Junior Lifeguards at EB Regional Parks
- See also: Lifeguard Classes
East Bay Regional Parks Junior Lifeguards is a fun, challenging program with a variety of beach and water activities. Crown Beach, Contra Loma, Lake Anza, Cull Canyon, Shadow Cliffs. This year we'll be offering 3 different programs under the Junior Lifeguard umbrella: Junior Lifeguards (ages 8-12), Aides (ages 13-15), and Junior Cadet (ages14-17).
Parent Q&A
Parent Reviews
Parents, please Sign in to post a review on this page.I think EB Regional Parks has a junior lifeguard camp in Alameda the next couple of weeks!
The East Bay Regional Parks system has many opportunities to learn life guarding skills, starting with their Junior Life Guard summer camp program, and going up into more advanced instruction for older teens. My son has been doing this for years and actually learned quite a few triage skills as a pre-teen. He's now 14 and an aid, which is like a CIT. I know there are older kids who get more intense training. It might be a little late for your son for this summer, but I encourage others who are interested to look into this program. It's well run. And, most importantly, they work hard to make it FUN, which is a big plus for my son.
Archived Q&A and Reviews
Junior Lifeguard camp through the East Bay Regional Parks
May 2011
I'm looking for feedback on the Junior Lifeguard camp through the East Bay Regional Parks. My 10 year old daughter is gung-ho, and an excellent swimmer, but my 9 year old son is not as enthusiastic. He is not as good a swimmer (but will easily pass the 25-yard swim test), and I'm thinking of pushing him to do it to get more comfortable in the water. Is it fun? Is it intense? Better for the 11-13 age range? Thanks! Melissa
My daughter attended the Junior Lifeguard camp at Lake Anza several years ago. It was very instructional and also very fun. The hard part was arriving in the early morning wind and fog and getting in the water. I think there were games in the afternoon. . . -Bee
My kids did Junior Lifeguard camp at Lake Temescal for a couple of summers -- it was a great camp for the older one (at ages 11 and 12), and I found it hard to find camps she liked at that age. Younger one, 9 and 10 when she went, liked it less, possibly because there were fewer kids that age, but she was okay with it. It fell into the category of ''camps I loved and my kids were okay with'' -- they work on swimming and fitness and learn some basic first aid and rescue skills; they get to hang out with cool lifeguards all day; they're in a beautiful place. (Every morning at dropoff I wistfully wished I could spend all day at the lake.) I also appreciated that it's reasonably priced and scheduled week by week so there's flexibility. Kathy
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