57 seasons, 57 reasons

Tanned feet in the sand, leaning up against a red Jeep parked at the water’s edge at Corona del Mar State Beach, Newport Beach Lifeguard Buddy Belshe is in his office.

For 57 years, the beach is where Belshe has reported to work. Belshe, 72, is a career lifeguard who says there’s nothing he’d rather do.

He knows because he tried. After 21 years as a lifeguard captain, he retired and tested the waters in the real estate business. But six months later he returned to the beach, this time as a seasonal guard, and he’s never left.

“It just really wasn’t me,” Belshe said of his temporary career change. “I like to have my toes in the sand.”

Among lifeguards, Belshe is a legend. Co-workers said he can spot a rescue before the person even gets in the water. Judging by someone’s body language on the beach, Belshe said he can tell whether that person might be a problem.

“Buddy sees someone who needs help, and he goes out very, very early,” Newport Lifeguard Battalion Chief Jim Turner said.

Turner has worked with Buddy for more than 20 years. Before Belshe retired, he was Turner’s boss; now Turner is Belshe’s supervisor. Belshe said he’s been the training officer for most of the permanent Newport Beach lifeguards.

There are other lifeguards who are faster swimmers, but no one gets to the water more quickly than Belshe, Turner said.

“He’s like an oak tree,” Lifeguard Capt. Brent Jacobsen said. “He just faithfully stays exactly where he’s supposed to be at all times and never takes his eye off the water, never takes a break.”

The Aliso Viejo resident said he keeps in shape by working out and swimming competitively.

To say that Belshe was born a lifeguard wouldn’t be an exaggeration. When he was growing up in Huntington Beach, his mother was a swimming instructor and his father a Huntington lifeguard.

“It was just in my blood,” he said.

After working for the Huntington Beach lifeguards for 11 summers, Belshe came to Newport Beach in 1960.

Belshe’s made so many rescues he can’t remember the exact number, but he does know he’s never lost anyone. All the years of work have rendered him incapable of spending a relaxing day at the beach.

“I really like helping people,” he said.dpt.19-water-CPhotoInfoMJ1R3RPG20060519izhjwbnc KENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Lifeguard Buddy Belshe, 72, at the water’s edge in Corona del Mar State Beach, where he has spent part of his 57 years as a lifeguard.