The truth is in the middle - I had the same over-heating experience in Laguna Beach as Max Bottom time did several years ago. Got very angry. Teenage Lifeguard just following orders..he was a non-diver. I took some deep breaths and cooled off. I pointed out that he was not enhancing my safety by giving me heat stroke and suggested the lifeguards learn something about diving. (i just dove the other cove) They generally are surfers and swimmers so they looked at scuba divers as kind of alien and hard to rescue. Surfers and swimmers, like them, of course don't need snorkels or a buddy. When divers die the interest in regulations and fear of creative liability heat up. (California has an over-supply of starving lawyers.) After awhile lifeguards kind of recognized me (I was local) and problems seemed to fade. I still only dive good days, for my own reasons, and avoid crowds and actually prefer the night-diving which is completely without crowds or lifeguards and is better diving. The anti-diving attitude has seemingly abated to some degree. I suspect it varies by lifeguard too. California has some big problems in over-enforcing petty, often stupid crap and utterly neglecting important public safety issues. We, in California, just let 18 self-important "protesters" bring the I-5 freeway to a screeching halt yesterday in San Diego, causing accidents, delaying thousands of people...not a ticket or an arrest resulted. Just asked them to leave. Compare that to the "crime" of diving without a snorkel.