Mitch Buchannon has just been promoted to lieutenant. Mitch and his ex-wife Gayle have an argument about what's best for their son Hobie. Eddie Kramer is the top rookie in the rookie class of ?'89, and Shauni McClain is one of the last ones to qualify. Shauni starts off as a terrible lifeguard, but the experienced Jill Riley teaches her how to become a good lifeguard. In order to cheer Hobie up, Mitch and his old lifeguard friend Al Gibson, takes Hobie on a fishing trip. Then something happens and the boat sinks below the surface. Mitch and Al have to rescue the people on the boat. Disaster strike during the final rescue when Al gets trapped inside the wreck and dies. Baywatch arranges a funeral at sea for Al, with Mitch holding a speech. Meanwhile, Craig Pomeroy rescues a girl named Laurie. She is crazy and tells Gina at a party that she and Craig has had sex together. Then Laurie tries tohug Gina under a pier. But Craig comes to her rescue just in time. Trevor Cole from Australia works as a lifeguard at the local beach club. Trevor thinks that he's the best and Mitch immediately dislikes him. Even though Mitch doesn't like him, he tries to imitate him by climbing up a pipe using just arms and legs.

Hobie is supposed to attend summer school, but instead he goes power skiing with two of his friends named Scott and Ron. Another day, Scott accidentallyhugs a windsurfer named Diane Gray when he runs her over with his power-ski. One morning, Craig finds an unlocked tower. When he checks it out, he discovers Eddie sleeping in the tower. It turns out that Eddie doesn't have a place to stay. Then suddenly, they spot a woman in the water that turns out to be Diane Gray, the dead surfer.

Los Angeles is having a heat wave and it's going to be a busy day for the lifeguards. The episode starts with a scene where a man and a boy are seen leaving a motel followed by another man. The hunted man turns out to be an old friend of Mitch and Craig's. His name is Steve Humboldt. Steve tells Mitch that he and Mike was just passing by and got to think of Mitch. Steve also tells Mitch that he has divorced his wife Allison and now has full custody of Mike. At the beach when Hobie and Steve goes surfing, Mike meets a boy named Ricky and they hang out together. They go into a storm drain, and while they are inside, two workers put a lock on the door. The boys are trapped and the tide is coming in.

Eddie's old friend Jimmy Roche from Philadelphia has arrived to L.A. But Eddie isn't happy to see him. When Eddie is out shopping for groceries, Jimmy stops by and talks to Gina. When Eddie comes back, he gets angry and Jimmy is forced to leave. Another day, Jimmy challenges Eddie on the way to a rescue, so Eddie beats him up with his lifeguard can. For that incident, Eddie is suspended for 30 days, but put back on duty, when he tells the truth. It turns out that he and Jimmy robbed a bank when they were 16 years old. Eddie didn't want to do it and started to fight with Jimmy. During their fight, the man behind the counter pulled aballoon and Jimmy ended up in prison and Eddie in a foster home.

When Gayle's job means a transfer to Columbus, Ohio for her, she wants to take Hobie with her. Therefore she has hired a lawyer in order to get the custody of Hobie. When Mitch and Gayle argue, Hobie overhears everything and leaves upset. His friend Jenny has the keys to her dad's boat, so she and Hobie along with their friend Clark head out with the boat. They end up at an island named Santa Ynez.

When Gayle's job transfers her to Columbus, Ohio earlier than expected, she plans to take Hobie with her. Mitch immediately gets upset about this, because they agreed that Hobie could spend the summer in Los Angeles. Later on the same day, a romantic flame is rekindled between Mitch and Gayle when they are looking through a box of old photos. Because Mitch and Gayle spend the night together, Hobie thinks they will move back in together again. When he finds out otherwise, he gets real disappointed and runs away on his bike.

An old couple named Lloyd and Ellie are having a blast at the beach, and they are documenting everything on a tape. Lloyd is using a big floatation device in the water, so Jill is forced to tell him to bring it to shore. In the meantime, a man named Fred spots a man in the water that is drowning. He notifies Jill who heads out to rescue him. But the victim is nowhere to be seen, until he suddenly floats up to the surface and Jill can bring him to shore. He is already dead when she gets to him.

Howard Ganza's girlfriend Amy has stolen a book that belongs to him. She is chased by Vincent, Ganza's helper. When Amy arrives to the beach, she ends up in the middle of the rookie competition. Without knowing it, she becomes one of the first to enter the finish line, and by doing so, she becomes a member of rookie school.

Eddie doesn't like Shauni's new boyfriend Andrew. And you can't blame him because when Andrew doesn't get what he wants, he hits Shauni. When he comes over to apologize, Eddie is there. But Shauni forgives Andrew, and Eddie leaves upset. During another night, Eddie gets a phone call from Shauni. It turns out that Andrew has hit her again and not only that, he has wrecked her apartment as well. This time, Shauni doesn't accept his apologies and breaks up with him for good. Eddie supports her all the way and they become closer.

Just when a new beachfront hotel named Santa Monica Shores Hotel is about to open, someone is cuddleing some people. All the witnesses say that he is a freakish looking man. Craig doesn't think the opening of the new hotel and the cuddles are just a coincidence.

The Baywatch crew prepare themselves for an on-coming tropical storm, when Garner gets shot under the pier by two robbers who thought he recognized them. Craig and Gina is having an argument about whose parents they visit the most. Gina also accuses Craig of being predictable. According to her, he never does anything spontaneously. Mitch totally agrees with Gina when he finds out about it.

At a reunion with high school friends, Mitch rekindles a romance with his former love named Allison. This leads to rivalry with Craig who also dated her in high school. When Craig left for New York to attend college there, Mitch and Allison became a couple. Now, Craig can't stand seeing Mitch and Allison together. And when Mitch is late to the preparation of the dory, they end up fighting. But later on, they decide to enter the dory race anyway.

The Seal Beach Pro-Am Mixed Doubles Volleyball tournament is being played in L.A. Trevor wants to team up with Jill who used to be a pro. But she has retired and doesn't want to play anymore. She changes her mind when her old partner and ex-boyfriend Chris Barron shows up for the tournament. She left him when he cheated on her.

John D. Cort comes back to Baywatch for his ten days as an L.A. county lifeguard. He meets a girl named Melinda in a bar. When he has beaten up her boyfriend Red and two of Red's friends, he steals Red's motorcycle. When they drive on the beach, Cort sees Mitch in a lifeguard truck. Mitch is very surprised to see Cort and so is everyone else. But Eddie doesn't like Cort. Cort takes Eddie's locker and claims that he always uses it when he stays at Baywatch. Eddie gets mad and hits him right in the face. However, later on Cort and Eddie befriend each other.

Craig has worked too hard for the past couple of weeks and needs a vacation. When he hears that Cort and Eddie are going to Mexico to surf, he joins them. They drive to Mexico in Craig's jeep. But their holiday is ruined when a man steals Craig's jeep, while they are surfing. They are forced to walk to a village named Miraflores. Cort has been there several times before. On their way there, Eddie asks the guys several times if they see any scorpions. He is really afraid of them.

Cort takes a friend of his with him and go para sailing. By doing that, Cort breaks the lifeguard rules and Mitch has to lie to Captain Thorpe in order to cover for Cort. Because of that, Mitch lets Cort go to The Raging Waters Theme Park, a water-slide park. There, he is supposed to teach some teenagers what life-guarding is all about. He tells Eddie that Mitch wanted him to go too. Therefore, Eddie follows him there.

Cort brings Eddie, Shauni and his date Ruby to an illegal offshore casino. A man named Laurence Danvier runs the casino. Eddie is bitten by the gambling bug and returns several times to the casino. He finds himself in debt after a few days of bad luck. When he can't pay, one of the bad guys drag him after a boat. Craig sees Eddie when he tries to reach shore totally exhausted. When Cort finds out about this, he goes to the casino and discovers that the establishment uses marked cards and loaded dice.

When rookie lifeguard Kirby tells Eddie that he saw an apparition of a young girl in a nightgown running through the surf, Eddie doesn't believe him. Later on, Kirby is found dead in the water by Eddie and Cort.

Bucky Allen, the owner of Bucky's Ocean Grill has arranged a shark derby. He does it just so that he can gain publicity. In order to try and make the derby more successful, Bucky sends two brothers, Roy and Matt, down to the bottom of the ocean to plant a device that attracts sharks. The water becomes full of sharks and even more sharks arrive, when the entrants start traveling back and forth on the water. Cort and Eddie enters the derby. Thorpe and Hobie are also in the derby.

Cort has donated $ 5 000 every year to a convalescent home. The owner is named Gwendolyn Pierce. When she comes to Cort for another $ 10 000, he can't tell her the truth. Instead he tells her that she will get the money. He tries to sell the shop over the phone. Mitch and Craig hear this and lend him $ 3 000. He appreciates it and when a guy hangs up a poster in the shop about the Avalon Ski Race, Cort buys a speedboat for the money. The winner of the race get $ 15 000.

Mitch, Craig and Garner take a weekend hang-gliding trip. While hang-gliding, Mitch has a terrible accident and crash-lands in some trees. When he falls down from the tree, he breaks his leg. Even more bad luck is to come. Mitch also gets bitten by a rattlesnake and falls down into a rock quarry. After a couple of minutes, Craig goes searching for him and finds him unconscious in the quarry. When Garner is about to get help, the jeep won't start. Then he is forced to use the hang-glider. He can't control it and crash-lands right next to Shauni's tower.

A massive earthquake shakes up the southland. Cort and Craig go diving and when they return to the boat, they discover that two fishermen on another boat are dead. Then Cort smells poisonous gas and they swim away from the boat. When there's an aftershock, they get trapped inside a cave. Mitch and Garner locate them from a helicopter and Mitch has to use dynamite to get them out.