Swimming in new possibilities

The swimmers of Destin now have less to fear.

With tourist season under way, the Destin Fire Control District’s Beach Safety division is taking on some help from four Australian lifeguards.

The four young men have been busy since arriving in Destin about ten days ago. They have been getting American certifications in CPR, First Aid, First Responder and United States Lifesaving Association lifeguard refresher courses.

“Destin was one of the first agencies in our area to receive USLA certification,” says Beach Safety Chief Joe D’Agostino.

This means that a minimum requirement has been set for the amount of training that lifeguards must attain to be employed on our beaches.

The exchange program that brought the four Australians to Destin is the brain child of D’Agostino and friend Phill Lloyd, a lifeguard instructor in Beach Haven, N.J.

“I worked with Phill as a lifeguard in Long Beach Township, N.J.” D’Agostino told The Log. “We always talked about how we could set up an exchange program.”

Both products of this type of exchange, this is the first year that D’Agostino and Lloyd are trying out the concept in Destin.

Destin’s tourist boom lasts from May to the beginning of September, giving the visitors plenty of time to get home to Australia for their season lasting from the end of September to April each year.

When the off-season time in Australia does roll around, the lifeguards often opt to take a position abroad.
Daniel Payne, 23, comes from Dee Why, a suburb of Sydney. In his five years as a professional lifeguard, Payne has worked three summers in New Jersey and chose Destin from a list of other international locations for his off-season excursion this year.

“I like America,” Payne says. “The other places I could have gone are pretty cold.”

When accounting graduate Bede Elphick, 28, from Cronulla Beach, was trying to figure out what to do with his winter, the decision was easy.

“My choices were to stay in the accounting firm or come here,” Elphick says. “I worked as a lifeguard casually while I was in college and stayed with it because I love it.”

Liam Nicholls, 24, from Coalcliff, New South Wales, also strayed away from his studies in psychology to continue his six-year career as a lifeguard.

“The first four years I was in college and when I graduated, they offered me full time [as a lifeguard],” Nicholls says of his progression.

This year he followed Lloyd’s recommendation to come to Destin.

Also from Coalcliff, arboriculture major Steve Winner, 23, chose the sand over the trees when continuing his career.

Winner has worked three summers in New Jersey through an exchange and decided to give Destin a try.

“We heard it was a really nice place here,” Winner says. “We thought it might be a nice new adventure in America.”
The men, sharing a condo in Destin, got a welcome gift from Mission Love Seeds. The mission furnished the entire condo to make their stay a comfortable one.

With the certifications behind them, the four hit the beach today for their first official day of work.

Each lifeguard will be responsible for his own zone of beach in Destin, patrolling about a one-mile stretch on an ATV.

The guys are glad to be settled in and are excited to start work.

“We’re looking forward to a good summer and a really good experience,” Winner says.