Get the latest news delivered daily!
Get the latest news delivered daily!
South Bay lifeguards will be well represented when Jersey Mike’s United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships return to Hermosa Beach beginning Thursday, Aug. 11.
The event has not been in the South Bay since 2016; Hermosa Beach hosted that time too. The event was cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic, but it returned last year with the competition taking place in South Padre Island, in Texas.
The Junior Lifeguard & U19 Championships will take place Wednesday, Aug. 10, followed by the Lifeguard Championships — including individual and team competition — from Aug. 11 to Aug. 13. The events, which will focus on lifesaving skills, will include a Surf Race, Surf Boat Race, surf board race, the Taplin relay and the American Ironman and Ironwoman competition — a triathlon featuring swimming, running and paddling.
Hermosa Beach’s Jenna Solberg competed as a junior lifeguard before competing in the Lifeguard Champions for the first time in 2013, the last time Manhattan Beach hosted the lifeguard championships. Three years later, when Hermosa Beach last hosted, it was Solberg’s first year winning the Ironwoman competition with the Los Angeles County Surf Life Saving Association; she also finished first in overall points.
South Bay’s Jenna Solberg will be competing at the Jersey Mike’s United States Lifeguard Association National Lifeguard and National Junior Lifeguard Championships, which takes place Aug 10 to 13. Solberg is pictured competing in the South Bay Dozen competition at Torrance Beach, on July 10, 2022. (photo courtesy of Joel Gitelson)
South Bay’s Brian Murphy will be competing at the Jersey Mike’s United States Lifeguard Association National Lifeguard and National Junior Lifeguard Championships, which takes place Aug. 10 to 13. Murphy is pictured competing at the CSLSA California Surf Lifesaving Championships at Huntington State Beach on July 23, 2022. (photo courtesy of Joel Gitelson)
South Bay’s Brian Murphy will be competing at the Jersey Mike’s United States Lifeguard Association National Lifeguard and National Junior Lifeguard Championships, which takes place Aug. 10 to 13. Murphy is pictured competing at the CSLSA California Surf Lifesaving Championships at Huntington State Beach on July 23, 2022. (photo courtesy of Joel Gitelson)
Solberg said she will compete in almost every event this year.
“It’s fun to bring people from all over the country to your own beach,” said Solberg, who grew up in Torrance, adding “you get a little bit of an upper hand and the familiarity of conditions.”
Being in the life-saving business is in the Solberg family. Her father, Mel, has spent many years competing.
“I was lucky enough to watch a lot of these competitions as a little kid,” Solberg said. “I just grew up really loving it and wanting to do it. I think that has made me love it in a different way because it just feels like a family event, feels like home.”
Another local competitor is Brian Murphy, who was a junior lifeguard at Torrance Beach beginning when he was 9 years old, and did that until he was 17. He became a lifeguard right out of high school.
Murphy first competed in the championship in 2000 in San Diego, when he was 17 years old. Since then, he has won eight Ironman competitions and 10 paddle board championships, among other individual and team events.
The Ironman is his favorite competition, Murphy said, because of the discipline involved.
“Anyone can kind of get lucky in a race from time to time on a single event,” he said.
Jay Butki, president of the Los Angeles County Surf Life Saving Association, said in an email that “fitness and endurance are required skills for ocean lifeguards.”
“The (USLA) National Lifeguard Championship is a unique event,” Butki said, “which showcases — in a highly competitive environment — the lifesaving techniques used daily by these lifeguards.”
The event makes them better lifeguards, Solberg said.
“Every time you train and every time you compete,” Solberg said, “you’re doing something to make your job better in the future.”
Murphy agreed, saying the competition helps with camaraderie.
“To be good at our job,” Murphy said, “we have to be great in the ocean.”
For more information, visit usla.org.
We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.
Get the latest news delivered daily!