South Haven welcomes lifeguards, making trips to Michigan’s top beach safer

South Haven’s South Beach has long been very popular, and recently it was selected by USA Today readers as the 2026 Best Beach in Michigan. Even so, South Beach has also long been criticized by water-safety organizations for not having lifeguards.

That changed on Memorial Day, May 25, when beachgoers mingled with the 10 lifeguards South Haven has hired for the popular site on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. The town is showing its commitment to making the beach safer by also hiring a full-time beach-safety manager/chief lifeguard.

South Beach stopped using lifeguards in 2001. Since then, according to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, 12 drownings have occurred at the beach, compared with only two drownings during the 40 years the beach had lifeguards. In the 25 years without lifeguards, South Beach used colored flags to inform visitors of the lake condition — green for generally safe, yellow for using caution, and red for danger.

The City of South Haven is dealing with three lawsuits filed by families of children who drowned at the beach, with the plaintiffs contending there was a failure to warn of hazardous conditions.

Now South Beach has lifeguards every day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. There are four guards Monday through Thursday and six on busy weekends.  The city has hired 10 guards at a starting wage of $20 an hour.

It is estimated that the cost of organizing and operating the program for the first year will be around $600,000. After that, the annual cost is expected to drop to under $400,000.

To finance the program, beach parking fees were increased starting May 15. The price of a weekly parking permit was raised from $30 to $50. The former fee of $10 a day for parking was eliminated and replaced with $3-an-hour parking. Fines for violations were raised from $20 to $45.

On April 6, David Figueredo began working for South Haven as its beach-safety manager/chief lifeguard. He has seven years of lifeguarding experience on Lake Michigan’s shore in Evanston, IL. From 2017 until 2019, his job was lakefront supervisor, overseeing five municipal beaches and 90 seasonal lifeguards.

Figueredo has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Carthage College, and he recently worked in investor communications for Golub Capital in Chicago.  “Although I stepped away from water safety to pursue a year-round corporate career, my passion for water safety never left me, says Figueredo. “I am eager to bring both open-water expertise and a high standard of professionalism to this role.”

South Haven also operates North Beach, the second most popular one, and several smaller beaches. Asked about expanding the lifeguard program, City Manager Kate Hosier says, “We will first assess the restored lifeguard program on South Beach and closely monitor our resources and staffing levels before expanding the program to other beaches.”

It took many years of efforts by families of drowning victims and Great Lakes safety advocates to get lifeguards back on South Beach. The advocates included the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project (GLSRP), a nonprofit organization that promotes water safety. Its cofounder and executive director, Dave Benjamin of Homewood, IL, was at South Beach on Memorial Day when the lifeguards first arrived.

Lake Michigan, with 22,000 square miles of water, is the deadliest of the Great Lakes, according to drowning statistics compiled by GLSRP since 2010. It says nearly half of all Great Lakes drownings annually are in Lake Michigan, averaging 38 every year. And the south end of Lake Michigan is the deadliest area among all the Great Lakes.

Michigan’s state parks with beaches eliminated lifeguards in 1993, and almost all municipal beaches soon did the same, citing the cost, possible liability, and staffing difficulties. Besides South Haven, only three Lake Michigan public beaches have lifeguards: New Buffalo, St. Joseph, and Escanaba.