Oakland ramps up lifeguard certification as pools brace for summer swimmers
With some programs resuming for first time since the pandemic, "everyone has a lot of catching up to do.”
Leon Sykes remembers clinging to the wall of the Roberts Park pool in the Oakland hills. Unable to swim, the 6-year-old boy looked on as friends splashed and played out of reach. Leon’s parents soon signed him up for swim lessons, and two years later he was a member of the public swimming team at Fremont Pool in East Oakland.
When the pandemic closed city facilities, Sykes, now 37, was unable to schedule lessons for his son, Leon III. This summer, after ramping up staffing and lifeguard certification courses, Oakland Parks, Recreation and Youth Development is gearing up for its first full-capacity swimming summer in three years. Public pools open Saturday, June 4, and swimming lessons start June 6.
“A lot of families have been impacted because of pools being shut down or schedules being so reduced,” said Sykes, who has already signed up Leon III, now 5, for swimming lessons. ”You look at kids of predominantly minority backgrounds, and you're looking at a disparity. Everyone has a lot of catching up to do.”
According to 2019 data from USA Swimming, the sport’s national governing body, only 1.4% of year-round swimmers identified as African American or Black and 3.5% as Hispanic or Latino. The 2018 report shows that more than 64% of Black children have little or no swimming ability, compared to 45% for Latinx children and 40% for white children. Justice Bolden, recreation supervisor for the Oakland aquatics and boating units, aims to change that narrative.
The city is holding lifeguard certification courses from May 9-14 (5:30-9 p.m. on weekdays, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday) at Fremont Pool, at Fremont High School. Sign-ups are available at www.oaklandca.gov/topics/aquatics. Registration is $100.00 for Oakland Unified School District students, $190.00 for Oakland residents and $225.00 for non-residents. Lifeguard part-time pay ranges from $18.91-$23.22.
A water safety instructor certification course is being held Sunday, May 15 (9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.) at Fremont Pool, with a registration fee of $225.00 for Oakland residents and $270.00 for non-residents. Part-time pay for that position ranges from $21.98-$25.51. Sign-ups are available at www.oaklandca.gov/topics/aquatics.
The aquatics unit is also seeking recreational aides to assist with swimming activities, recreational attendants to provide customer service and pool managers to oversee operations.
The history of public swimming in America is rooted in racism and inequities. Many pools were segregated for much of the 20th century. Black swimmers were attacked in St. Louis and race riots broke out in Pittsburgh when pools integrated. In Mississippi, wade-ins were held in the 1950s and 1960s to desegregate a 26-mile stretch of Gulf Coast beach. More recently, in 2009 a private Philadelphia swimming club denied a predominantly Black and Latinx camp from renting facilities. In 2015, when police responded to a fight at a swimming pool party in Texas, an officer was videotaped grabbing a Black female swimmer by her hair and pointing his gun at other swimmers. The incident prompted a lawsuit and protests. Construction of public pools is accelerated in affluent areas where many families often have pools of their own. Oakland has at times struggled with funding and resources to operate pools.
When the city had funding shortages to pay lifeguards, the opening of pools was delayed in 1998. West Oakland residents broke through fencing at DeFremery Pool and started summer swimming season on their own, reported The San Francisco Chronicle. “They took part of the fence down, brought the coolers and said, ‘Hey, we’re ready to swim,’ ” said then city aquatics coordinator Kerry Salisbury. The city opened DeFremery and Temescal, in North Oakland, within days.
Oakland, a city with more than 440,000 residents, has five pools open for public swimming this summer – Lions Pool in Dimond Park is the oldest Oakland public pool, constructed in 1929 for $18,000. A 1939 Oakland Tribune photo of Lions shows almost exclusively white swimmers at a time when housing discrimination forced Black residents to West Oakland. The other pools open are DeFremery; East Oakland Sports Center, which has a waterslide, lazy river, activity pool and lap pool; Fremont Pool; and Temescal Pool, next to Oakland Technical High School, which hosted several national synchronized swimming championships in the 1950s and 1960s. Lake Temescal, run by the East Bay Parks District, is expected to have lifeguards on duty starting in late May. The Roberts Park swimming pool is closed this summer for maintenance, putting extra demand on the city’s five public pools.
Coronavirus restrictions made lifeguard certification difficult the past two years, and many lifeguards allowed their certification to expire. So with Bolden “expecting a strong return to the water for Oaklandlers of all ages” this summer, the city’s recruitment has been in high gear. Staffing levels will determine hours of operation.
The aquatics department resumed lifeguard certification last summer, when it certified about 50 lifeguards. Earlier this year the department certified from a 18-candidate class – mostly of Oakland High and Oakland Tech students – at Oakland High’s Live Oak pool.
After joining the Fremont swim team, Leon became a junior volunteer lifeguard at age 11, receiving training in rescue breathing and first aid. After graduating from Oakland Tech, a friend encouraged him to become certified as a lifeguard. He spent the next 15 years working at the DeFremery Recreation Center swimming pool in West Oakland.
Sykes, who teaches media classes at Fremont High, will return to work at DeFremery this summer. He hasn’t worked at the pool since his swimming mentor, James Hardy Sr., died in late 2019. Hardy for years worked as a lifeguard during morning lap swim at Temescal, where Sykes bonded with an Oakland swim community.
“I knew James when I was a little kid, but as an adult he was someone who showed us the ropes,” Sykes said. “Not necessarily in the lifeguard aspect but in the community aspect. He was a staple in the community. And it wasn’t that he coached me, but as a young Black child to see a Black man working in the aquatics system it was something that became important. We don’t often see Black people in the aquatics field.”
Oakland public pools will open this summer, Monday through Saturday, and hold swim lessons, lap swim and public swim. Public swim fees are $1 for children, $2 for seniors (55 and older) and $3 for adults. Lap swim fees are $4 for seniors and $6 for adults, with discounted rates for member passes. DeFremery, Lions, Temescal and Fremont pools each have swim teams that compete on Saturdays.
“My adult life has been dedicated to swimming in West Oakland,” Sykes said.
“It’s more than being in the water; it’s who’s around the water.”
Sports officials: The Oakland parks department is also seeking part-time sports officials. Recreation leader Nate Oliver is holding a sports officials camp at 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 6, at Bushrod Park in North Oakland. Apply at www.governmentjobs.com/careers/oaklandca.