The sand was different then.
Before polished lifeguard headquarters and advanced rescue training, young lifeguards in San Clemente changed beside maintenance sheds, watched the surf from weathered towers and spent long summer days learning how quickly the ocean could shift from playful to dangerous.
For Debbie Friedman, those beaches became the setting for some of the most formative years of her life — years she is now revisiting in her memoir, Guarded: Women, Water, and Saving Lives.…