Lifeguard races about to celebrate centennial

By David Weinberg

Local lifeguard races are about to celebrate a special anniversary.

This summer marks a century since the first lifeguard races were held in the area. They began in 1924, when a doubles rowing competition was won by Atlantic City Beach Patrol members Harry Yates and Jack Woodworth.

Over the last 100 years, the races have expanded and evolved. What started as a doubles row has evolved into competitions that feature a variety of events designed to showcase the talents of male and female lifeguards from Brigantine to Cape May Point.

The races are a part of summer at the Jersey Shore, just like building a sand castle on the beach in Ventnor, visiting Lucy the Elephant in Margate, and riding the Ferris wheel on the Ocean City Boardwalk.

Massive crowds kick off their shoes and stand near the shoreline to root for their favorite patrols. Chants of “Oh See, Oh See” and “Sea … Isle, Sea … Isle” echo along the beach while the rowers expertly steer their boats on waves and swimmers charge out of the water.

The 2024 season begins on Monday, July 1, when competitors from beach patrols from Long Beach Island, Atlantic County and Cape May County will compete in the Cape May SuperAthlon.

The triathlon-style event features a 2.3-mile run along the beachfront, followed by a 1.5-mile row and a quarter-mile, out-and-back swim.

The race almost always features a tight, exciting finish due to a strong current that adds an extra challenge to the swim leg. Venturing into the ocean at the wrong angle can result in overshooting the turnaround buoy. It’s not unusual to see a competitor reach out and grab it to pull himself around the marker before heading back to shore.

In 2021, for example, Cape May’s Rob Moran was in third place entering the swim, but wound up winning because the two competitors ahead of him missed the buoy and were unable to backtrack to get around it.

Moran is entered in the race again this year, along with defending champion Brandon Hontz of Avalon.

Moran is seeking his fifth win, which would tie former Avalon competitor Shane McGrath for the second-most victories in the event behind eight-time champion Bic Murphy.

The season begins in earnest on July 8 with the Cape May County Lifeguard Championships at Rambler Road in Wildwood Crest.

Avalon is the two-time defending team champion. It edged Sea Isle City last year in a tiebreaker, followed by third-place Ocean City.

To me, the Cape May County event is the best one on the schedule because of its variety. A few years ago, organizers made the wise to decision to expand the races to accurately depict the changing of the (life) guard on most local beach patrols. In addition to the men’s singles and doubles row, and swim, it now includes women’s swimming and paddleboard races, and a five-person, coed surf dash relay.

In my view, the South Jersey Championships should also be expanded to feature one or two women’s events. Without question, the all-female races on the summer schedule – Longport Women’s Lifeguard Invitational, Ocean City Beach Patrol Women’s Invitational, Cape May Point Women’s Lifeguard Challenge, Bill Howarth Cape Atlantic Women’s Races – do a great job of showcasing women’s lifeguard talents. But I believe they deserve the opportunity to join their male teammates in competing for a biggest team title.

As always, the season will be highlighted by the “Big Three” races, which include the Dutch Hoffman Memorials in Wildwood, the Margate Memorials and the South Jersey’s.

This year, the South Jersey Championships will be hosted by Brigantine, which won last year’s event outright for the first time since 1979.

To give an idea how long ago, that occurred, “Apocalypse Now” was the top movie that summer, the Boomtown Rats topped the music charts with “I Don’t Like Mondays,” and a certain sports columnist was renting canvas rafts for 50 cents an hour while working for Steger’s Beach Service in Cape May before grabbing a pork roll sandwich and Birch Beer while visiting his girlfriend at Taylor Pork Roll on the Boardwalk.

How times have changed. Steger’s still exists, but rafts have given way to boogie boards. Taylor’s Pork Roll is gone. The Boardwalk is now called the Promenade, except for us natives and longtime locals.

That girlfriend is now my wife. Karen and I just celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary with our two children and three grandsons.

Hopefully, Poppy will be taking them to a few lifeguard races this summer.

Local Olympics update

A pair of former local high school swimming standouts, Destin Lasco of Mainland Regional and Joey Tepper from Egg Harbor Township, came up short in their bids to make the U.S. Olympic team recently.

Lasco competed in the 100-meter backstroke, 100 freestyle and 200 Individual Medley at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. Tepper swam the 400 and 800 freestyle.

Tepper, a former star swimmer for the Longport Beach Patrol, still has an outside chance to make the U.S. team in open water swimming.

The 2024 Summer Olympics will be held in Paris in August.

David is a nationally recognized sports columnist who has covered Philadelphia and local sports for over 40 years. After 35 years with The Press, he has served as a columnist for 973ESPN.com and created his own Facebook page, Dave Weinberg Extra Points.
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