps (he is already on swim team, so he doesn't necessarily need more pool time, but ocean and lake ideas welcome!)
Nov 8, 2022
Parent Replies
Yes, my now-14-year-old daughter did it for a few summers (during her elementary & middle school years) and really enjoyed it. A friend of hers also ended up doing it too and they loved it even more! (The first time was with her, and then later on they went on their own, even after my kid stopped wanting to participate.) I highly recommend them. The lifeguards were great (except for one "bad hire" one summer - but I was able to talk to the lead counselor about that situation; that counselor was then retrained on how to work with kids) and the kids had a blast. I think we ended up doing one session at Cull Canyon, one at Temescal, and one at Lake Anza. All were fantastic.
~Mailisha