Debbie Friedman

Debbie Friedman was one of the first women hired as an ocean lifeguard in California, starting in 1978 at San Clemente and Huntington State Beaches. When Friedman could find no stories about her generation of first women lifeguards, she wrote this book to share a few.

What she found surprised her. As she took a deep dive into the past, she found women who saved lives, each story unique, yet bound by a common purpose, a desire to serve.

Her memoir, GUARDED: Women, Water, and Saving Lives, blends personal narrative with rarely shared history to tell the story of a generation of women who changed lifeguarding forever.

She lives in Santa Cruz County, California, where she still swims and walks the coast.