His tousled hair is still blonde and he looks like a younger version of himself.
He’s a professional beach boy, no matter his age.
Greg Wilfert is 71 years old and has been lifeguarding over half a century, watching out for swimmer safety since he was 17 years old.
Wilfert is the Scarborough Beach lifeguard who was attacked by a great white shark over the weekend while swimming on shark patrol.
“It was frightening,” he later told WGME-TV’s Brad Rogers. “I’m not gonna deny that.”
Wilfert is in his 54th consecutive year guarding the same stretch of beach he first fell in love with as a teenager.
“When I came down and saw the beach and, I guess, what do you call it, your first love? There it is. I found a way to make it work,” Wilfert told told WMTW-TV in an interview five years ago.
Wilfert carved out his summers for lifeguarding even as he worked as a physical education teacher and later ran an antique business with his wife, who died seven years ago.
He’s rescued more than a thousand swimmers in his decades with his eyes on the ocean, a demanding job with no room for error.
Wilfert was swimming on weekend shark patrol when a shark grabbed the strap of his rescue torpedo and pulled him down.
“I was pulled under about five feet and I thought I was caught in the propeller of a boat, because that’s the only thing I could think of,” he recalled, “until I realized there was no boat.”
That’s when Wilfert figured out it was a shark, at least a dozen of which have been spotted at Scarborough Beach in the last few days.
“And all I did was pull off the strap and get to the surface and swim as fast as I could to get in,” he said.
When Wilfert got to shore he ordered the immediate closure of the beach.
He said the lifeguards send drones overhead over every half hour looking for sharks and if they spot one “we send out the jet ski because the sharks don’t like the jet skis.”
What an idiot swimming out on shark patrol what are the drones for to search for your body after the shark takes a few bits out of you.
Talk about doing stupid things and winning stupid prizes.
Yikes
Is that a picture of him ?
Is he looking for a girlfriend ?
Does anybody with a half a brain really think that your boss makes you go out swimming on shark patrol?
If he did make you do that it would be one huge OSHA violation a huge violation putting your life on the line every time with sharks in the area. Does he pay you hazard pay for doing it?
I personally think you were swimming on the clock and just making up an excuse for doing it to make yourself look good. I wonder what your boss has to say about it.