Inside Newport Beach's Legendary Junior Guards Program | Monster Mile, Pier Jump & More
What is the Newport Beach Junior Guards program really like? In this episode of Duffy Chats, Newport Beach Lifeguard Training Captain and Newport Beach Junior Guards Program Supervisor Gary Conwell takes us inside one of Southern California's most respected and coveted summer youth programs.
A Newport Beach native, Gary shares his journey from spending seven summers as a Newport Beach Junior Guard to becoming a lifeguard at age 16 and ultimately leading the very program that helped shape his life. Along the way, he discusses growing up in Newport Beach, playing water polo at Newport Harbor High School, competing at UC Berkeley, and returning home to serve the community he loves.
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Gary, welcome aboard. We're so glad to have you on our Duffy boat out on the harbor today. It's a beautiful day. I'm going to let Mandy get started, and we're going to dig into your history here.
Oh, boy.
Gary, we know you're a Newport native. Can you take us back to your childhood? Where did you grow up? Where'd you go to high school? And then how did you get to where you are now?
Gary: Wow. How much time do I have? Let's go here. All right. Back to 1980, the good old days. Born and raised in Newport at Hoag Hospital. Grew up in Corona del Mar, went to Harbor View Elementary.
I decided to transfer over to the other side of the bay after playing water polo with some soccer friends in elementary school and junior high, and went to Newport Harbor and played water polo there.
In the middle of that, I decided it was a great idea to continue my Junior Lifeguard profession. I grew up doing Junior Lifeguards as well. Just a few things, plus all the sports going on. Looking back, it was a busy youth — playing outside, water polo, soccer, baseball, you name it. All of us were doing it.
That kind of guided me through some of my childhood into high school. Lifeguarding was that passion that I thought about when I was 16. So I tried out, became a lifeguard, did water polo, and in the summers I lifeguarded. Then I traveled to a little small town called Berkeley up in the Bay Area and got accepted to play water polo at Berkeley. I played there for about two and a half years, graduated in four, and decided I wanted to come back down to the best place on earth, Newport Beach.
It's hard to resist coming back.
Gary: Hard to resist this place. I mean, you look around today, it's beautiful all year.
That's why we're here.
Gary: Absolutely. It was a pretty awesome youth growing up in this place. I don't think I realized when I was young that this place was so awesome.
Do you remember how old you were when you did the pier jump?
Gary: The pier jump? Yeah, you can jump off the pier as a lifeguard or Junior Lifeguard. We don't jump off the bridges anymore. That's a hot topic in Newport.
So once you came back, tell us what you were doing when you came back into Newport and how you got to where you are today.
Gary: That's a great question. I thought I knew what I wanted to do as soon as I came back, but lifeguarding is only a part-time sport essentially in the summer.
There were a lot of us that wanted to get hired full-time. There were no openings. So I ended up working with my dad. He owned a boat business, Larson Shipyard, and then he created his own inflatable boat tender service business. So I worked for him in the marine industry for a few years.
Then a job opening came up as a lifeguard. I was working on the rescue boats at the time. In 2004, that opening came up. I tested, and in 2005, I got the nod and got hired full-time as a lifeguard officer. That’s the entry-level full-time position we have in our department.
At that point, I knew lifeguarding was a great job, but I didn’t know it was a career. I had no idea that I would get chosen for that position. I was a substitute teacher also. I was kind of making ends meet, like a lot of people in a Lifeguard 2 position — essentially a boat operator, dispatcher, or beach patrol unit. There’s only so far you can go and so many hours you can work until you get full-time.
We have 200 seasonal staff and 15 of us are full-time. Very few opportunities.
For kids watching, what are the steps they need to take to get into your position? Strong swimming obviously, but what else?
Gary: The key to life is timing a lot of the time. It was that for me. There have been opportunities for people to come in, but it really is timing, hard work, and supporting your team.
We always say hard work and support your team, because that’s what it is. No one person is doing one thing. We’re all working together to create the common goal of getting people home safely at the end of the day and teaching people about beach and ocean safety.
I bet it's like a family too.
Gary: Yeah, we argue, we laugh, we do all the things. We spend a lot of time with one another over the course of 30, 35, 40 years.
Do you guys stay overnight?
Gary: Thank goodness we get to go home at the end of the night. We do work for the fire department. We’re a division underneath the fire department — fire operations, EMS, lifeguard operations — and we work year-round with the sun.
In summer, we start at 7 a.m. and work until 10 p.m. In winter, we’re there until 6:00. We ebb and flow with seasonal staff through the year. In summer, every tower is open. In wintertime, it’s me driving the truck around the beach. So I get the best of both worlds.
When did you advance into the position you’re in now? Can you talk about what you’re doing today in the training position?
Gary: In our department, we have lifeguard officer, which is kind of a utility position. Then you have a supervisor position, and each beach — West Newport, Balboa, Corona del Mar, and the rescue boats — has a captain.
Then we have a training division, which is a whole other animal. That pertains to Junior Lifeguards and all of our training, which is constantly moving, ebbing, and flowing with our part-time and full-time staff.
We run two academies: one to enter as a lifeguard and one to have an elevated position as a seasonal truck driver, dispatcher, or boat operator. Then we have a recertification program. Each of our captains takes an aspect of training and runs with it. I oversee those operations, scheduling, staffing, and that also correlates to Junior Lifeguards.
We all know that’s the best program in the world.
It is.
Gary: It’s an incredible program. It really is.
When did you start this training captain position?
Gary: I started this training captain position in 2024.
That was when the new facility opened, right?
Gary: Yes. The backstory on the facility started with the Junior Lifeguard Foundation, President Graham Harvey, and a lot of former instructors. They started that idea probably in 2010.
You think about the 16-year journey of that idea. It started back then, gained steam, got donors, and finally got enough support to go to the Coastal Commission and get it approved with the city. They started building in 2021 or 2022.
Like any construction project, it went longer than assumed. I got in, and we were wondering where we were going to have the program in the summer of 2024. Two weeks before, we got to move in.
We had a great celebration. A lot of people showed up — former lifeguards, instructors, the mayor, city people. It was incredible, and it’s been incredible.
Do you know when the Junior Lifeguard program actually started?
Gary: The program started in 1984. Interesting quick story about that: Renee Boyer came from Huntington Beach. Thank goodness.
We stole her from Huntington Beach, as they say. She had started a program there, and Newport saw that and said, “Hey, would you come down and do that?”
I was four at the time, so I wasn’t part of the conversation. But essentially, she came down and created the program in a single-wide trailer at A Street. There were 30 or 40 people the first year.
It was basically if you wanted to do it, it was almost free. I don’t know what the cost was. Like everything, it changes over time. Fast forward, and we have 1,500 this year.
The essence of the program is still very much the same. It’s about beach safety and ocean safety. Renee had the vision to create something that had never been done before. Each year, it gained more and more traction.
When I did it, there were about 500 or so Junior Lifeguards. I won’t say exactly when I was in it, but it was in the late ’80s, early ’90s.
Is there a max capacity?
Gary: Yes, there is. Our max capacity was hit this year, and it was a surprise to us and to a lot of people.
For the first time in our history, we hit the cap, and that’s 1,500. Through our swim testing, we had over 1,650 kids successfully pass the swim test, which is the key to entering the program.
Back when I did it, you did one test and then you were in. We brought back treading water, which is an important skill when you’re in the water.
A lot of it is also how we group kids. It’s very important. We know you can swim, but we want you to pass. Kids are practicing, swimming, and doing the work. That’s what we want to see, and we want to see them continue that all the way up to summer.
We want kids together in the water so we can keep track of them.
What’s the age group? How young can you be, and when do you age out?
Gary: You have to be 9 years old by June 30 of the year the program starts. This year, in 2026, you have to be 9 by June 30. That’s our age cutoff. Then it goes all the way up to 15.
For people watching who aren’t familiar with the program, can you give us a broad overview? How do they get into it? Who is it designed for? What should they expect?
Gary: It’s an amazing experience. It really is magical.
People ask us, “How do you do it?” I’m not out there teaching every day, but I’m taking care of the instructors and the parents. A lot of the administration falls on us.
But the real magic of the program is the instructors and the knowledge that’s passed down year after year. We don’t have instructors from the first few years anymore, but that knowledge is passed down — learning about the beach, learning how to go under a wave, learning how to swim, competing, having fun.
There’s even a written test at the end. As lifeguards, we educate, train, prevent, and rescue. We want to provide all four of those things to our Junior Lifeguards as well.
On the first day, they’re doing name games and learning about one another. Then they form squad lines, learn whistle drills, and follow the instructor’s lead.
If there’s a large group of waves coming in, they’ve got to get out of the water or swim away from the beach. The shore break is very dynamic down there. It can be dangerous, but it can also be very nice to get through the surf line quickly and go out and do the activities.
We need an adult program too.
Gary: We’re working on that this summer. It’s going to be invite-only. We don’t have it solidified yet, but we are working on an invite-only “Be a Lifeguard for a Day” sort of program. We might do one day this summer, maybe two.
We’re always looking to adapt, change, and do more things. As lifeguards, we’re always out in the public. We’re one of the departments most seen throughout the year on the beach doing things. We’re comfortable in the public and comfortable speaking for the most part.
When you’re 16, maybe not as much. I wasn’t looking to be in the limelight at that point. But these instructors, I remember my instructors from when I was a Junior Lifeguard. I remember all their names and what age I was when I had them. I couldn’t remember my teacher at that age, no offense to teachers.
In elementary school, it was all about Junior Lifeguards and what was going on that summer. It’s really a program. The program is a rite of passage. It’s incredible because we do a lot of the same things each year, but we build on safety and reinforce safety.
Tell us about some of the signature events, like Monster Mile.
Gary: The Monster Mile was created by Renee when I was in the program in 1992. That was the first year of the Monster Mile.
Is Renee still around?
Gary: Yes, she’s in Hawaii. I’ve seen her there when we get away from work once in a while. She still comes around here too. She has family and friends who still live here.
Can you explain Monster Mile for anyone who doesn’t know what it is?
Gary: Absolutely. In our seven-week program, every day is a big day for the kids.
The Monster Mile is probably the biggest cohesive event we do because everyone shows up from 10:00 to 1:00. Everyone in the program is there, and pretty much every parent. It’s exciting and also very daunting as the program safety leader and coordinator.
The event itself is actually two miles, so it’s Monster Miles, if you will. Essentially, each division — boys and girls — divides up. They start under the pier and run all the way down to 10th Street, which is about a mile. Then they go out around a buoy and swim back. So it’s a mile run and a mile swim.
If you don’t want to swim, we have an optional run back as well.
It’s all hands on deck. We have 45 instructors, myself and two other staff members, three boats, a jet ski, paddlers, lifeguards in the water, CERT members from the community, volunteers, and an additional 25 lifeguards there just for safety that day.
In the water team, it’s about 100 people, and we get about 1,200 kids doing the event every year. We might have the most ever this year.
Do parents participate?
Gary: You can participate by yelling as loud as you want on the pier or on the beach, but no running.
A lot of the parents group up by the pier and line the finish. The kids go through the pier and into the finish line. We have a big finish setup that we design every year, and it’s all instructor-built.
We come up with the design early in the year based on what the uniforms are going to be like. We incorporate the T-shirt and the whole day into a theme.
Each week, we give the kids a little seed of what the theme is going to be. Then about two weeks before, we say, “Okay, you’ve got the theme. Go home, get dressed, get your parents dialed in.” That’s the participation part the parents really like to be part of.
Tell us about the pier jump.
Gary: The pier jump is a purely fun but stressful event for us as well as the kids.
For a 9-year-old, it can feel like 100 feet. In reality, it’s about 20 to 25 feet. Kids only for the pier jump.
If kids don’t want to participate or they’re scared, we work with the instructor, the group leader, and sometimes we come in and talk to the kids beforehand. Once they’re up on the pier, they line up in groups. There’s someone at the gate. We do a practice jump on the sand, and then they go out there and jump off the pier.
You look at the horizon, hands next to your body. You don’t want to be flying out there and slapping the water. They just jump in, and it’s fairly quick.
This year, spoiler alert, we’re going to try to do a picture for each kid who jumps off the pier. That’s our goal.
With technology and the photography company, drones, and everything else, we’ll probably have that. We also have a drone with our program that we use for Monster Mile and large-scale swimming events like the pier swim.
Safety is our number one priority. We always have plenty of people around, ready for any incident, whether it’s a kid getting hurt, a fish bite, or a sting.
We’re therapists, lifeguards, teachers, pseudo-parents — all the things.
How long is the program?
Gary: For me, the program is all year round. But for Junior Lifeguards, it’s seven weeks long. It’s four days a week, Monday through Thursday, with two sessions: 9 to 12 and another session. We also have a few Friday events and the Grey Lundy Iron Man on a Saturday, usually in mid-July.
That’s one of our other signature events. It’s a really neat event and close to me. I was friends with Grey Lundy. He passed away on the pool deck when he was 15 during water polo practice at Newport Harbor.
His dad was one of the proponents of the Junior Lifeguard program, and his oldest son, who’s now a fire captain, was in the very first year of the program. They have a long-standing tradition with the program.
That event was originally just called the Iron Man. You did it when you thought, “I can do something really hard.” It starts from the Santa Ana River and used to go all the way to the Wedge, and then you had to walk back. We got smart and changed it to G Street, which is about halfway.
You run all the way back to the Balboa Pier, and between both piers, you do two swims around the buoys. It’s our most grueling, longest event.
We don’t get a lot of kids to do it, but we get the ones who are water polo players or who want to try something really hard. That’s the one parents can actually do as well.
Any other events you want to shout out?
Gary: Opening day is a big one. Opening day for anything is always big. It’s a big hoopla, a lot of fun, and a lot of excitement.
We’re blessed to have a new building and a lot of great equipment for the program that we allow the kids to use. It’s really nice to be supported in the community. There’s nothing like this program in the city or in SoCal. Other agencies have great programs too, but Newport Beach is special.
We also have Picnic in the Park. That used to be called Hot Dog Dinner. We used to put fruit punch in trash cans and drink out of Dixie cups. Instructors would cook hot dogs, and there were games you probably couldn’t play now, like pillow fights and pommel horse.
We’re trying to bring back a little bit of that old tradition. We’re not cooking, but we want to bring back some of that feeling. Bring your dessert, let the kids run around in the park, play some music, and have a good time.
Any insider tips for parents about pickup, drop-off, or anything else?
Gary: Don’t drive into the lot.
When you think about how many kids we have, it’s about three elementary schools all dropping off at the same time. I would avoid the parking lot at all costs.
A lot of kids ride bikes. People drop off and pick up at different locations — Balboa Island, taking the ferry across. We have ferry rules. We work with them closely. We work with the police department on traffic control and volunteers.
We get a lot of complaints about bikes because that’s a big mode of transportation, especially e-bikes and safety issues. We’re following the municipal code and California code, and we’re messaging that out in spring and summer.
Ultimately, we don’t have enforcement authority, but we do the best we can. If there are disciplinary issues and someone sends us a Ring camera video or something, it’s pretty easy to tell they’re a Junior Lifeguard when they’re wearing the gear. So we deal with that accordingly.
We want people to have fun, but we want them to be safe. If they’re breaking the law, that’s another issue. We bring the parents in and talk to them, just like any school would.
Those are our biggest safety issues to and from. For transportation, drop off early or you’re going to be late. And if they’re late, they do push-ups.
That’s not corporal punishment. It’s just part of the program. If you’re late as a lifeguard, you’re late. Someone drowns when you’re not at the tower. That’s a big deal. We want our Junior Lifeguards to be on time early.
My boss always said, “If you’re on time, you’re late.” So we have that discipline. If you’re late, you do push-ups, then you go sit down for morning announcements.
We also invoke the Y word, which is “yes.” We want everyone to say yes. If you say “yeah” or “yep,” you do push-ups. As instructors, we have to relearn that every summer too. If instructors mess up, they do 20 push-ups. Kids do 10.
After the first day, everybody comes in and they’re wiped out, but they learn quickly.
Can you outline the process of getting your kid into the program?
Gary: The whole Junior Guard system is amazing on the back end. Parents are on it. They start in September with swim lessons three times a week. It’s a year-round thing for a lot of families.
My son is six, and we started swim lessons with him when he was three or four. He’s outgrown our pool now, but we want him swimming. It’s part of what I grew up with. We’re surrounded by water, and it’s a great skill to have.
Parents take it seriously, and that’s why we start our stuff early in January. You can go in and create your new account or update your account with all your new information. Then families start thinking, “Okay, I need to re-up swim lessons or join a program.”
By March, when we have our swim tests, the kids are ready to go. We give them five opportunities to have a successful swim. If they don’t make it in those five, they have to come back next year.
Where are the swim tests held?
Gary: Generally, it’s wherever we can get in. Corona del Mar has kind of been the spot. We’ve been at Costa Mesa before. Newport is a district pool, so it’s harder to get in there with teams going.
What are the swim times?
Gary: The D’s, which are 9-year-olds, have to pass at 1:50 or below.
The C’s, 10 and 11-year-olds, have to pass at 1:45.
The B’s, 12 and 13-year-olds, have to pass at 1:40.
The A’s, 14 and 15-year-olds, have to pass at 1:35.
Once they pass, are they automatically in?
Gary: Historically, if you passed your test, you were in the program. Now that we have a cap, there are limitations on what we can do as a program and how many kids we can safely hold in that space.
We’ve had a cap for five years, but we’ve never had to use it until now. I didn’t think we were going to get there this year, though I thought we might in the next few years.
The town is growing. People are moving to Southern California and want to be here. That’s the nature of what we’re contending with now.
Registration is by payment timestamp. It’s like trying to get concert tickets. If you’re returning and you have the AM, it may not be as big of a deal. But this year, because we messaged out that we might be at capacity, people were doubling up and paying twice because they wanted to make sure they got in. That nervousness happens because it’s important.
The sun’s always out in the PM, by the way.
Do kids usually go through every year from 9 to 15?
Gary: Some do. You can go through seven years of the program from age 9 to 15.
When kids are 9, that age group is one age group, and we have about 280 kids in that group. The biggest group is always the C’s, which are 10 and 11. Some kids don’t make it at 9, or they want to do it at 10 because their friends are doing it.
Then at the next age break, the B’s, we have a little drop-off. Some kids just do it when they’re C’s. Some are one and done. But mainly, we get them for the first three years.
The B’s are 12 and 13. Some of them are like, “We’re too cool. We want to do other stuff, ride our bikes around.” But others get really competitive. They do harder things, like the B Bonsai, which is a great event. It’s as many times as they can jump off the pier and cycle through a buoy swim.
The A’s are 14 and 15. That group is smaller, about 100 or so. It’s really important for our feeder programs. They’re competitive, on their own, and report to a different area. A lot of swimmers, a lot of surfers. They’re becoming adolescents, and they like being alone a little more.
They do more field trips, and they’re the ones who may want to become lifeguards. In our academy this year, we had a group of 50, and about 35 of them were Junior Guards, whether from Newport, Huntington, or somewhere else. That pipeline is huge. It’s like the minor league system.
Have you seen kids go through the program and come back to work for the lifeguard program like you did?
Gary: Absolutely. We have a lot of A’s who end up doing the academy. We just finished the academy last Sunday, and I actually want to take a straw poll to see who was an A in Junior Lifeguards and how that correlated to our final number.
Not everybody passes our academy, and then we hire a certain amount from there.
Is there anything we left out that you feel is important to mention?
Gary: There’s always something. You asked about the Parent Pier Jump, right?
The hat I’m wearing is Ben Carlson. There are two really important events that correlate with that family and that person.
I was with Ben driving him on the rescue boat about 12 years ago. This will be the 12th anniversary. He was my deckhand that day. He jumped off the boat to save someone and didn’t make it back to the boat.
We searched for him for three and a half hours and found him later that evening. There was a wonderful celebration of life, a lot of learning, a lot of sorrow, and also a lot of growth in our profession as lifeguards.
He really brought a lot of awareness to what we do as Junior Lifeguards and as lifeguards. He was a Junior Lifeguard instructor as well. He pushed the A’s really hard to be great because he was very driven and a great waterman.
We created a foundation in his name with his family and closest friends. This is the logo we wear and stand by. I wear this hat a lot because it’s navy blue and goes with my uniform, but also because it’s special.
The Ben Carlson Foundation created a memorial fund for scholarships. They also got a statue built by his brother-in-law right by our building, looking out on the ocean. He takes care of us, and we take care of the foundation, the family, and lifeguards.
Ben created this event called the Pier to Wedge to Pier in his spare time at lunch. He didn’t want lunch — he would just go do an event by himself. He would swim the pier, run to the Wedge from A Street and back, and then swim again. He called it a workout. Most of us would call it an event.
He did it with the kids in the program too. That’s the type of person he was. We do that event with all the kids on either his birthday or the day he passed, depending on where it falls in the program.
We honor him that way, and the kids learn about him. All the instructors know about him. We talk about him in our academy and in Junior Lifeguards. It’s important for us to keep the legend alive.
The foundation gives out scholarships every year. They do the Ben Did Go Paddle. They support us. It’s an incredible foundation and really neat to be part of.
They’ve also done the Parent Pier Jump the last three years to raise money for scholarships.
The last few years, we’ve given out scholarships for the program. We started with three, then went up to 12, then 18, and this year we’re probably going to be over 20.
The Ben Carlson Foundation also gives out college scholarships. They started with 10, and I think they’re at 20 now.
For the Parent Pier Jump, the parents can come down, pay money, and it goes to scholarships. We provide the safety, and they get to jump off by themselves as adults. If you did it when you were a kid, you can do it legally now.
Is the Parent Pier Jump during the seven-week program?
Gary: Yes. I don’t have the date fully set yet. They’re working on the permit, but it will be after the kids jump. I don’t want the parents jumping first. We want the kids to get all the credit.
What’s the challenge moving forward?
Gary: The challenge is growth. The number of people wanting to get into the program is growing, and that’s something we have to consider and figure out.
When you put a cap on something, it’s obviously not fair to those who don’t get in. So how do we accommodate? What do we change? Do we make the swim times stricter? All those things we’re talking about now so we can prepare for next year.
We want the program to live on and have tradition, but we also need it safe and manageable. Logistically, it’s very hard. The beach has a lot of people on it. We can’t close the beach down. We can use the park, but how do we run events?
We’ve tried several things. What we do next year is still TBD. We’ll see how the summer goes.
We do have an attendance policy. It used to be two days of the first seven. Now it’s three. We understand summer has a lot going on, but that’s our requirement.
We also have a safety day for those who can’t meet that requirement. They have an individual three-hour session with an instructor and run through what they missed and what to expect the next week. Then the next week, every day has to be attended so they’re up to speed by the third week.
It takes a village. Cynthia Heratus, our program coordinator, runs a ton of the backend stuff that’s never seen. She doesn’t like the limelight, but I have to give credit to her. She’s been doing this for 12 years.
A lot of our instructors have been there about that long. We do lose instructors every year, but we replace them and the program goes on.
I’m very blessed to be part of it, to come back all these years later and lead the charge.
Well, thank you for sharing your journey and everything about the behind-the-scenes of the program. Thank you for all that you do, and your entire team, not only for the program, but for keeping people safe.
Gary: Thank you. Happy to be here. Thank you for the invite.
My favorite question before you leave: if you have a Duffy boat, or if you could have a Duffy boat, what would you name it?
Gary: Oh boy, that’s a tough question. There are so many good ones out there.
I went to my kids to name our boat. My son named our dinghy Coconut, so that one’s out.
My daughter’s name is Avalon, and that means a special place for us because we go to Catalina a lot.
But there was a Duffy a long time ago, and my dad had a shipyard that was named Eat My Shorts. It had Bart Simpson on it. I grew up watching The Simpsons. So if I could take that name and put it on — maybe pay for that name or copyright or something — Eat My Shorts.
Maybe Avalon. Or Captain Current. That’s cute. Very lifeguardy. Very electric boat.
I drive by and see the names and think, “Darn it, I should have thought of that one.”
Well, thank you for joining us. It’s been fun.
Gary: What a pleasure..