As lifeguards, our jobs can be both physically and mentally demanding, so it’s important that we fuel ourselves with only the best nutrients and energy.
The most important meal of the day for a lifeguard is not breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It is actually the bacon, egg and cheese, which can be eaten at any point of the lifeguard’s day. Sometimes it’s breakfast, sometimes it’s lunch, and sometimes it’s all three meals split up throughout the day.
When we don’t eat BECs, many lifeguards still settle for breakfast from one of our many delicious bagel spots, like Boardwalk Bagels, Bagel Barista, Rockaway Bagels, and Beach Bagels.
If breakfast is eaten at home, lunch will quickly become a popular topic of conversation among lifeguards. At Beach 97th Street alone, we’re spoiled for choice. Within a few blocks you can grab pizza, poke bowls, ceviche, deli sandwiches, burgers, gyros, tacos, chicken and rice, ice cream or whatever craving hits after six hours in the sun.
Some personal favorites of mine are Far Out Poke, La Cevicheria, Kimo’s, and the brand-new Crown Square Pizza.
If you bring lunch from home, you need to be careful. The quickest way to lose half your lunch is to unwrap it in front of hungry lifeguards. Or leave it unattended with seagulls in the vicinity.
When lifeguards are crunched for time, sometimes we eat on the tower. Some foods are better than others to eat up there. Handhelds and finger foods are usually easiest, and things start getting dicey when utensils are involved.
Have you ever tried to eat a spicy tuna roll on a windy day in the lifeguard chair? Soy sauce becomes a hazard in 20 mph southwest winds. Chopsticks hang on for dear life, grains of rice are whisked away. I can tell you firsthand, it’s not a pleasant experience. One rogue gust left my orange lifeguard shirt in shambles.
In between meals, we have no shortage of snacks on the beach. Icee carts come by constantly, but we also have an empanada lady, a baklava man, fruit vendors, and occasionally this dude who hands out hard-boiled eggs. I’ve had the baklava, but I can’t say I’ve tried the hard-boiled eggs. Lifeguards who bring snacks from home quickly become the most popular people on the beach, attracting a steady stream of coworkers throughout the day.
In addition to staying well fed, lifeguards need to stay alert on the job. A good iced coffee or iced latte on the beach is hard to top, and at 97 Shack, we love to get our fix at Washed Up Cafe or Phase Surf.
But once 3 p.m. rolls around, the coffee shops close down, and sometimes we hit an afternoon slump. Luckily, boardwalk samplers like Monster Energy, Bloom Nutrition, and C4 have been kind enough to gift us their leftover stock over the past couple of summers. Two flavors I’ve had the privilege of trying are Ultra Red, White & Blue Razz and Blue Jolly Rancher, both of which taste exactly how I’d imagine battery acid tastes. Lifeguards are obviously very mindful about what we put into our bodies.
Blue Jolly Rancher C4 actually bestowed the power of super speed upon me last Fourth of July. I had just finished an entire can when we were taking a shack photo on the 98th Street jetty.
Moments later, a PEP officer alerted us to two swimmers in distress. My sprint from 98th Street to 92nd was the fastest I’ve ever run. My skin felt like electrical currents were running through me, and I’m still not sure my feet actually touched the sand.
While I can’t imagine many nutritionists would recommend the lifeguard diet, we always make it through the summer on our bacon, egg and cheeses, iced coffees, beach snacks, and the occasional can of battery acid. I still wouldn’t recommend eating sushi on the chair, though.
