From dozens of children at Las Palmas Elementary School to 400 Marines at Camp Pendleton, San Clemente Lifeguard Supervisor Dennis White has had an impact on people who might be at risk when they enter the ocean.
White, a 24-year-old lifelong San Clemente resident, oversees city lifeguards’ prevention and education program. He leads a team that does public outreaches.
He has taught children how to avoid rip currents, to never swim alone, to only swim near a lifeguard and to never test their limits in ocean waves or currents. Some of these children have been non-swimmers or marginal swimmers.
So are some of the Marines he addressed at Camp Pendleton when invited there this year to talk beach safety.
White also is coordinator of the city’s junior lifeguard program, teaching 700 boys and girls each summer how to be safe in the ocean and, for some, imparting the early skills that will lead to them becoming a professional lifeguard.
White is 2016’s San Clemente Lifeguard of the Year, voted the honor by his colleagues on San Clemente’s marine safety staff.
“Our job is simple yet very complicated,” White told the Exchange Club of San Clemente at a luncheon the club hosted Sept. 22 in his honor. “You must remain focused throughout the day. We are responsible for thousands of people who come down to the beach. You can teach somebody how to carefully watch the water and how to respond to somebody who needs help. But you cannot teach someone passion.
“As a lifeguard once told me, a family of five comes down to the beach. It is our job to make sure this family of five returns home safely at the end of the day,” White said.
Marine Safety Chief Bill Humphreys said White has filled nearly every role in marine safety in exemplary fashion. He just completed his ninth summer, five of them working in towers, the sixth promoted to supervisor, the past three summers also as coordinator of the junior lifeguard program.
White said he grew up playing in the ocean and looking up to two older brothers. One of them, Kyle, was San Clemente’s Lifeguard of the Year in 2014.
Dennis White was a graduate of the city’s junior lifeguard program, was state middle school longboard champion and, as a graduate of San Clemente High School, runner-up for the state and national high school longboard title.
Humphreys told onlookers that this year’s Lifeguard of the Year award is bittersweet, as White will leave his position in two weeks to attend California State Parks’ Peace Officer Academy.
Contact the writer: 949-492-5127 or fswegles@ocregister.com
