SANTA CRUZ (April 2010) - The end of school is still two months away, but if your kid wants to spend her summer on the beach learning lifeguarding skills, or playing games under the redwoods, you’d best be "camped" in front of your computer by 7:55 a.m. this Saturday.

Online registration for City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation summer camps and courses opens at 8 a.m., Saturday April 17, and local parents know from experience that the most popular classes fill up quickly. According to Recreation Supervisor Carol Scurich, slots in the city’s Junior Lifeguard programs and day camps for elementary-age children are the first to get snapped up.

“Absolutely, Little Guards is the favorite program, it always fills fast,” Scurich said. “After that, it would be the Junior Guards in general, depending on the age group. Day camps like Super Camp, Camp Spot and Adventure Camp are also really popular.”

A RITE OF PASSAGE

Junior Guards, a month-long beach camp that teaches ocean safety and lifeguarding skills, has been a rite of passage for generations of Santa Cruz youngsters. A rigorous program of beach runs and ocean swimming is leavened with games and team competition. Junior Guard teams from Santa Cruz, Capitola, and State parks programs compete at the end of the session, and sweatshirts with the Junior Guards logo are prized mementos seen on campuses county-wide.

For working parents, the city’s day camps based in redwood-shaded Harvey West Park are an affordable way to keep kids active and engaged, and to expand the circles of friendship that connect the Santa Cruz community. Day camps serve children ages 6 through 12, and the extended care option allows drop-off as early as 7:30 a.m. and pick-up as late as 5:30 p.m.

Unfortunately, Santa Cruz’s Harvey West Pool will remain closed this summer due to budget cutbacks, eliminating swim programs for most children and adults. However, some swim classes for toddlers and young children are still available in the children's area at the Harvey West pool complex.

NO MORE LINES

In years past, registration for summer programs was in person, and opening day would see lines of anxious parents snaking around the Civic Auditorium, at dawn, sometimes in the rain, clutching enrollment forms and birth certificates. Sign-ups are now overwhelmingly completed online, though traditionalists can still enroll by snail mail or fax machine, beginning Saturday April 17.

No computer at home? Free computer access is available from 8 a.m. until noon Saturday April 17 at the Louden Nelson Community Center. You can even sign up in person at Parks and Rec.’s office at 323 Church Street, Monday through Thursday, beginning April 19.

The online system sometimes gets overloaded, especially in the first minutes after registration opens. But Parks and Rec. has upgraded its computer system this year, and “our program has gotten better, and the computer is letting more people use the system at once,” Scurich said.

CREATE AN ONLINE ACCOUNT

Before signing up for classes, families need to create an account on Parks and Rec.’s “instaReg” system and provide proof of city residency, which allows first crack at registration and a substantial discount on fees. In a pinch, residents who have not submitted proof of residency in time can register as non-residents and obtain a refund on excess fees within ten days of registration.

Scurich recommends carefully selecting your desired classes before going online, having all of the course numbers handy, and preparing a backup plan in case your first-choice classes are full. If your first-choice class is full, try other time slots, put your name on a waiting list, or check out some of the scores of alternative programs.

In addition to a variety of sports, dance, theater and art classes, city parks is offering stand-up paddling for teens and women, surfing for kids, gymnastics and tumbling for young children, martial arts training for the whole family, "Crossfit" conditioning programs for adults, and Zumba dance. 

Parks and Rec. catalogs have already been mailed to city residents, but comprehensive information is also online at the department’s website. For even more information, call the Parks and Rec. office at (831) 420-5270 Monday through Thursday.