Lady Life Guards

You will be tempted to defy riptides, wear cement flippers and swim less than 30 minutes after eating. But there's a better way to meet a hot lifeguard this summer. Six of the best are right here--women who can make you dizzy one minute and pull you out of a whirlpool the next. Molly Carter, for instance, guards a beach in California. "We have big beach breaks and a lot of rip currents," she says. "In the summer we average forty saves a day." Last year she saved a reluctant member of Germany's national water-polo team. "The guy was caught in a rip current and argued about it. He didn't want to be saved, especially by a woman." There was no shortage of willing rescuees in Bimini or at Zuma Beach and Malibu in California, where we met Molly and colleagues. In fact, every male swimmer we saw was splashing and waving frantically.