The Lifeguard Who Invented the Rescue Can

Before the red rescue buoy became an international icon symbolizing beach heroism, before the rescue can was a must-have staple in lifeguarding, before the hottest actors in film and television slung the cans across their bodies and jogged slow-mo down the beach, one man found himself fed up with the way things were.

His name was Bob Burnside. He was a Los Angeles County lifeguard in the 1950s, a time when surf rescue was more grit than gear. Back then, lifeguards still relied on heavy wooden rescue buoys, clunky, inefficient torpedoes that had barely evolved since World War I. But Burnside, already a standout in the ranks, knew there had to be a better way.

Burnside wasn’t just a lifeguard. He was a waterman in the truest sense. He surfed with grace, swam with power, and carried the quiet conviction that lives could be saved faster and smarter. When he wasn’t scanning the water from his post at Zuma Beach, he was at home tinkering.

He’d seen too many rescues go sideways.

Too many swimmers panic and pull a lifeguard under. Too many delays when every second counted. The old wooden buoys just weren't cutting it.

So he set out to make something new—something lighter, something stronger, something that could punch through surf and still float well enough to support a struggling victim.

In 1967, he debuted the world’s first plastic rescue can.

Bright red. Streamlined. Molded out of new-age plastics. Fitted with side handles and a leash. It performed like something out of the future, the way it glided through waves and floated like a cork, instantly giving lifeguards more control in chaos.

The rescue can wasn’t just gear. It was evolution.

Soon, other guards were asking for one. Then whole agencies. Then countries. Within a few years, the Burnside rescue can was everywhere. Australia, Japan, South Africa. Beaches, lakes, rivers. From Malibu to Miami, the red can became the universal sign of “help is on the way.”

But Burnside’s legacy didn’t stop at the can.

He would go on to serve as L.A. County’s Chief Lifeguard, then as the first president of the United States Lifesaving Association. Under his leadership, lifeguarding in America began to standardize and modernize. He traveled the world leading seminars on rescue and safety practices, and he championed the idea that lifeguards were more than summertime employees; they were trained first responders serving the bastion of public safety.

To understand what Bob Burnside did is to understand the shift from lifeguarding as an informal or seasonal job to lifeguarding as a lifelong vocation.

He gave lifeguards a new tool. But more than that, he gave them a vision of themselves as part of a global brotherhood. A waterline army, united by the instinct to run toward danger and pull others from the deep.

Even today, the rescue can is still one of the most iconic pieces of lifeguard rescue equipment in the world. TV shows like Baywatch made it famous, but Burnside made it necessary. And while newer designs and soft rescue tubes are now used in certain environments, the can endures, especially in heavy surf zones where your gear can mean the difference between life and death.

If you’ve ever been saved by a lifeguard with a red rescue can, you’ve been touched by Burnside’s legacy.

And if you’ve ever trained with one, if you’ve ever sprinted across hot sand or kept a victim’s head above water with one, then you know: this tool was born on the beach, not a boardroom.

The Burnside can didn’t just change lifeguarding. It changed the water.

Looking to carry on the legacy?

Original Watermen offers lifeguard gear built for real rescues. From rescue cans to swimsuits, and everything in between, we outfit hundreds of thousands of life-saving professionals.

Ocean Rescue, North Myrtle Beach sporting our navy bikini and holding a rescue can.