PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — St. Johns County leaders made a change to make the beaches safer during the offseason months.
New signs have gone out to beach accesses to inform beachgoers of the current conditions.
The signs let beachgoers know right away there’s no lifeguard on duty and give them a QR code to scan.
That takes them to a page with all the information they need to plan a beach day safely.
“On those condition updates, there’s things like wave height, tides, which are generally based on the St. Augustine pier, but also the flag conditions," said St. Johns County Fire Rescue Spokesperson Chris Naff.
Naff said the new beach safety signs at every beach access come after a swimmer drowned last month at Mickler’s Landing.
“After the events of the last couple months, we’ve decided to notify the public that there are no lifeguards on duty, to kind of swim at your own risk and also notify them of daily conditions," said Naff.
While St. Johns County Fire Rescue patrols the shore throughout the year, lifeguards are only stationed at the beach access between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Since there are no guards, posting condition flags at each access requires manpower the department doesn’t have in the off months.
The QR code on the signs lets them share that information without physically changing the flags.
The new signs come just in time for a rough long weekend at the beach.
“The waves are pretty hard out there today. I was a little nervous about the children going out there to play," said Lucretia Johnson while visiting Mickler's Landing. "We decided to let them go, but not too far in because it’s pretty strong.”
Johnson said she didn’t notice the new safety signs on her walk into Mickler’s Landing.
She said lifeguard season can’t come back soon enough.
“It’s not a job that’s easy to do," said Johnson. "They’re risking their own lives to save someone else’s, so I do understand that, but I do think it’s beneficial if we could have them all year round.”
St. Johns County will have the signs at every beach access, and they can take them down in May once they have lifeguards back at the beach.