It’s been a banner year for Santa Cruz County’s teenage lifeguards.
On the heels of Ryder Williams’ viral save of a 10-year-old boy at Seabright State Beach this summer, Santa Cruz lifesaving athletes will make up a full third of the 12-member U.S. Youth National Team headed to the Lifesaving World Championships in South Africa later this month.
The competition, which runs from Nov. 25 to Dec. 13 in Port Elizabeth, will feature thousands of athlete-lifeguards from 70 countries competing in 32 ocean and pool events designed to test various lifesaving skills.
Unfamiliar with lifesaving competitions? You’re not alone. Wildly popular in Australia, South Africa, Europe—and to a lesser extent Southern California and the U.S. East Coast—lifesaving competitions are like a track meet for lifeguards.
The 32 events are broken into nine categories: Ocean Swim, Ocean Ski, Ocean Board, Ocean Rescue, Surf Track, Surf Boats, Inflatable Rescue Boats, and Ocean Man/Ocean Woman.
“The wide variety of events is one of the things that makes the sport so great. Kids can find their individual strength and focus,” says Dan Ackerstein, manager of the West Cliff Surf Lifesaving Club, the local organization that trained all four of the Santa Cruz athletes headed to South Africa, plus two alternates.
Natalie Allen, 17, is a California State Lifeguard and a senior at Aptos High School. Nico Van Der Meer, 18, is a Santa Cruz City Lifeguard and a senior at Santa Cruz High School.
“Nico and Natalie are both swimmers. They excel in all the pool events and specialize in swimming events in the ocean. Nico is also a stellar runner,” says Ackerstein.
Ackerstein describes Caetano Dawson, 18, a Santa Cruz City Lifeguard and senior at Santa Cruz High School as a “freakish athlete who’s equally good at two unrelated events.” He’s a national champion in prone board paddling and a standout in the flags competition, which Ackerstein describes as a sprint competition in the sand.
Isla Cooper, 17, is a Santa Cruz City Lifeguard and a senior at Santa Cruz High School who discovered the surfski—a long, narrow, lightweight type of kayak—18 months ago and quickly evolved into the best youth surfski racer in the country.
“To say she found a real connection to the surfski would be an understatement,” says Ackerstein. “In a year and a half of competing, she became a youth state champ and youth national champ.”
Cooper will also compete in the Ocean Board events, Pool Rescue, and the Ocean Woman event, a 1,200-meter course that includes an ocean swim leg, a board leg, a surf ski leg, and a beach sprint finish.
“International competition is a step above anything we face here in the U.S.” said Cooper. “A top-five finish would be a huge accomplishment for any of us in South Africa.”
The West Cliff Surf Lifesaving Club, based at Cowells Beach, was formed in 2022 by Dan Ackerstein and his daughter, former U.S. Youth National Team member Sae Ackerstein, who coaches the athletes.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that a small beach town like ours could produce so many elite surf lifesaving athletes, but this group is really, really special,” said Sae Ackerstein.
Dan Ackerstein cites a 2023 Australia trip with Sae as a major inspiration.
“We discovered this unique, rich lifesaving club culture in Australia,” he said. “It inspired us to expand the club into something more elaborate, a bigger thing with a focus broader than the sport. We’ve built a community of people who love the ocean and that explains our success as much as anything.”
Natalie Allen credits the Ackersteins and their West Cliff Surf Lifesaving Club for Santa Cruz’s ear-rupturing ascent onto the sport’s global stage.
“I’d been in Junior Guards since I was seven, but didn’t start taking it seriously as a competition sport until I joined the West Cliff Lifesaving Club,” said Allen. “They provided training and hosted coaches from other parts of the country and overseas, which really helped us with technique and strategy.”
Yet Santa Cruz’s lifesaving athletes face one final hurdle before jetting off to South Africa for the world championships—fundraising.
“It’s an expensive sport and an expensive journey to South Africa, literally around the world,” says Dan Ackerstein. “We’ve done bake sales and just hosted an aid station for the Santa Cruz Marathon. We’re also selling special edition club hats and have a GoFundMe set up.”
To support sending Santa Cruz athletes to the World Lifesaving Championships, visit: gofundme.com/f/help-santa-cruz-lifeguards-compete-at-lifesaving-worlds.
