Today we’d like to introduce you to Guri Sejzer.
Guri, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Since I was a kid in Israel, I loved the ocean and like most boys, emergency services were always an attraction. Ocean lifeguards in particular, have a wide variety of responsibilities and tasks, from preventative actions and enforcement of beach rules, to water rescues and pre-hospital emergency medical care, year-round ocean lifeguards often also specialize in public safety diving, swift water rescue, marine fire-fighting and cliff rescue. So in the eyes of a young boy, what better combination of duties than that applied to the beach environment. It was a dream career path. And today, I can say “I´m living the dream.”
I started GLC Aquatic Safety Dept. almost 15 years ago in Argentina´s Atlantic coast, primarily as a consultancy provider as back then I was starting to work as a seasonal lifeguard in Patagonia only in the summer months and lifeguarding counter-seasonally in the US (Alabama, California, New Jersey and once also in Vermont). Lifeguarding at remote beach towns, assigned to shipboard expeditions, camps and film/production set water safety made me realize that in some jurisdictions governmental lifeguard services weren´t available or had limited capabilities for specific unusual needs. And so gradually, I started adding operational services, such as providing lifeguards, standby safety divers, marine safety officers, and watersports guides to our, nowadays, wide range of services.
Years later, one of our main Californian clients, an expedition vessel that used to be docked at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, in front of the Aquarium of the Pacific and not too far from the Queen Mary, got sold to a Mexican based company which was interested in keeping GLC Aquatic Safety Dept. as its marine safety services provider. So we expanded operations to the Baja California Peninsula. Before that, our marine expeditions used to be mainly to Catalina Island. But since we opened an office in La Paz, state capital of Baja California Sur, we have been keeping tens of shipboard expeditions safe in the Sea of Cortez, and even provided film set water safety to a Jean-Michel Cousteau documentary down there.
Nowadays we strive to provide the same quality services and high standards anywhere we deploy to, and when it happens to be south of the border, like for the annual International Triathlon Union PanAmerican Cup edition in La Paz or the Los Cabos Ironman, we pride ourselves for ensuring locals and visitors alike “Enjoy Mexican Beauty With American Safety.™”
We hope to keep acquiring state-of-the-art rescue, medical and diving equipment, to continue training our professional lifeguards in the latest techniques and procedures, and to keep “Protecting Life, The Environment & Property.”
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Having a small business, regardless of the industry or field, is not easy. While technically GLC Aquatic Safety Dept. (“ASD”) is a for-profit company, open water safety is not very profitable. I didn´t start ASD with a vision of becoming an entrepreneur, having a world famous “startup” or getting rich. Not at all!
In Latin America, most public safety and emergency services lack proper budgets and resources, added to the generalized government corruption. So even as a municipal lifeguard I had to buy my own rescue equipment and pay for my own specialization courses if I wanted to provide the public with the same quality service as when I worked seasonally Stateside. In the US, being a foreigner visa holder, I could not work as a lifeguard for any of the governmental lifeguard agencies such as LA County Fire Dept. Lifeguard Division, LA County Parks & Recreation Dept. Lake Lifeguards, LA City Recreation & Parks Dept. Lifeguards , Long Beach Fire Dept. Marine Safety Division or California State Parks Lifeguards.
So that, added to my realization about how highly trained private sector ocean lifeguards were a great integral solution to specific needs in certain marine areas and water events, were the reasons I founded ASD. After all, I was already paying for my own equipment, training, certifications, insurance and uniforms, so instead of being a freelancer I made it official.
And so, considering safety in general is often seen by potential clients as a mandatory expense rather than a desired investment, plus the typical ups and downs of being self-employed through a small business, can give you a good idea that it hasn´t been a walk in the park all the time.
However, no regrets. Yes, starting a small business and working for yourself for little pay as you´re constantly investing in equipment and certifications, wasn´t easy, but I have the best job in the world. Often we get paid to guard at beautiful locations on islands in the Gulf of California, Southern California and even travelling to Bahamas, we get to earn a living doing what we train for, what we live for (in today´s economy -which could be considered a luxury with so many college graduates struggling to find a job) and we get life experiences full of anecdotes and stories. It´s a very rewarding job, not only after a rescue or a medical aid, but also when we´re guiding tourists who we watch over while kayaking, snorkeling or SCUBA diving, and even more at our junior lifeguards program. Sharing the knowledge one received from instructors and veteran lifeguards at one´s early stages, and preventing people from getting into trouble in the process, is very rewarding. I always enjoy teaching CPR, first aid and basic water rescue to kids and adult members of the general public.
So, if you´re willing to take some risks by maybe not making as much money as you could doing something else, start your own path following your dreams. It has been working for me.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the GLC Aquatic Safety Dept. story. Tell us more about the business.
We provide ocean lifeguards for events such as open water swims, ITU triathlons and Ironman races, beach parties, yacht parties and even beach weddings. We also provide beach/marine safety for production sets (like when they shot a commercial, a movie or a documentary in, near or around water).
One of our specialties are shipboard marine expeditions, where our lifeguards assigned to them guide and accompany the passengers in all of their activities such as snorkeling, SCUBA diving, sea kayaking, coastal hikes, boat rides, whale-watching, etc. For that, we have to also be certified as dive masters and specialized tour guides. Plus we must be certified in basic marine fire-fighting as when you spend days or weeks at sea away from ports and civilization, we must be capable to respond to any emergency, including shipboard fires.
In addition, we provide a wide range of diving services (in addition to the recreational diving already mentioned above). We provide public safety diving which consists in body and evidence recovery at the request of law enforcement agencies. We provide non-deco commercial diving which includes preventative underwater maintenance and light repairs (such as hull cleaning, zinc anode replacement, propeller disentanglement, refloating sank small vessels, and underwater inspections). And also environmental/scientific diving, where we get hired for underwater coastal monitoring or even coral relocation.
We also have a Training & Public Education Division, through which we offer the public a variety of courses, workshops and programs, such as CPR, AED use, First Aid, basic water rescue, boating safety, lifeguarding and occupational safety and health training with international certification. This division also handles our junior lifeguard program (which we launched two years ago) where we teach participants ages 10 to 17 about lifesaving, emergency medical first response, sport lifesaving, snorkeling, rescue board and kayak use and general beach safety, in addition to the recreational component.
As if that wasn´t enough, we have a Disaster Preparedness & Response Division. As professional open water lifeguards we are all trained and certified first responders, some of us even as swift water rescue technicians and rescue divers, so it only makes sense to be there when the community needs us the most. We responded to Hurricane Odile in September 2014, minor flooding incidents due to Tropical Storm Lydia and even assisted with a couple of wildfires. We are certified by FEMA in Incident Command System (ICS-100 and ICS-200) and in my case being a lifeguard supervisor, I´m also certified as a PIO (Public Information Officer). When a disaster doesn´t require water rescue specialists, we still offer our assistance as a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team). Needless to say, all services provided by this division are free-of-charge. It´s one of our ways to give back to the community when disaster strikes.
But it´s not all incidents, disasters and bad news, we got to guard the VD6 World Record of Open Water Relay Swimming back in 2010, where a team of 6 master swimmers from Ventura swam from Ventura to Santa Barbara to La Jolla non-stop (taking turns of one hour each) for four and a half days until setting the 202 mile world record. I got to accompany the K38 Rescue team in charge of R-PWC (Rescue Personal Water Craft / “jet ski”) operation at Cortes Bank (100 miles off the coast of San Diego) in 40 plus foot waves watching over world famous professional big wave surfers such as Garrett McNamara; provide film set water safety to Jean-Michel Cousteau, his son Fabien and daughter Celine (Jacques Cousteau´s son and grandchildren) for their latest feature documentary Wonders of the Sea 3D narrated by Arnold Schwarzenegger; and even provide event safety to the Big Blue World Cup of Freediving. Just a few days ago I got to take the creator of Inspector Gadget on a whale shark snorkeling tour. We really love what we do, we love the ocean, and we feel thankful for being a leading marine safety firm that gets the privilege to keep such unique characters safe while at sea or at the beach.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
In our field, luck is often out of the planning equation, but bad luck is a constant one must always consider. At risk of sounding cheesy, it´s true that we “plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
While I´ll leave philosophy, lifestyle and religious views out of this interview, I take synchronicity as the way the Universe, Nature, “The Big Architect”, God (or whichever is the way you prefer to put it) to tell you that you´re heading in the right way. So many times one gets surprised by life when you meet the right person at the right time, one client refers you to another one, you get asked about your services by a bystander while you´re on duty and that ends up leading to another gig, and so on… Good luck is always welcomed and it´s always a boost to moral when times are hard for one´s small business. Added to that, “the ocean has a way of bringing people together,” and I have been very fortunate that I always meet great people during our gigs, deployments and travels. I have made great friends and learned a lot about other cultures, costumes, philosophies and points of view thanks to working as an open water lifeguard internationally and domestically. Having been born in Israel and raised in South America, I came to love Alabama and the Southeast in general; having worked in exchange for free accommodation at the Venice Beach Hostel I met backpackers and fellow travelers literally from all over the world; I got to travel to exotic destinations such as Bahamas; and so on… Consider it good luck or something else, in spite of the hard times that are natural to starting a small business from scratch in an industry that won´t make you rich even if you get to the top, I feel very thankful for my life and my life experiences connected to these almost 15 years of GLC Aquatic Safety Dept. (“ASD”).
Bad luck? Well, us ocean lifeguards (and emergency service professionals in general) might consider it job security. -Just kidding. Yes, bad luck is around the corner, and as professional rescuers, we prevent it with lots of training, equipment redundancy and lots of situational awareness. Luckily, at ASD we never had one of us suffer a major injury much less an occupational death. And all of our rescued victims, regardless if distressed swimmers, panicked victims or unconscious victims, never needed CPR. We hope that´s always the case, but we prepare for the worst all the time.
From the pure business point of view, yes, bad luck has been present. From breach of contracts in behalf of a few not-so-ideal clients, to the economy not always favoring small businesses, to us going in the red for providing free of charge disaster relief service during a hurricane aftermath… Bad things happen. To all that, add personal issues, relationship problems that may arise for one´s extended deployments at sea, etc. It hasn´t all been easy, but, at risk of sounding cheesy again, “what doesn´t kill you, makes you stronger.” -And that also applies to businesses themselves.
Pricing:
- Event water safety lifeguard daily rate starting at $100.
- Emergency First Response combined course (Adult/Child/Infant CPR, AED, First Aid) $90 per participant.
- Standby ocean lifeguard – rescue diver for film set water safety daily rate starting at $150.
Contact Info:
- Address: GLC Aquatic Safety Dept.
65 Pine Ave., Ste. 809
Long Beach, CA 90802 - Website: www.aquaticsafetydept.com
- Phone: 3105642365
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/AquaticSafetyDept.Depto.SeguridadAcuatica
- Other: www.imdb.com/name/nm4019199/
Image Credit:
LS (1), VD6 (2), Troy Iloski (3), ASD (4 & 5), John Villegas (6), Yoel Goldchain (7), Tracey Preston-Hucik (8).
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