I am a lifeguard at Luxury Mansions in the Hamptons

• Mikayla Mott, 27, is a swim instructor and founder of Swim Hamptons, a private lifeguard company.
• She and her team of 10 are hired to teach swimming and lifesaving lessons in private pools and seaside beaches.
• Here’s what her work looks like, told to freelance writer Claire Turrell.

I have lived in the Hamptons all of my life. I was born into a family of lifeguards and became a lifeguard at the age of 15. I now run my own rescue business, Swim Hamptons, which provides lifeguards for private parties. Many of my clients are FTSE 100 celebrities and business owners, and have luxury pools in their multi-million dollar estates.

East Hampton, Montauk and Sag Harbor are the three main hubs of the Hamptons, within a two hour drive of New York City.

Sag Harbor is chic, expensive, but relaxed. East Hampton attracts an older crowd, and Montauk is a younger scene with a surf lodge. I saw the cast of “The Real Housewives of New York” in the Hamptons, but so far we haven’t worked for them.

People generally tend to arrive on May 1 and leave on Labor Day, but due to COVID-19, many New Yorkers arrived last summer and stayed.

Rescue is a way of life for the people of the Hamptons. When you’re old enough to get a summer job, you become a lifeguard or work in a restaurant.

I started as a private swimming instructor and got so many requests that I decided to start my own rescue business in 2016. We are now a team of 10. We mainly teach children, but we have also taught people over 75 as well as adults. for triathlons. From May to September, our lifeguards work eight hour shifts, seven days a week.

The majority of my clients don’t live full time in the Hamptons – they usually rent a house on the beach or own a second home.

2021 was particularly busy as many children were unable to attend summer camp, so parents would book us to occupy them.

We work all over the Hamptons and traffic during the holidays can be heavy – it can take an hour to drive between appointments. If I have free time between classes, I will try to maintain my fitness level by going for a run. I was lucky, but some ocean rescuers can suffer from rotator cuff tears and ankle sprains from running at full speed across the sand.

It is not uncommon for our clients to have multiple pools.

They may have a lap pool, a family pool and a saltwater pool. One of my swimming clients has an infinity pool with the ocean on one side and the bay on the other. At the edge is a mini-golf then a dock for boats.

Another client’s pool turns into the Bellagio’s fountains. There is a fountain in the middle of the pool, water jets shoot up to the surface, and waterfalls descend into the water from the edge. Another guest’s pool features underwater music.

In addition to swimming lessons, we are also booked for beaches and private poolside parties.

We are working on lots of kids birthday parties so parents can relax and have a drink without looking at the pool. Children’s parties often include bouncy castles, magicians, children’s zoos, and even mermaids in the pool.

We’re also available for adult parties, where we’ve had some interesting party requests, including working from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. for a prom and asking us to dress up as Oceanus, the Greek god Titan of the sea. With this reservation, we were specifically asked to send “pretty men”.

We have also acted as lifeguards for houses by the sea and set up rescue stations on the beach. Return currents are the biggest concern in ocean work. Some people’s confidence does not always match their abilities.

We rarely take people out, and when we do, it’s kids who can’t swim.

Fortunately, we had no situation of drunk people trying to get into the pool.

The base salary for a lifeguard in the Hamptons is around $ 20 to $ 25 an hour. However, if they work for a private company, they can earn up to $ 75 an hour for private swimming lessons and up to $ 150 an hour for a private pool party. If it is a large pool party, we insist that the client hire more lifeguards, our ratio is 10 people per lifeguard.

The hours are long, but I love helping people learn to swim. And when I am hired as a lifeguard, I take pride in knowing that I am helping people and providing them with a potentially life-saving service.