Constantly keeping watch and protecting Hawaiβiβs local and visiting beachgoers, the brave men and women of the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association (HLA) are a unique and tight-knit βohana. With more than 300 guards across the Islands, the dedicated family behind the HLA is committed to leading an active and healthy lifestyle, while leaving a lasting legacy of place-based knowledge for the next generation of watermen and waterwomen to come. Hawaiβi lifeguard Bryan Phillips, a 15-year veteran with 14 of those years on Oβahuβs infamous North Shore, is part of the elite rescue watercraft unit and is assigned to Pipeline and Waimea Bay, the two most dangerous and deadly waves in the entire state. We caught up with Bryan on Oβahu to talk training regimens, what it takes to be a Hawaiβi lifeguard, and how todayβs guards are passing down lifesaving knowledge to the next generation of junior guards.
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What inspired you to join Hawaiβiβs lifeguard βohana?
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I started out as junior guard and all the people I looked up to were lifeguards. Everyone was fit and was active in the ocean. The experience left such a lasting impression on me that I wanted to do the same thing. Itβs come full circle for me because I became a full-time lifeguard and Iβm also running the junior lifeguard program in the summer.
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Whatβs your daily fitness routine on the job?
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You have to be responsible with how you take care of yourself, how you eat, and how you trainβcardio, weights, whatever. Every day includes assessing the ocean conditions and then basing training around what the ocean offers up. And even when Iβm off duty, I stay active and eat healthy to keep my mind and body sharp.
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Your role as a lifeguard must begin long before you jump in the water for a rescue?
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Weβre not just sitting around waiting for a rescue to happen and then going out to rescue someoneβyou might work a day at Waimea Bay and not do a rescue, but youβve talked to a thousand people. And that couldβve been a thousand rescues. Weβre getting down off the tower and talking to every single person on the beach. This is how it is on all sides of the island, all throughout the state. Preventative lifeguarding is the key. You have to talk to people or people are going to get in trouble and people are going to die.β
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Whatβs it like to be part of the HLA βohana?
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The βohana aspect of lifeguarding doesnβt just stop in the towers. I work with some of my best friends. We cruise together. We go to work. Weβre hanging out at the beach. We train together. And we get to play in the surf and do exciting things. Itβs so cool. This is what I want to do.
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Why do you take on the extra responsibility of running the junior lifeguard program?
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The junior lifeguard program gives the kids in our communities a place to go thatβs safe. They can learn about the ocean. They can learn about lifeguarding, and they learn to respect the ocean. We teach them all the same rescue techniques we doβon the beach, rescue tube, fins and tube, surfboard. And we even introduce them to the Jet Ski. The program gets the kids more comfortable in the ocean. We teach them CPR, and it builds their confidence in and around the ocean. Itβs also a cool recruiting tool for future lifeguards. I was a junior guard and became a junior guard instructor. Now I run the program on Oβahu. Itβs just cool to see these kids so psyched, because I was one of those kids.
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