Dan Heath: Ed Vodrazka has been an ocean lifeguard for 47 years. He's semi-retired now and has spent his career lifeguarding and training other lifeguards in Southern California where he spent most of his career. Being a lifeguard comes with high stakes.

Ed Vodrazka: Maybe at least once a summer, you make a rescue where you absolutely, positively know that person was gonna drown. And you're facing them, and you see the fear of God in their eyes in the water. And you strap them in that buoy, and you try to calm them down and say, "Hey, listen, I'm here. You're gonna be okay. I'm gonna get you to shore. I want you to kick for me."

Dan Heath: Ed says, once they make it to shore, the person will usually thank him, but often, he'll never see them again. But he told me a story about a rescue that went differently afterward. Another lifeguard named John Santos saved a young girl who was visiting from France.

Ed Vodrazka: It was a critical rescue, and everybody knew that, and the little girl was really shooken up, but the family was so touched that they wanted to know that lifeguard's name. Normally they don't even ask us our name. We never see them again. But they came back the next summer, and they went and found him again. And every year after that, for something like nine years, they flew back to California to find John Santos. And he got to watch her grow up and grow up into a beautiful young woman and adult, and they came back until she was 17.

Dan Heath: It was almost like the girl's parents wanted John Santos to be able to see the difference he'd made in that moment every year. That idea of a lifesaving moment reverberating into the future resonates with Ed.

Ed Vodrazka: The kid lives on. I mean, the kid goes on and graduates from elementary school and high school and eventually gets married and has their own family and lives their life. That whole scenario happened because the lifeguard did their job when you think about it, right? There was that moment where they met the lives of that kid and that lifeguard intersected and the guard saved their life. But what people don't think about is how that interaction is such an amazing gift to the lifeguard themselves, and that is why we are lifeguards.

Dan Heath: I am Dan Heath, and this is "What It's Like To Be..." In every episode, we walk in the shoes of someone from a different profession: a hairstylist, a TV meteorologist, an FBI special agent. We want to know what they do all day at work. Today, we ask Ed Vodrazka what it's like to be an ocean lifeguard. We'll talk about what it takes to be a great lifeguard, how to spot someone in trouble in the water, and where the most dangerous places in the water are. Stay with us. So, well, I think I'll start with the question we always start with on the podcast, which is, have you ever performed CPR on a dolphin before?

Ed Vodrazka: That's your common question, huh? Gee, I'm-

Dan Heath: Yeah, and so far, nobody has said yes, to my dissatisfaction. I'm hoping against hope that maybe you'll have a different answer.

Ed Vodrazka: Well, I did. I did one in 47 years, yes.

Dan Heath: Okay, we have to hear that story.

Ed Vodrazka: Well, unfortunately, it was a young dolphin. It was kind of in a rural area, and it wasn't behaving like dolphins do. And so, you know, we saw that it was eventually gonna just come to shore. So myself and two of my partners, we just went out and basically just cradled the thing and brought it to shore and put it in the back of the truck. And we'd called SeaWorld to come down and rescue the thing. It was probably just minutes before they pulled into the front gate. All of a sudden, the breathing got really, like, basically agonal breathing like a human would just before they died. And then it stopped breathing, so.

Dan Heath: Oh my goodness.

Ed Vodrazka: Yeah, I didn't know what to do specifically with a dolphin, but I certainly know what to do with a human. And so I basically aimed between the two pectoral fins and started doing compressions. And I was doing the compressions when they pulled up, and it was really cool. A marine biologist started an IV, and I said, "Hey, listen, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing here." And she goes, "You're doing great, man. Just keep it going. That's exactly what we would be doing." So I continued on with the compressions while she started a line, and they pushed several drugs into this young mammal. But unfortunately, you know, it didn't survive.

Dan Heath: I'm just amazed that you had any schema in your head for, number one, how to even tell that a dolphin was suffering, much less, you know, knowing how to do some potentially lifesaving care.

Ed Vodrazka: Well, yeah, I guess, you know, I'm a registered nurse as well. I don't know if that has much to do with it. But I mean, you know, we're mammals, right? We're all mammals and, you know, CPR is something that we practice ad infinitum to where we're really, really good at it. So, I don't know, it seemed fairly natural to me, to be honest with you.

Dan Heath: So I wanna start at the beginning 'cause I know all of our listeners have had some experience with a lifeguard. Maybe they were a lifeguard at a pool in high school or college, and they've certainly seen a lot of lifeguards, but they probably don't know much about the behind the scenes. Tell us just the most basic information. Like, what would be a normal shift as a lifeguard on the beach?

Ed Vodrazka: Okay, well, you know, the job varies considerably depending on where you work. You know, I, personally, you know, people think I'm lying, but I'm actually saying the truth when I say I don't think I would like to be a pool lifeguard very much because it's a very mental job. Being a pool lifeguard is, in many ways, more difficult than being an ocean lifeguard. You know, and again, people are gonna be, that's crazy. Well, it's not because it's, you know, in a pool, you have people that can't swim that are in the water. You know, they can go down at any point, anywhere in that pool. You know, they're not afraid of a pool. But in the ocean, the people, generally, that go in the ocean can swim, you know, or else they wouldn't be in the ocean. And so right away, the quality of our swimmers is much better in the ocean. So, you know, I get exhausted, you know. When I'm at a pool, you know, first of all, as lifeguards, we never stop lifeguarding. If I'm at a pool swimming on my day off, I'm still watching the water, you know? But it makes me nervous being around a pool, where in the ocean, the reason that people get into trouble is because of some change in the conditions. It's either they fall into an inshore hole, or a rip pulls them out or something. And so those things are kind of predictable when you become kind of astute at understanding how the dynamics of the ocean are working, how the waves and the currents, you know, are playing out at that particular moment.

Dan Heath: And do you work the same stretch of beach typically? Like, would you come to the same tower every day? Or does it rotate?

Ed Vodrazka: Well, that depends on what beach you're working. So in the old days, working at Zuma, you'd have your tower, and that was kind of fun because you could kind of decorate your tower the way you want it. Some guys brought in little hunks of carpeting, and they carpeted the inside of their tower. They brought in little refrigerators and kind of made, you know, sound systems and stuff and kind of, you know, made it their little home. But generally, I don't think people are doing that much. You kind of rotate, and that keeps it kind of fresh too. I mean, I guess it's a trade-off because, you know, if you work the same tower every day, you get to know the same people that come to that particular beach. So they become your friends. You know, they feed you lunch often, you know, and you get to know their families. You know, it's kind of a really nice, sort of, communal experience. But, you know, conversely, you're not getting the experience of guarding other places and seeing other situations, other wave dynamics, other rips, other environmental changes. So I think most agencies now will rotate, you know, so you working a different tower every day, so you get a real holistic experience.

Dan Heath: It seems like it would be a trade-off of, you know, on one hand, staying in the same zone would make you more and more and more familiar with the environment and maybe more attuned to, like, changes in the ocean or changes in the composition of the swimmers, but maybe it also makes it harder for you to pay attention because it's, you know, the same stretch day to day.

Ed Vodrazka: Perhaps. I would say... Well, the first part is definitely true. I mean, you really become very, very familiar. I mean, if you're in an area that's a really, a slow area where there's, not many people go there and, you know, not much ever happens there, you get to know all the seagulls, you get to identify them, you get to know them by name. You can create little stories, and your mind keeps, you know-

Dan Heath: Wait, can you actually get to know, like, particular seagulls? Like, can you spot them?

Ed Vodrazka: Absolutely, absolutely. You know their behavior. You know their pecking order, literally. People don't realize you're sitting there for eight hours a day. I mean, that's a lot of time, you know? And you're vigilant the entire time. So anything that catches your attention, you know, you're probably gonna be aware of it.

Dan Heath: Is it hard to keep your mind on task with that much time in the chair?

Ed Vodrazka: Yes. That's a very good question, and it is. You know, we're dealing now with a generation that is different than when I started. Of course, when I started, there was nothing like a cellular phone or anything to distract you like that. So I have found that the last few years with the advent of the cell phone, that's been a great detriment to us because we're talking about hiring people that are 17, 18 years old, and, you know, they're pretty tied to their phones. And so, you know, when they can't have access to their phone, they get bored pretty quickly.

Dan Heath: Gosh, I hadn't thought about that. Man, I am so relieved to hear you say that you can't have a phone up there.

Ed Vodrazka: Oh, no, absolutely not. Yeah, you can't have a phone. There's things that are, like, bordering on firing offenses, and that's one of them. You know, anything that distracts you from what you're doing is absolutely a no-no. And strangely enough, we hired a girl, probably three or four years ago now, and this was a revelation for me. You know, our lifeguard training program is incredibly difficult. You know, I worked for the California state parks, and that is an eight-day adventure that is unbelievably challenging. Most kids say it's the hardest thing they've ever done in their life to graduate after those eight days and become a guard. And this young lady did it successfully, and she got into the towers, and after three days, she resigned. And, you know, when I asked her why, she said, "I can't be away from my phone for this long."

Dan Heath: Oh, wow.

Ed Vodrazka: Yeah, so she gave up the job so that she could be with her phone. You know, and that was a revelation for me, you know?

Dan Heath: So, I mean, what have you learned over the years about, you know, fighting distraction? Like, do you have sort of tricks that you use to keep yourself focused?

Ed Vodrazka: Well, there's a couple things. First of all, the term that I use is vigilance, you know? And vigilance, people don't realize it, but I mean, certainly, we hire lifeguards that are great athletes. Absolutely, you have to be a good athlete to be a lifeguard. You have to be proficient in the surf. But honestly, even more important than that physical skill is vigilance. You know, you can give me an Olympian, and you can put him in a tower, and I can have another guard in the next tower, and there can be a rescue between them. And the lifeguard that's gonna get to that victim first is the one who's the most vigilant. And quite often, if I have a young guard that's really vigilant, he's gonna beat that Olympian to the rescue. So the physical skills, although there's a line that we have to have, we have to have some, you know, level of prowess, clearly, in the surf line, it's vigilance that's the most important thing. You know, we drill it into their heads, you know, if you fall asleep in the tower, you're done. That's a fireable offense.

Dan Heath: Oh, wow. Okay.

Ed Vodrazka: If you come to work hungover, you're done. You can't do that. You have a responsibility to the public, and we just cannot tolerate that. So if you're starting to nod off in the afternoon after you've made five or six rescues, and you're tired, and, you know, you start nodding off, you have every right to just jump off the tower and jump in the water. And, you know, jumping in the cool ocean is a really good way to wake up, and it'll keep you awake for another hour or so.

Dan Heath: So when you say like an afternoon after five or six rescues, like, you don't mean literally, like, a life-saving, drowning moment, or do you?

Ed Vodrazka: It could be, but more often... So lifeguarding has changed, you know, since the '60s. You know, I mean, in the '60s, you know, guards would kind of hang back and just wait until people were absolutely drowning before they'd make the rescue. And we have really adapted, and this is agency-wide and probably worldwide, honestly. We do prevention. You know, a guard is gonna sit in that tower, and they're gonna watch that ocean. They're gonna watch the swell direction. They're gonna see how the longshore current's going. That's the current that moves you up and down the beach. They're gonna know where the inshore holes are to where the water's gonna channel back out into a rip current. And when someone gets close to that, they're gonna realize that that person's gonna be in trouble long before that person ever does get into trouble.

Dan Heath: Oh, wow.

Ed Vodrazka: So the guard will go early, they'll swim out, and I can't tell you how many times, you know, myself and every lifeguard, just as they get to the person, the person realizes they're in trouble, they turn to shore, and the lifeguard is right there. And they're like, how did you know that I was about to get in trouble? You know, it's a choreography that we're watching.

Dan Heath: Tell me more about that. I mean, that's something I think most people would have no awareness of. Like, how do you know those key situations to be tuned into?

Ed Vodrazka: Well, again, it takes about a full summer, I think, one full summer to really get attuned to what the ocean is doing. And, you know, the ocean changes every hour. Every hour, it's a different being. It has changed. The tide has changed. The bottom is different. We study bathymetry. You know, bathymetry is the ocean bottom, and how the bottom contours affect what the surface doing. Waves will come in towards the coastline, and they'll only break when the water gets shallow enough. You know, they feel the bottom, and then the wave topples over. The bottom of the wave literally slows down, and then the crest of the wave falls over. That's how waves break. You know, they don't break out in the middle of the ocean, even though they've gone past the middle of the ocean. They don't break until they get into shallow water. So waves come in sets. You know, and these sets of waves come into the shore, and then that water has to channel back out to reach its equilibrium. And where it does is, you know, where there's the least resistance. And that's what we call the inshore holes or troughs or just little deeper areas along the bottom where the water will channel out. Now, any good lifeguard is gonna know exactly where those are and how they change during the day. So when we have a swimmer that's drifting towards, you know, one of those areas, they can predict already, here comes the set, here's five waves. The lull is gonna happen now. After the lull, which is the break in the waves, now the water's gonna channel out. And if that person's anywhere near that little rip, and they're not that great of a swimmer, we know that they're gonna be rescued. It's a foregone conclusion. So you swim out early. You call it in as a prevent or a safety contact. Different agencies use different terms. You swim out there, and then again, they sometimes are completely surprised that you've somehow managed to magically predict that they were going to get in trouble, when it actually is just, it's like watching a play. It's watching like choreography. I'll tell you, man, it's a buzz, though, to when it works. And it's when you're firing on and you're paying attention, and the whole play is working to plan, it's like the greatest job in the world.

Dan Heath: So how many times in a normal shift would you climb down from the tower and, you know, go into the ocean or go, you know, pay attention to something at the beach level?

Ed Vodrazka: Yeah, that's funny you say that. I mean, the public doesn't really pay a whole lot of attention to lifeguards when they're in the tower. So they don't really realize how busy they actually are. And of course, it's subjective, depending on what tower you are working. But if you're in a busy tower, we call them hot towers, you know, those are usually more experienced guards, third and fourth-year lifeguards that are guarding, say like a tower five at Torrey Pines or some of the towers that are OB in San Diego or Zuma Beach up in LA, some of the Santa Monica beaches, those are really busy areas. So a guard will be out of the tower, you know, making safety contacts, not always getting in the water. In fact, quite often, they just run down and whistle or move a bunch of swimmers away from a dangerous area. You can do that, you know, 40 times a day, you know, so -

Dan Heath: Oh, wow, okay.

Ed Vodrazka: Those are busy shifts. You know, and then getting in the water, I would say, you know, on a busy tower, we've had guards that made, you know, 20 rescues in a day, you know, the prevent type rescues in one day. That's a busy day, you know? But again, we're trying to prevent actually getting into the water to have to do that by, if we can whistle somebody out or move the swimmers, we will do that first.

Dan Heath: Hey, folks. Dan here. This is the first of our three-episode series on classic summer jobs. On our next episode, we'll feature an ice cream truck driver. What's it like to be on the inside of the truck? What's the top selling item? How do you listen to that same song thousands of times without losing your mind? That's next time. Now back to the show. So what is, like, a peak dangerous condition? Like, maybe not so dangerous that you shut the beach down altogether, but just barely swimmable, but as a lifeguard, you are on full alert.

Ed Vodrazka: So it's a combination of the rips. A, you know, rip current is what creates 90% of our rescues. So the rips are really pulling, and the rips pull harder when the surf is big. So when the surf is big and the rips are pulling, and people are out there, you know, if the weather is warm and it's hot out to where people are getting in the water, plus you're on a busy urban beach, you know, that's kind of the perfect storm where, you know, things are going to be happening.

Dan Heath: And I've heard the phrase rip current my whole life, but I'm not sure I know what it actually means. What is a rip current?

Ed Vodrazka: Yeah, so a rip is, you know, we used to have the term undertow, you know, and that's a word that, you know, just makes every lifeguard's skin crawl, because that is such an antiquated word that is not appropriate. It's not right. There's nothing in the ocean that pulls you or tows you underneath, you know? We've gotten rid of that. It went from undertow to a riptide. And then riptide, that is also antiquated because, you know, a rip has very little to do with the tide. A rip current is really just a channeling of water back into the ocean. And as I mentioned a little bit earlier, you know, it all relates to what the ocean bottom is doing. And where the bottom is shallow, the waves break. Where the bottom is deeper, that's where the water channels out, and that's where the rips will be. So ironically, if I'm a only a modest swimmer and I want to go out and I want to avoid the waves, I'm gonna go where the waves are not breaking, and that's usually exactly where the rip currents are pulling.

Dan Heath: Oh, fascinating.

Ed Vodrazka: There's different kinds of rips. There's what we call fixed rips where it's always pulling in that area. Like, next to a jetty, for instance. You know, if you're next to a rock jetty, like, or a harbor mouth, on one side or the other, the waves come in, and they just channel right out against the riprap. But on an open beach, they're quite often moving, so you get a rip that fires, and it fires, and it's pulling off offshore, and it's pulling swimmers and boogie boarders, and everybody's getting pulled out into that rip. And then five minutes later, it's dissipated, and it's gone. It's completely gone. It's a whole new ocean. Everything starts over again. It's like resetting a computer game. So that's sort of a, you know, a thumbnail sketch of rip currents, but basically, it's a river pulling out into the ocean.

Dan Heath: Mm, so it sounds like you've just gotten incredibly good at detecting dangerous conditions in the ocean. What have you learned about detecting potentially problematic swimmers? Like, what are the early warning signs that certain people might get themselves in trouble?

Ed Vodrazka: Sure, well, you know, so this is kind of right out of rookie school, teaching the young lifeguards. But basically, the first thing is a victim is usually facing to shore. You know, people that are struggling very rarely are not, you know, are facing out to sea. They usually know that they're in some kind of trouble. So facing to shore is one. Hair in the face is the second one. When you're struggling to keep yourself afloat, you don't have the energy to keep your hair out of your face. So when you get hair in the face, that's another, kind of, warning sign.

Dan Heath: Wow.

Ed Vodrazka: These are incidentally, in teaching this stuff, I call these marks. We're looking for marks in the ocean. And as you're scanning, you're looking for marks. So anytime somebody's facing to shore, I'm watching that person. I'm honing in on that person. I may be continuing to scan my water, but I'm constantly coming back to that person. Why are they facing to shore? Two heads together, because if someone is struggling, they might try to grab somebody else. So we see two heads together is another one. Anytime the waves are washing over somebody, that's not good, because people are generally pretty adept at getting underneath the waves, you know, and there's a list of other things, but those are some of the key things that we see.

Dan Heath: So do lifeguards hang out with other lifeguards, or do you tend to do your own thing after work is done?

Ed Vodrazka: You know, our profession is really unique 'cause we really have to rely on each other for our own safety at times. When the surf gets really big and you're out there, you've got a guard on the shore that's watching you and monitoring that rescue. And if need be, you know, they're gonna swim out and help you too. You know, we had a few years ago, you know, in big surf at Newport Beach, one lifeguard, Ben Carlson, actually lost his life during a rescue, you know. He jumped off the back of the rescue boat, and the surf was huge, and it ended up killing him. It's a dangerous profession. I mean, it is a dangerous profession, and we rely on each other. And I think because we do, and the nature of this service-oriented profession that we're involved in, we tend to bond pretty quickly with each other. It's a very unique work environment where, you know, after a couple years, you're working in a Jeep with somebody, and you're with them for eight hours a day. And in that time, you talk about everything under the sun. You know, and we probably confide in each other more than we would with any human beings, including our family. So, yes, it is a really tight-knit group of individuals. And we joke and say that, you know, lifeguards, they will dance at your wedding, often inappropriately 'cause they're lifeguards, you know? But still, they'll dance at your wedding. They'll congratulate you when you buy your first house. They'll be there when your children are born. And unfortunately, they'll probably be reading the eulogy when you die. It's a very, very tight-knit community. My best friends on the planet are all lifeguards. And boy, again, I kinda get choked up a little bit thinking about it, but, you know, it's a result of this incredible amount of respect that we offer each other because we know the type of people that we are and the fact that we have foregone other careers to do something that's important to us, and that's service. You know, every one of us was an athlete at some point in our life. You know, we were swimmers. Most of us were surfers, and we stood on podiums, and we garnered awards, you know, and we were recognized for our athletic achievement. But as a lifeguard, when a new person comes up, we don't care about any of that. You know, when you now use your God-given skills to rescue people to serve your community now, now you become valuable. And if you drink the Kool-Aid with us and adopt that philosophy that it's not about you, man, it's about what you can do for your community, man, you become someone special and you know, people go home that would not normally go home because we do our job. And I don't know anything more noble than that.

Dan Heath: Ed mentioned the bond that's created between lifeguards, partly because they have to rely on each other. He told me about a time on the Sonoma coast in Northern California when the person who needed to be saved by a lifeguard was him.

Ed Vodrazka: You know, I had a situation where four divers went out off these rocks in a very perilous area, and they tried to come in, and three of them made it in, but one drowned right off a precipice where you could look right down into the water, so his buddies literally watched him drown. And we got there just moments later, and without thinking, in these awful, awful conditions, I just grabbed the guy's mask and jumped in to try to get this guy's body. You know, probably the dumbest thing I've ever done in my career, because, you know, there's a line between valor and being foolish. And I was definitely foolish. You know, we all want to be John Wayne. We all wanna make that incredible rescue, you know, and be the big hero, but gosh, you don't realize that if you put yourself in a terrible situation, your partners now are stuck with a situation where they've gotta get you out of there. And it's not just some anonymous victim. It's your partner. You know, it was really dumb, and I couldn't get out. It was basically this channel, a very narrow channel that the water was rushing in from either side because of this huge surf. And I mean, I couldn't get out. There's no way I could get out of there. I tried to swim out, the waves would push me back. I tried to swim the other way, the waves would push me back, and they just forced me to stay in this one area. And then every now and then, the waves would completely crest over the top of the rocks. And, you know, it was like having a waterfall on your head,

Dan Heath: Terrifying.

Ed Vodrazka: Oh, it was awful. And it was Don Straub, my partner, who by the way, was a professional kickboxer and one of the greatest athletes I've ever known, who kind of eased himself down the rocks and just put his arm out and tried to grab me as I kept washing by. And eventually arms met, and he, you know, was a very strong guy, and I'm small, so it was kind of nice. He just basically pulled me out of there and truly saved my life.

Dan Heath: So Ed, we always end our episodes with a quick lightning round of questions. Let me fire away here. What's a tool specific to your profession that you really like using?

Ed Vodrazka: Well, the fundamental tool that we all have that makes us lifeguards is the rescue buoy or the rescue can, you know, the red flotation cans that we carry. That's our right hand. I mean, that is something, you never go anywhere without your can. If you go to the bathroom from the tower, you take your can with you, you know? We have to have that with us at all times. You would be considered naked without your can if you didn't have it. So that's absolutely instrumental for us.

Dan Heath: What's a sound specific to your profession that you're likely to hear?

Ed Vodrazka: So on a really calm morning, when you're the first person opening up the tower and you're sitting in that tower, and the fog is there, the fog is blanketing the coastline so thick that you can barely even see the water, and the air is so still, which is why it's so foggy. When it's really quiet and the dolphins come by, you can hear them breathe. You can hear that sound of just as they pass your tower, and you know they're there. You can't even see them, but you can hear them. And God, that really sticks with me. That's a magical sound. You know, that's a pretty cool little thing to have to hear.

Dan Heath: What phrase or sentence strikes fear in the heart of an ocean lifeguard?

Ed Vodrazka: Wow, well, drowning is our four-letter word. I mean, if there's a drowning. And by the way, there's almost never a drowning when there's lifeguards on duty in the towers or the on the beach. But occasionally, someone will drown outside of our jurisdiction, and we respond to those calls. And, you know, we talked earlier about rescues, and I can't remember specifics about the great rescues that I've been on, but I can remember every drowning that I've ever been on. And there's been, you know, close to 30, I'm sure, by now. But I remember every one of those situations. I remember their face. I remember where they were, you know, what the situations were. And somehow, drownings have a way of just sort of etching themselves into our soul. And you know, I'll probably contemplate them on my deathbed to be honest, but that's sort of the nature of our profession. We are there to prevent drownings, and even when they're not our fault, we take them to heart.

Dan Heath: How do you think being a lifeguard has shaped your personal life? Like, what has it changed in the way you see yourself or the way you've lived your life?

Ed Vodrazka: Well, when I started in the '70s, we were vagabonds. So we couldn't afford to live in the community that we worked. So, you know, we lived in vans. We got vans, and we camped, and we camped together. And you know, we were together all day, and we were together all night, you know. And we had campfires and, you know, we ate together and had a couple of beers after work and played guitars and, you know, went out onto the town. And we surfed together, we dived together, we sailed together. That lifestyle was incomparable for me. We formed a musical band in 1978, and we're still together, so it's-

Dan Heath: Wow.

Ed Vodrazka: Yeah, it's a lifeguard band, and we still play. But, you know, those bonds happened because of, you know, the nature of our job, and we are all really good friends. You know, I traveled the world. I spent almost four years traveling around the world, and I would never have done that had it not been for my mentor lifeguards who, you know, kind of told me about traveling and, you know, the things that are possible to do in life. So my life has been greatly enriched by this job. I met my wife through lifeguarding. Therefore, my children are in my life through lifeguarding. I lived in the Guy Fleming house in the Torrey Pines Reserve for almost 20 years, which is this incredible home with no neighbors, you know, around, with an ocean view. I got to live in that house because of my job. My hobbies of lobster diving and halibut fishing, and, you know, surfing and diving, that all came to me through lifeguarding. So, you know, I joke about this, but if I would've died at 25 years old, I would've checked out and had no regrets. I would've had an incredible life. In just those six, seven, eight, nine years of lifeguarding were like enough for me to just say, "Wow, I've done enough." So, I mean, that kind of puts it into perspective, I think, you know.

Dan Heath: Ed Vodrazka is an ocean lifeguard. He's written several books about ocean lifeguards, including "Stories from Sea Level: The Heroic and Humorous Adventures of California's Ocean Lifeguards." We'll have a link to it in the show notes. I enjoyed that conversation so much. It reminded me a little bit of the first episode of this show with a guy named Howard Hart, who was a stadium beer vendor, both people who loved their work and loved reflecting on it. What really struck me was how deeply Ed's identity was linked with his work. I mean, he is a lifeguard. That's how he sees himself. It's defined his career and his social network and even his hobbies. Remember the band he started with other lifeguards? In recent years, we've all heard a lot about setting boundaries and not investing too much of ourselves at work and not attaching our identity solely to work. And I get all that, and I believe it. I've experienced the downsides of doing that myself. But I think this mental model that work is fundamentally extractive, that we have to put up fences so the job doesn't harvest too much of what's ours, I don't think that can be the whole story, because in Ed's case, it doesn't seem like the job took something from him. It seems like it added something: meaning, purpose, adventure, fun, to get to know the ocean, its power and its dangers, to fight distraction and stay vigilant, to watch over people and keep them safe as they play, and to rescue them in the scariest moment of their lives. Folks, that's what it's like to be an ocean lifeguard. This episode was produced by Matt Purdy. I'm Dan Heath. Thanks for listening.