If Lake White were an aquatic superhero, he’d have an awesome origin story. For starters, could anyone ask for a better aquatic superhero name?
The son of a competitive swim coaching father and a pioneering lifeguard training mother, Lake was raised as if he had gills. When his mom, Jill White, founder of Starfish Aquatics Institute, went out into the field to train lifeguards on how to save lives, Lake served as the “demo baby.” From his earliest memories he was always on the swim team. Even today, he feels he draws an energy from the water.
“I was kind of born into this,” says White, whose title reads almost like an alter ego: director of quality assurance for Starfish Aquatics Institute and a service client partner for the Star Guard Elite Program. “It gets into your system. I miss it if I’m not in it for too long.”
But like all superheroes, there came a point where Lake had a crisis of conscience. While he was attending college, the question arose: Did he really want to pursue a life in aquatics? Upon exploration, he realized an aquatics life was not only what he wanted — it was his destiny. In that moment, it was almost as if he discovered his superpowers.
“Once I became an instructor, I found my passion,” he says. “And I found out I was very good at it.”
Today, like all good superheroes, Lake uses those powers for good. Along with regular conference presentations, which earned him a WWA best speaker award in 2014, Lake is working to bring lifesaving to the world. Here in America, he worked with USA Swimming on its “Make a Splash” program, which seeks to bring swim lessons to historically underserved minority communities. In the Middle East, he’s working with 13 countries to deliver water-safety skills and standards to a region sorely lacking in them.
All the while, he’s been developing a new lifeguard accountability and risk management system that combines continuing education with other resources. And he’s lobbying the various drowning prevention groups to form an Avengers-style alliance and create a bigger impact worldwide. “We have a lot of great people who are working toward the same result,” he says. “So I’d like to see more collaboration between the different organizations.”
But more than anything, Lake hopes he can pass on his aquatic superpowers to the next generation — including his own children. “I hope my passion is contagious and that it’s something they find motivation in, so they operate their facilities at the highest level,” he says.
“It kind of feels like this is my destiny.”
