'The stuff of legends' keeps vigil at Sunset

By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer

His boss calls him "the stuff of legends."

Lifeguard Brendan Shea paddles in the paddleboard event at the 12th annual Hawaiian International Ocean Challenge at Makapu'u Beach, where he placed 4th in the event. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

His lifeguard friends tease him about his receding hairline.

But the seemingly ancient subject of their discussion is only 34.

Brendan Shea is still young enough to feel like the 10-year-old kid who surfed in Hawai'i on a family vacation and always wanted to come back. He's also old enough to be hanging onto his youth as a North Shore lifeguard.

It has become part of local culture to respect longtime wave watchers and the aging Beach Boys of Waikiki. But the graying of the lifeguard work force means lifeguards in Hawai'i are at least 10 years older, on average, than guards in the rest of the United States, said David Doyle, who interviewed 80 local lifeguards and more than 20 firefighters for his book, "Rescue in Paradise: Oahu's Beaches & Their Guardians."

Shea, a father of two and husband of an emergency room nurse, sees his age almost as a badge of honor. After all, it's the seasoning of experience that earned him a spot in the lifeguard tower at Sunset Beach, one of O'ahu's most dangerous beaches, where the raging surf of winter is over but keeping tourists from harm is a continuing effort.

"I started lifeguarding when I was 15 on the Mainland, and I never really thought of it as a career. I thought maybe I'd be a tugboat captain or something," said Shea, who grew up in Southern California. "But when I came here and became a lifeguard, it just kind of fit in with the lifestyle."

More than a decade after joining the ranks of O'ahu lifeguards, Shea says the pluses of the job outweigh a yearly salary that has reached only $30,000, because he never got into it for the money.

"I don't think about getting hurt or being injured," he said. "I get butterflies sometimes when the surf is huge and there's people out."

He also keeps in mind that he'll be retired by the time he's 50, because he will be eligible for retirement after 25 years of service.

'The mongrel' in him

"I started lifeguarding when I was 15," Brendan Shea said. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

He had just graduated from the California Maritime Academy and traded his job as a tugboat driver to be a lifeguard.

Last week, nursing a shoulder he injured flipping over the handles of a jet ski during a rescue, he came in fourth in the same race at the World Ocean Games at Makapu'u Beach.

"I think this will be his swan song," Lifeguard Chief Jim Howe predicted the day before the race. "This is the stuff of legends here."

But Shea, buff and tanned with blond hair and a trendy goatee, has too much of a Peter Pan spirit to go into retirement. Shea's coach, Mark Cunningham, an aging lifeguard himself, is leaving it up to Shea to decide whether he wants to keep going.

Shea used to say he would stop doing lifeguard races after 10 years of competition. He has now upped that number to 15 years.

"He's got what we call in Australia 'the mongrel' in him," said Hayden Kenny, a competing lifeguard coach for Team Australia, who has been watching Shea's career for years. "That's what you've got in a fighting dog — guts and heart."

Shea grew up in the sport with Australian competitor Chris Maynard, 39, who also had an injured shoulder last week during the games. Maynard talked about pride and determination as forces that helped the veterans keep up with a new generation of lifeguards.

"Hopefully, we can keep going over our injuries and keep performing," Maynard said. "We've got a lot of experience we can offer the new guys."

Seasoned guardians

O'ahu lifeguard Brendan Shea, 34, pulls his board across the finish life at the 12th Hawaiian International Ocean Challenge at Makapu'u Beach. His fourth-place finish may represent his last competition. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

O'ahu has about 130 lifeguards, who are responsible for about 18 million people a year on guarded beaches, said Ralph Goto, Ocean Safety and Lifeguard Services administrator.

The island's lifeguards reported 1,297 rescues in fiscal year 1999-2000, along with 687 surfing accidents and issued more than 400,000 warnings to prevent peril.

"Winter's pretty obvious, because we have big surf. What people don't realize is the dangers in the summer," Goto said. "We see more visitors. We see more kids. The concern changes from focusing on high surf to being more crowd-oriented."

Tourists tend to be simply uninformed about the dangers, he said.

Fellow lifeguard Glenn Wachtel, 32, who has been lifeguarding for 12 years, works Sunset Beach with Shea. Both have racked up their share of lifeguarding awards and rescue war stories. They still run into surfers they've pulled out of the water. But they spend most of their time warning people to keep them out of danger.

"I think 'Baywatch' has led everybody to have a misconception about what lifeguarding is all about," Shea said. "There's very little glamorous until you actually save a life. Then you're everybody's buddy and hero."

Living proof

One person who regards Shea as a hero is Greg Ikeda, 38, a Makakilo firefighter.

About eight years ago, Ikeda wiped out in 10- to 12-foot North Shore surf, and his surfboard "tombstoned" and hit him in the head. Ikeda didn't break the surface when the next wave came. Shea pulled him out of the water by his surfboard leash and helped him to safety.

Ikeda had inhaled so much water that he was laid up for a month, and his dreams of being a professional big-wave surfer were shattered. He thinks of it every time he sees Shea.

"I was kind of shameful because I myself am a rescuer," Ikeda said. "It was actually hard for me at first to thank him because I was ashamed to be rescued. It was a pride thing."

Ikeda is living proof that rescues can happen to anyone.

Years before Doyle wrote his book of rescue anecdotes, he had his own experience with the saving graces of Honolulu lifeguards. He was on vacation in 1960, playing in the summer surf off Waikiki Beach with his two young sons, when a commercial outrigger canoe headed toward a breaking wave tipped over on him. A guard came to his aid as he struggled to hold onto his children.

Doyle now warns people about everything from jellyfish to loose surfboards. One of the prime sources for his book is a 51-year-old lifeguard.

As long as Shea stays in good health, he expects to be the same kind of source of knowledge on Hawai'i's beaches. The average age of the North Shore lifeguards is 40, so Shea is a relative youngster, with plenty more good years of endless summers ahead of him.

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Staff writer Tanya Bricking can be reached at 525-8026 or at tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com.