( Budget Travel ) -- Just because you watch `` Jersey Shore '' or -- worse -- were a member of the David Hasselhoff International Fan Club does n't mean you really know what it 's like to be a lifeguard . To find out , we went to the source : a veteran whistle-blower at a New Jersey beach . Enjoy your swimming ! The money is terrible . Lifeguard season is about four months long , from mid-May to September . First-year guards make about $ 10 an hour -- not much -- and we pay a lot of money to live in a house down on the shore . But it 's the summertime -- you got ta enjoy it . We work hard . We actually work a lot harder than most people think . I 've done more than 60 rescues now , in six years . Sometimes , a group of 30 or more people will all get swept out by a riptide at once . I can bring in five people at a time , if I have a buoy , and two people if I do n't . And I can get 10 to 15 guards to come help me within a minute or two . I 've only lost two people , and they were swimming after hours . It was the worst riptide I 'd ever seen . Awful . Budget Travel : 10 affordable beachfront resorts . Hot or not ? We talk about everybody on the beach . Of course we talk about everybody on the beach -- any flaw in any person . We buy our own walkie-talkie radios and communicate that way , about hot girls and everyone else who 's not so hot . We always get these big , old French-Canadian guys who wear tiny thongs . It 's a long day sitting in the chair . You have to entertain yourself . You do n't want to know where we go to the bathroom . We pee in the water just like everybody else -- some of the guards even go No . 2 in there . It 's quicker than walking up to the bathrooms on the boardwalk . But we do n't always want to get wet , so most of us pee without even leaving our chair . There 's a technique to it . You know how most guards wear sweatpants ? That 's because it 's easier to hide a Gatorade bottle in sweats than in shorts . You just stick the bottle down there and pee in it . We party hard . We lifeguards have this motto : ATF , or Alive 'Til Five . It 's our goal for the night . We get off of work at 5:30 p.m. Then we usually drink at the house before heading to the bars at 1 a.m. After they close , we go home around 3:30 a.m. and drink a few cases of beer until 5 a.m . I 'm an old man of 24 now , so I usually fall asleep by 3 a.m. -- and I always get heckled for it . Budget Travel : Confessions of ... a cruise ship musician . Some lifeguards sleep on the job . I party , but I 'm a total worrywart , and I take my job seriously ; no matter how hard I go out the night before , I 'm always at work when our day officially starts , at 9:30 a.m . I never fall asleep on the job , especially with all the caffeine and tobacco in my system . But I know guys who will sleep for five hours straight up in the chair . They have their tricks . Some will roll a towel up , wrap it around their neck , and then tuck the ends between their legs to keep themselves from falling out of the chair . Others will wear a big sweatshirt and then hide an apple or orange under their chin , so it looks like they 're looking straight ahead at the water . Sex on the beach -- it happens more than you might think . I have to break up a lot of fights , mostly high school kids . No one 's allowed to drink on the beach , but everyone does -- even the lifeguards on their days off . And , of course , it 's illegal to have sex on the beach , but I always catch people doing it in the water . To be frank , I know a few lifeguards who have . But I always blow the whistle and put a stop to it , not just because it 's illegal . It 's a decency thing . Budget Travel : 8 perfect summer lake towns . -- As told to Andrea Minarcek by a lifeguard on condition of anonymity . Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE ! Copyright © 2011 Newsweek Budget Travel , Inc. , all rights reserved .
A New Jersey lifeguard tells what it 's really like to be protector of the beach . Lifeguards pee in the water like everyone else . Comment: