Daytona Beach, FL – Thousands of lifeguards from across the country are in Daytona Beach this week to see who’s the best on the beach.
The 2015 Nautica National Lifeguard Championships – hosted by the United States Lifesaving Association – will begin Wednesday on the sands in front of the Daytona Beach Hilton Oceanfront Resort.
The Volusia Surf Lifesaving Association is helping the USLA host this event in conjunction with Volusia County Beach Safety & Ocean Rescue.
Over 2,000 lifeguards and 500 junior lifeguards will compete in a series of events over the next 4 days, all of them designed to test their fitness and ability on the sand and in the water.
Among those events will be an ironman and ironwoman competition as well as races of all kinds, including some using surfboards and water skis.
The games begin Wednesday with the juniors competing against one another before the adults step in on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The events are free to watch from the spectator areas along the beach as well as the Daytona Beach Boardwalk, where bleachers have been set up. 5 large-screen televisions will also be available for watchers to get up-close views of the events as they happen.
Public parking is available for $1 an hour at the Ocean Center parking garage on the other side of State Road A1A from Ocean Walk Shoppes as well as Breaker’s Park at Main Street and the Oakridge Boulevard beach approach. Parking will not be available at Ora Street during the event.
Among the teams at this year’s event are last year’s championship squads from Monmouth County in New Jersey and Smith Point in New York. Also competing is a team from Los Angeles County in California, who’ve won the overall competition 40 times since 1970.
Dozens of Volusia County beach lifeguards have signed up to compete in both individual and group events.
Award ceremonies honoring the top 3 finishers will take place after each event final at the clock tower.
All the events are taking place in a no-driving zone on the beach.
This is the 4th time Volusia County has hosted the USLA national championships and the first since 2004. The county also hosted in 1982 and 1996 and plan to host again in 2017.
For more information on the event, click here or click here or call Beach Safety at 386-239-7873.
Click here to see the event schedule.
The competition photos above and below are courtesy of Volusia County.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.