California Code, Health and Safety Code - HSC § 116033

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), persons providing aquatic instruction, including, but not limited to, swimming instruction, water safety instruction, water contact activities, and competitive aquatic sports, at a public swimming pool shall possess current certificates from an American Red Cross or YMCA of the U.S.A. lifeguard training program, or have equivalent qualifications, as determined by the department. In addition, these persons shall be certified in standard first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). All these persons shall meet these qualifications by January 1, 1991. Persons who only disseminate written materials relating to water safety are not persons providing aquatic instruction within the meaning of this section. The requirements of this section shall be waived under either of the following circumstances:

(b) If there is a staffing shortage where a local public agency pool operator, acting in good faith, is unable to maintain required staffing levels to maintain regular operating hours, the local public agency may use qualified lifeguard personnel, as defined in subdivision (c), to provide lifeguard services at a public swimming pool, if both requirements are met:

(c) As used in this section, “qualified lifeguard personnel” means a public agency lifeguard who has received and maintains USLA training from a certified agency, is certified in standard first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and has received additional public swimming pool-specific crossover training, provided by personnel certified by a national training agency, including treatment of spinal injuries, floatation device use techniques, pool extraction and extrication techniques, and submerged rescue techniques.