NYC to ease lifeguard requirements to keep beaches open
NEW YORK (PIX11) – New York City will be easing its lifeguard requirements to keep beaches from closing during the summer, Mayor Eric Adams first told PIX11 News on Friday.
The applicants will no longer be timed in the 300-yard swim and the city is easing the vision qualifications to become a lifeguard, the mayor said.
"Why must a lifeguard be able to swim 300 yards within a time for a small pool?" Adams said. "That's just not logical."
There are three tiers of lifeguarding in New York City: splash pads, pools, and beaches. The changes will allow lifeguards from splash pads to move to pools so that pool lifeguards can work at beaches.
"You don't need to be a great Olympic swimmer to save someone at a pool," Adams said.
The city currently has 230 lifeguards but is still short hundreds of lifeguards for this summer. There are over 300 recruits in the 16-week training program, officials said.
"The outdated issues are in the way of getting things done," Adams said at a press conference Friday.
The changes to the lifeguard test are expected to impact beaches starting next summer, Adams said.
The mayor said the city would be contacting anyone who failed one component of the test to let them know they're now eligible to be lifeguards.
The current qualifications for lifeguards include being at least 16 years old, having at least 20/30 vision in one eye and 20/40 in the other, and being able to swim 50 yards in 45 seconds.
New York City lifeguards have stricter vision requirements than Air Force pilots, who have to have at least 20/40 vision in both eyes for near vision and 20/200 for distant vision, which must be corrected to 20/20 vision, according to Indeed.
Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here.