UCLA’s campus is steeped in sunshine. It should come as no surprise, then, that the campus boasts six pools, each of them manned by a suitably sun-kissed crew of red-swimsuit clad undergraduates who seem straight out of Baywatch. Throughout the year, 115 student lifeguards don their Lycra and jump in — literally. But this crew of campus elites knows it takes more than a good swimsuit and a zinc-ed nose to do the job. To be a Bruin lifeguard, you need chlorinated blood, sweat and tears.
Enter the UCLA Lifeguard School, which trains these elite few, requiring guard hopefuls to go well beyond the compulsory standards of the American Red Cross. The full UCLA Lifeguarding certification takes more than 32 hours to complete. Potential guards start with the dry basics: hours of online modules, CPR training, in-person interviews and a final, 50-question written exam. But it’s what these guards do in the water that’s the true test.
It starts at Sunset Canyon Recreation Center with a 200-yard swim and two minutes of treading water in an Olympic-size pool. Trainees must then dive from the pool’s edge to a depth of 17 feet. That’s just the start. The third test requires applicants to sprint 20 yards into the water, retrieve a 10-pound brick from 10 feet below, and then swim back to the pool’s edge with the brick while holding it above water.
Did I mention they have to do all of this in less than 100 seconds?
Click through for a photo gallery of the lifeguards' busy training:
Every year, scads of fresh-faced hopefuls come ready to give up their weekends and conquer the chlorine. You can read the determination on their faces: They stand on the concrete, steely-eyed at the lane lines, weighted with the bricks. At the sound of a whistle, the applicants dive into North Pool, a six-lane outdoor pool behind Kaufman Hall. One by one, dive by dive, the students show off their skills, receive their passing marks and exchange well-earned high-fives. What starts out as high intensity soon becomes congratulatory and rad. When the future guards exit the pool, there is a communal sigh of relief. They know they’re one step closer to earning the coveted title of Bruin lifeguard.
Dozens of groups rely on the Bruin lifeguards during both the academic year and the summer season: D1 and club sports, day camps, intramural leagues, recreational swimmers, family swim lesson participants and even athletes training for Team U.S.A. in synchronized swimming.
So, we wondered, is it all actually like the glory days of David Hasselhoff? Yes and no. “When it comes to the day to day, you’re watching people swim back and forth in the pool,” says Siobhan Goodwell ’08, UCLA Recreation aquatics coordinator and supervisor of the UCLA Lifeguard School. “But yes, it might have some Baywatch-like moments.”
When you have a 115-student crew of lifesaving Bruins out there, Baywatch-like is close enough. I may not have spied the next Pamela Anderson, but I did see a fresh-faced new crew of UCLA lifeguards ready to make a big splash.
Read more from UCLA Magazine’s Summer 2026 issue.
