He has put the boardies and wide brimmed sun hat away for a career as a trainee ambulance paramedic.

"When you look at it nothing has really changed," he said.

"When you're lifeguarding you get a taste for helping people and in that sense when you're a paramedic it's the same thing."

While he has swapped board shorts and t-shirts for the ambulance uniform there were still striking similarities between the two jobs.

"Every day is different, nothing is the same which is similar to when you're lifeguarding; you deal with different personalities and always have that motivation to help people," he said, adding he had always contemplated a career in the ambulance service.

"I really enjoyed being a lifeguard; it was a highlight and I was blessed to have that opportunity, but I thought after a while there was only a limited service with it.

"It was only a 32-week timeframe and sometimes you need to try something different and I know there are a lot of opportunities in the ambulance service.

"It's about helping the community I grew up in and it's been a long process - probably about four years in the making.

"I'm really lucky that the people I work with at the station are all very knowledgeable people with a wide range of experience so I know I'm learning from the best. But there's still a lot of learning to come."

He admitted he will get itchy feet when the flags were put up to signal the start of the beach patrol season this month, but said the pay off will be he can enjoy his beach days a bit more.

"I've still got surf apps on my phone that I can look at and check and dream about heading out for a surf during the day," he laughed.

"We went and saw the sun rise at the beach the other morning and we saw some gentle waves rolling in so that was good."

Through the Trainee Paramedic training pathway, Mr Hudson and more than 40 new recruits are required to complete three years on-the-job training and study by distance education as part of a nationally-accredited Diploma of Paramedical Science delivered by the NSW Ambulance Education Centre.

Ambulance duty operations manager Steve Towle said his new recruit would be a "great asset to the station".

"He was instrumental in having lifeguards ride along with ambulance officers which helped with the relationship between the organisations," he said.

"We have a few former lifeguards in our service and Grant is one of those who was well-versed in first aid before he got here which makes the transition easier."