Gold Coast chief lifeguard Warren Young retires after decades watching over the city’s beaches
Lower those red and yellow flags to half-mast, because the silver fox of the surf has officially hung up his Speedos, writes Ann Wason Moore.
Gold Coast
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LOWER those red and yellow flags to half-mast, because the silver fox of the surf has officially hung up his Speedos.
It’s a changing of the (life) guard for the Gold Coast, as king of the coast Warren Young steps down from his beach tower after almost half a century.
Employed as a professional lifeguard by the City of Gold Coast in 1973, Warren was promoted to chief lifeguard just two years later at the tender age of 25 – a job he now retires from at age 70.
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While his role might have remained the same over the course of those decades, his office backdrop has changed dramatically – just as no two days on the sand have ever been the same.
While he exits his job watching over the water, there’s no chance he won’t still be spotted on the sand – not just watching but welcoming beachgoers.
While his official title might have seen him in charge of facilitating beach safety along our 52km coastal strip, managing a budget of $9.5 million and employing 39 permanent staff and 140 seasonal staff as part of the largest professional lifeguard service in Australia – not to mention managing the legacy of the 40-strong beach tower system he created – part of Warren’s role has always been acting as an ambassador for the Gold Coast.
And according to him, that’s the easiest job in the world.
“I always say to people, ‘we’re not selling counterfeit here’,” says Warren.
“Look at this place, it is still the most magical, beautiful city in the world. Our beaches are second to none … the fine white sand, the transparent water, not to mention our hinterland. I can’t tell you the pride I feel for this city.
“How lucky am I that this has been my workplace for almost 50 years? It hasn’t just been my job but my privilege to watch over and welcome tourists to our shores.”
For Warren and the Gold Coast, it was love at first sight.
Born in Brisbane, he grew up in commission housing in Acacia Ridge with his widowed mother, but on the weekends was drawn south to the surf.
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“Mum did a really great job on her own but every weekend I’d be down the coast,” he says.
“I joined Miami Surf Life Saving Club when I was 18 and I loved it. I loved the discipline and the fitness – but I was focused on my job at Telecom.
“Then in 1973 I was made club captain at Miami which I was stoked about … and then a lifeguard job came up with council. By this time I’d been with Telecom for more than seven years, but I decided to give it up because the surf was where I belonged.
“It was a big decision to give up what, in those days, was a job for life … but thank God I did. I found a job that was my life. I’d only been a lifeguard for two years when (then chief lifeguard) Marshall Kropp decided to retire. I wasn’t senior at all but he must have seen something in me because he named me his successor. The rest, as they say, is history.”
Indeed, history was what Warren made.
Before 1989, lifeguards conducted roving patrols which offered fleeting surveillance of the long coastline.
But by the late 1980s, after a spate of drownings near high-rise towers, the beach between Surfers Paradise and Main Beach was dubbed “Death Alley” and Warren was
called to action.
To combat the threat to both beachgoers and the city’s tourism reputation, he proposed a network of towers strategically located along the coastline to achieve interlocking surveillance.
“What the beaches really needed was continual surveillance – preferably from a height which allows a wider span of beach to be monitored,” he says.
“It was a new way of doing things but the council knew that we needed a radical change – it might have been my idea but it was their support that saw it actually happen.
“To this day, the City of Gold Coast provides the lifeguards with all the skills and all the rescue equipment we need. When you go away to lifeguard conferences with the Bondi guys and that, they come up and copy off our manual. Our service has got so much respect.”
The creation of the beach towers wasn’t Warren’s first improvement to surf safety either. In an Australian first, in 1979 he implemented a compulsory physical test for the city’s lifeguards – a test that involved swimming from Greenmount to Coolangatta, running up the beach and back for a total of 1600m, then paddling back to Greenmount in under 26 minutes.
The biannual test garnered national media attention and is still carried out today by all City of Gold Coast lifeguards – including Warren.
“My next one is due this year … that’s another reason it’s a great time to retire,” he laughs.
The real reason for Warren’s retirement is simple: it’s time to go.
At the age of 70, the father of four grown children is ready to spend time on the beach guarding the next generation of grandchildren.
But that won’t stop him scanning the sea for signs of distress.
In his 47 years on patrol, one thing Warren has learned is that the ocean is always in charge.
“I’ve had the same job for decades, but every day is different – because every day the ocean is different,” he says.
“You can never think that you know it all … I have seen too many powerful, accomplished swimmers get into trouble out there. You have to acknowledge the power of the ocean.
“If you took a picture of me and someone else looking out to sea, we might be looking at the same thing – but we’re seeing something different. And I’ll always be scanning the horizon, looking out for danger and looking to warn others.”
But when it comes to ensuring surf safety, Warren says compliance comes down to delivery.
He says while tourists and residents alike might not follow instruction, it’s important not to berate but to encourage them.
“I don’t want to yell at people, that’s not what my job is about. I want to let people know, in a friendly way, how they can stay safe,” he says.
“When you are friendly, so are they … most people will be thankful and listen to advice. But if you’re angry, so are they.
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“The fact is that no one comes to the beach to commit a crime. These are not bad people, just people in danger and we are here to help, not to make them feel bad.
“It’s something I try to teach every lifeguard, to be careful of their language and their message.
“That’s especially important when we’re dealing with a tragedy. Don’t criticise an individual’s actions because when that is reported in the media you don’t know who is reading or listening. It could be the father or the wife or the child of someone whose life was lost.
“Don’t turn their tragedy into a criminal act or label them as stupid. When a tragedy occurs, we don’t have to blame someone.”
As much as his life is a beach, dealing with death is an inescapable part of Warren’s job. He says for all the thousands of lives saved, it’s those lost that haunt him.
“The hardest part is that when something tragic happens, you aren’t in a hospital.
“The next of kin are nearby and you can’t pull a curtain around you for privacy. Everything is transparent, and you never get used to that.
“In our job, every time we save a life we get a ‘thank you’ … even if it’s half-mumbled by a young guy who’s embarrassed in front of his mates. There aren’t many jobs who get thanked as much as we do.
“But when a life is lost, there is nothing anyone can say to lessen the blow. We are always heartbroken, you always wonder what more could have been done – even though the answer is ‘nothing’.”
Warren was especially shaken when, last September, the Coast suffered its first fatal beach shark attack in more than 60 years.
He says while there are signs beachgoers can look out for – bait fish, swooping birds, low light – it’s always a risk when entering the water.
“It’s a low risk, we all know that. But it is something that you have to bear in mind. We work closely with the choppers and drones and waterways authorities, we’re in constant communication with other towers and we have drum lines and nets … but the ocean is where sharks live.
“You have to use common sense and understand that we do our best, but there is no guarantee.
“That afternoon at Greenmount, I never would have picked that would happen. It was awful.”
Now that his days of professionally protecting beachgoers are over, Warren is looking in another direction – watching over the future of the city itself.
As the unofficial ambassador for the Gold Coast, he says it’s important the city protects its best assets.
“I love this city, every decade has had its thrills and its challenges, and that’s no different now.
“I think we have been extremely fortunate to have councils that understand just how much the beach and the ocean mean to us all. We just have to make sure that every opportunity that presents itself is best for everyone.
“I’m not entirely sure about the idea of beach clubs. To me, that’s something that tourists can experience in plenty of other cities around the world.
“But to walk out of your hotel in Surfers and head north along the sand towards The Spit, to experience that peace and solitude, that’s our own magic … that’s our point of difference.
“We need to think carefully because it doesn’t take long to kill the golden goose.”
While Warren implemented plenty of changes in his time at the top of the tower, he says there are still new challenges to overcome.
He says he is especially concerned that our ever-growing population is given every opportunity to understand surf safety.
“We have so many new arrivals who not only don’t know our beaches and oceans, but many don’t necessarily know how to swim, especially if they haven’t grown up in Australia. I would love to see a program provided to all new arrivals that could ensure their swimming competence and give them at least a basic understanding of our ocean.
“You can never have enough respect for it.”
After 47 years watching our backs, it seems the same sentiment holds true towards Warren. Respect for putting his body on the line, for saving our lives time and time again, for reimagining surf safety for our city … and, always, looking damn good doing it.
See you somewhere on the sand, Silver Fox.
Originally published as Gold Coast chief lifeguard Warren Young retires after decades watching over the city’s beaches
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