On Guard : Safety: Young junior lifeguard trainees take a dip in Castaic Lake to learn skills including rescue tactics, CPR and first aid.

Fifteen-year-old Ryan Hyfield admits he originally joined the Castaic Lake Junior Lifeguard Program four years ago mostly to have fun and maybe meet some cute girls.

But since then, Ryan said he has learned that “being a lifeguard is a good way to help people.”

The junior guard program, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, offers two four-week sessions each summer for youngsters ages 9 to 17.

The program teaches the kids everything they would need to become professional lifeguards. Among other things, they learn water-safety skills, rescue tactics and boating laws. Participants can also earn cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first-aid certificates.

“Each day the junior lifeguards are expected to be ready to work,” but also to have fun, said Tracy Hild, senior Castaic Lake lifeguard and program coordinator.

“To me the most important thing about the program is that it makes these kids aware of safety,” she added. The skills they learn “can be applied wherever they are, whether it means having to use CPR on their little brother or sister or using first-aid techniques on a complete stranger.”

A typical day of junior guard training at Castaic Lake begins with a morning swim or run. The kids are then divided into small groups for instruction sessions and practice. Later in the afternoon, some of the youngsters may try paddle-boarding or go for a canoe ride. Other activities include jet skiing, windsurfing, water-skiing and kayaking.

Youngsters also take part in a variety of simulated rescues. One recent exercise pitted two teams outfitted in masks and snorkels against each other as they raced the clock to locate a plastic dummy hidden 35 feet underwater.

Boating safety is stressed as well. For example, the junior guards learn what speed limit to use when passing swimmers and what safety equipment to put aboard before launching a vessel into the water.

The guards also get a chance to compete against other junior guards throughout California in events that include paddle-board races and rescue races, long-distance swims and run-swim-run races.

Earlier this summer, junior lifeguards from Castaic Lake traveled to Santa Barbara to compete, where Ryan placed 18th in a run-swim-run race and swam 1,200 yards.

Another Castaic team member, 16-year-old Lukas Antos, placed 19th in the paddle-board race, and Alex David, 16, placed 10th in the long-distance run.

“The kids like this program because it’s challenging and fun,” said Hild. She added that, for her, “it’s fulfilling to know I’m teaching them to provide a safe environment for others.”