About 700 children participated in the annual pier jump, a culmination of a four-week session designed to teach lifeguard skills and teamwork.
Being a San Diego lifeguard requires strength, support, teamwork and facing your fears, among other skills. Several hundred San Diego children are four weeks closer to understanding that after completing their four-week Junior Lifeguard program with a long jump off the Scripps Pier in La Jolla July 1.
“It’s our Super Bowl,” Junior Lifeguard program manager Heather Rabe said of the 34th annual pier jump, which usually takes place off the Ocean Beach Pier but since 2024 has been moved to La Jolla as the OB Pier is closed.
The pier jump is the “end highlight” to the Junior Lifeguard sessions, Rabe said, which focus on learning to support others, group cohesiveness and facing fears together, in addition to providing children ages nine to 17 the opportunity to see what lifeguarding the San Diego beaches entails.
San Diego lifeguards often use the Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach and OB and Scripps piers for rescues when it’s faster, Rabe said.
The July jump saw most of the 700 enrolled Junior Lifeguards take the leap, though not everybody jumps, she said.
The jump is optional but “highly encouraged.”
The Junior Lifeguard program, through the city of San Diego, is “incredibly grateful” to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for allowing the pier jumps to continue, Rabe said, adding SIO and the city have a “strong and necessary partnership” with both supporting each other.
The jump is sponsored by the Prevent Drowning Foundation, which aims to provide free swim lessons to underserved youth and provides about 60 scholarships annually to the Junior Lifeguard program.
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