Connecticut beaches are poaching on one another's dwindling lifeguard stocks. Listen, sometimes you have to do what you have to do,'' says Jim McCusker, first selectman for Clinton, where officials deny certain specifics of what happened but acknowledge hiring two state guards. If that wasn't enough, the lifeguard lovelies on Baywatch are watching their ratings slip beneath the waves. They're taking the show to Hawaii. Experts say this year's shortage is especially pronounced because of the economy.
Life is sweet.
Companies staffing commercial pools will be in a frenzied search for certified replacements, and some may surreptitiously settle for less, says Fisher. It's the affluence that we have today in America,'' says Adolf Kiefer, dean of American swimming and a 1936 Olympic gold medalist. The number of water amusement centers in America has more than doubled in the past five years to exceed 900, says Dave Bruschi, director of the World Waterpark Association. Hurricane Harbor vs. being a Dallas city pool lifeguard,'' says Andrea Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the Dallas Park and Recreation Department, which struggles to staff 22 pools. Dallas closes its pools each year in early August, in part because the department knows it'll run out of lifeguards.