By Rob Laymon, Philadelphia Daily News, Thursday, August 13, 1998

According to legend, the lifeguard races began in the misty distant past, when boats were made of wood and lifeguards were 10 feet tall.

Actually, the racing probably began around 1924, when the Atlantic City and Ocean City beach patrols staged the first official race on the Atlantic City sand. Whenever they began, the competitions continue to fascinate lifeguard fans and friends. Tomorrow evening at Suffolk Avenue Beach in Ventnor, the 15 South Jersey beach patrols from Brigantine to Cape May Point will gather for the annual Southern New Jersey Championship, the oldest lifeguard race in South Jersey. Trouble is, no one west of the shore seems to know about it.

“It’s really a South Jersey tradition,” said Lt. Jim Wadlow, of the Cape May Beach Patrol.

“It’s a very long tradition. Across the country there are other lifeguard competitions, but South Jersey was probably the first place to have them.”

If few people beyond the shore know about the races, locally they are held in almost religious awe.

Local custom dominates in many details. Several beach patrols have used the same boat since the 20s – the Van Duyne, a Sea Bright Skiff hand–built in Linwood, across the bay from Margate.

Almost every shore town hosts its own race. And each town runs its own signature mix of events.

The three main events in lifeguard racing are the three–quarte–mile swim, the mile–and–a–half doubles row, and the 1000–foot singles row.

Rowers start from the beach, row out through the surf, turn around at a bouy and row back.

Yet one finds unique events in every competition. Upper Township hosts a doubles row in the bay, for example. North Wildwood hosts an around–the–island row. Other patrols have surf dashes and paddle board races.

“The idea behind the races was that you’d use the same skills in competition that you would in a rescue,” said Bob Garbutt Jr., Ocean City lifeguard and competitive rower.

“Everything is a unique challenge. The lifeguards really respect the efforts of the other lifeguards. But the competitors take the competition awfully seriously.”

The season takes shape around three large competitions: The Dutch Hoffman Memorials, held July 31 in Wildwood; the Margate Memorials, held last Friday in Margate, and the South Jersey Championships, to be held tomorrow in the hometown of last year’s winning team, Ventnor.

In 1995, female lifeguards in South Jersey got two of their own races. And they’ve added a third one this year. The increase reflects their growing number.

In fact, the races have become more popular in recent years largely due to the popularity of the “Baywatch” TV show. (But nobody wants to admit this.)

Tomorrow’s event marks the official end of the lifeguard racing season, though smaller races continue through August.

North Wildwood stages its Round–the–Island Row Aug. 20th. And Ventnor hosts the Goudy Race on Aug. 22, on Suffolk Avenue Beach.

Many rowers are members of college crews, Garbutt said. And some, like Philadelphian John B. Kelly, father of the late Princess Grace of Monaco, was an Ocean City Beach Lifeguard in the 1920s before he rowed to fame in the Olympics.

“The funny thing is that most of the really good rowers come from the South Jersey area,” Garbutt said. “There is not a lot of imported talent in rowing here.”

Over the years, different patrols have developed various strengths. Ocean City’s patrol, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, has won more South Jerseys than any other. Ventnor has developed a reputation for strong rowing; Margate for strong swimming.

Lifeguard racing, like lifeguarding itself, seems to run in families. In Ventnor you have plenty of Funks; in Margate, Swifts.

In 1994, Garbutt himself helped his rowing partner – Ron Kirk, then 40 – become the oldest man to win a doubles rowing championship, a record until then held by Garbutt’s father, Bob Garbutt Sr. For the last three years, Garbutt has rowed with his brother, Matt.

“The purpose is not so much to win the competition, but to build esprit de corps,” said Ollie Muzslay, chief of the Ocean City Beach Patrol. “You have to remember, these are all still working lifeguards.”

Still, competitors train hard. Some, like Garbutt, train 10 months a year.

“It’s a funny kind of race,” Garbutt said. “You can do all this training, and get in great shape, and get your timing down. And then there is still a huge element of luck involved.”

“Because we’re talking about the ocean. You can be winning the race, and then someone at the edge of the field catches a wave and flies right past you.”

© 1998 Philadelphia Daily News. Reproduced with permission.