RIO DEL MAR ' For several minutes, California State Parks lifeguard prospect Alison Gourley smiled while gasping for air. She was fourth to cross the finish line Saturday morning after a 1,000-yard swim around buoys and a boat, which were barely visible from the beach. Still donning a Slugs swim cap, the UC Santa Cruz swim team member collapsed in the sand when she realized she'd made the first cut.

"It was hard to see where I was going," she said, still breathing hard and grinning. "I was getting pushed back so much on my way out."

Beneath overcast skies, and facing waves far more conducive to surfing than swimming, Gourley and 26 other lifeguard hopefuls came out to compete for one of five to 10 summer lifeguarding jobs.

Those 21 athletes who passed Saturday's physical trials will interview face-to-face this week with senior lifeguards who may soon be their supervisors.

Lifeguard supervisor Chip Bockman said he will select six to 10 interviewees to go on to the next phase of the vetting process ' a grueling, eight-day training program in Huntington Beach in June.

The program typically graduates only 50 to 70 percent of incoming trainees.

Those who make it through the boot-camp-style course will be hired as "seasonal" lifeguards at $14 an hour ' no benefits.

Forrest Gleitsman, a daily surfer and former youth aide with the state's junior lifeguard program, said the job would be just right.

"There's no better job for me than lifeguarding," said the Aptos High School graduate and second-year student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Gleitsman was second fastest in the 1,000-yard swim Saturday, and first in the run-swim-run portion of the tryout (200 yards/400 yards/200 yards, respectively).

"It's not real big surf out there today," said Bockman, as he waited for candidates to finish the run-swim-run. "If they can't make it under the time limit in these conditions, I wouldn't want to see them guarding out there."

At full summer strength, Bockman's staff has 42 lifeguards. Those guards make 250-300 rescues per year, on average.

While there might not have been monster waves like those of Wednesday and Thursday, surf at "the flats" broke cleanly through much of the morning, and plenty of surfers took advantage of the conditions.

Aptos resident Jared Koos was finishing a two-hour surfing session when he saw 27 people running toward him, into the water.

"All of a sudden, it started to look like a Baywatch competition," he said.

John Lukin was among the swimmers who exceeded a 20-minute time limit for the long swim and got cut from the candidate pool.

At 38, he said he was at a bit of a disadvantage.

"They didn't have a handicap for me," he lamented.

Meanwhile, Gourley said she's looking forward to the next series of trials on her way to becoming ' hopefully ' a beach lifeguard.

She was a pool-side guard back in her hometown of Sonora. After swimming Saturday in the mother of all pools, she said she was ready for a bigger challenge.

"It's really different out there in the ocean," she said.

Contact Nancy Pasternack at npasternack@santacruzsentinel.com.