Lifeguards still wanted in Ocean City ahead of busy Memorial Day weekend

OCEAN CITY, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - While Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of beach season for so many of us, one of the most popular beaches in the area is still hoping for more lifeguards.

Thousands upon thousands of people are expected to hit the road and leave the DMV area this Memorial Day weekend -- many of them will head to Ocean City where the beach patrol is hoping some of those travelers will want to learn CPR.

"Since we had such a great year last year, I'm doing most of the same things, maybe even more of it, and then we had a change this year," said Lt. Ward Kovacs with the Ocean City Beach Patrol.

Kovacs says the beach patrol will still have 75 lifeguard chairs on the beach come Saturday and Sunday, but by July 1, they'd like to have 91 chairs -- plus they want a Junior Beach Patrol, July 4th security and people to man their rescue watercraft -- that's where the recruiting issues come in.

"Something we've seen that was unusual for us this year was an unusually high number of people who actually took the time to go online, find the job, register online - which is filling out quite a few documents - and then actually just didn't show up to take the test," said Kovacs.

Kovacs thinks it could just be because the job isn't quite as appealing to some young people these days or maybe because there's not much affordable housing.

Although others -- like Emily Stang -- say once you give it a try, you might not be able to stop.

"It's an awesome job, it's super rewarding," said Stang.

She's actually one of eight of her family members who've been part of the beach patrol this decade.

If you're interested in being a lifeguard, they do still have another test that will take place on June 1. You can go to the Ocean City Beach Patrol website to apply.