She’s been swimming in opposition to the tide her entire life — and she or he’s not stopping now.
The Huge Apple’s first feminine chief lifeguard is asking on town to do extra to maintain beachgoers secure — claiming it’s performed a “poor job” decoding an area regulation designed to forestall drownings.
Janet Fash, who began out serving to to guard Rockaway Seaside in 1979 and continued for 40 years, informed The Put up that for too lengthy, town has targeted its lifeguards on patrolling solely sure areas slightly than spreading them out and opening extra seashores.
“New York Metropolis nonetheless hasn’t figured that out, and you already know what, it’s not like they haven’t been informed,” Fash, 66, not too long ago mentioned by cellphone from her residence within the Rockaways.
Below metropolis regulation, not less than one lifeguard is required to be current for “steady visible surveillance for attain 50 yards of beachfront or fraction thereof” — which means there should be one lifeguard for each 50 yards of seashore open for swimming or bathing.
Fash, the creator of a brand new memoir “Lifeguard: A Love Story,” mentioned town has performed “poor job” of following the regulation by unnecessarily doubling or tripling up lifeguards in sure areas, leaving different seashores closed.
Meaning sure stretches get overpopulated and that some beachgoers are then extra apt search out much less used spots, even when it means swimming unsupervised.
“New York Metropolis has actually performed a poor job of decoding that regulation,” Fash mentioned. “They’ll put the lifeguards even on rock jetties, on a chair, whereas the subsequent [section over, involving] 10 seashores, [is] closed, creating drowning alternatives.”
Eight folks drowned at metropolis seashores in 2024, in line with the newest information accessible. That was the very best quantity in 5 years, officers mentioned throughout that point.
The town Parks Division didn’t reply to a Put up request for remark.
‘One thing virtually enchanting occurs when New Yorkers get to Rockaway’
In “Lifeguard,” Fash — who began out at 19 stationed on the metropolis’s most harmful seashore — begins out her ode to the Rockaways as a toast to the ’70s and ’80s earlier than it breaks right into a extra severe story: surprising allegations of intercourse abuse and abuse of energy — and a lifelong New Yorker’s quest to cease it.
“I labored Seaside 97 — a lot of rescues, and we have been calling ourselves the ‘Lifegods,’ not the ‘Lifeguards,’ as a result of we have been nervous about drownings,” mentioned Fash, who writes in her memoir that she may generally have three rescues earlier than midday.
The ebook, which is co-written by Clio Chang, additionally offers a sneak look inside a lifeguard shack.
“Lifeguards would spend the time out on the seashore pulling folks out of the water, then spend the night time throwing the craziest events. They even had a reputation for them: Caveman Conventions,” Fash writes.
“Shacks, of which there have been 9 alongside the peninsula, would compete to outdo one another, lighting bonfires on the seashore, supplying countless kegs, and welcoming dwell bands.”
Fash later grew to become a whistle-blower exposing severe points inside the system, which have included alleged sexual harassment and abuse.
Within the ebook, she additionally shares her expertise with disgraced former chief metropolis lifeguard Peter Stein, who managed the Huge Apple’s lifeguards for many years earlier than retiring in 2025, simply as a disciplinary trial into his wrongdoings was set to start.
Waves of lifeguards give up due to politics throughout her 40-year tenure, however Fash mentioned she stayed because it was her calling to “make a change” — even when she was punished for talking out.
“They have been taking manpower from me and over-deploying in different sections of the seashore,” Fash mentioned. “Some sections would have six, seven lifeguards per chair whereas I might have 5 to separate three chairs.
“It was actually annoying, and you already know, my lifeguards have been below duress.”
Ideas for having fun with the seashore this summer time
Even in retirement, Fash nonetheless thinks about security.
Listed here are just a few security suggestions she shared for beachgoers to think about once they head out to town’s seashores this summer time.
- Ask a lifeguard what the circumstances of the water are earlier than leaping in to swim.
- Pay attention to excessive tide and low tide.
- All the time swim at a lifeguard-protected seashore.
- In case you really feel the pull of a tide, see for those who can get up: “Get up first, after which for those who can’t, float in your again,” she mentioned.
- “In case you are not a swimmer, don’t be the hero.”
- Hydrate. Skip the beer, and convey water to the seashore.
