A lineage of lifesaving in Atlantic City

By Jacqueline L. Urgo, Philadelphia Inquirer, Thursday July 6th, 2000

For the oldest beach patrol in the nation, membership is exclusive.

The first thing the elder members of the Atlantic City Beach Patrol like to make perfectly clear is that theirs is the oldest professional beach patrol in all of the United States - and probably in all of the Western Hemisphere.

It has been around since 1892, when only men were involved in the lifesaving business and they wore itchy woolen bathing costumes that covered them from neck to knee.

And the second thing is that they don’t slap those red cotton shorts they wear nowadays on just anybody and call that person a lifeguard. No, sir.

Being a part of this beach patrol takes skill - lots and lots of skill. And training - intense training before hiring, in a program the members say is unique.

They will tell you that there is only one way to acquire these skills: Attend their “rookie school” for two weeks in early June and then go to the “academy” for 80 more hours - over 14 consecutive days - of intense training in swimming, rowing and physical fitness.

The “academy” is the States Avenue Beach, a section of sand and ocean nestled between the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort and the Showboat Casino-Hotel, where the remnants of old amusement piers and rock jetties jutting out of the roiling sea create the perfect training ground for the recruits.

They must come each day, whether the sun is beating down so intensely that steam rises off their backs as they take their first swim, or the day is so dismal and drizzly that the last thing anyone would want to do is dive into the gray, crashing sea.

“It’s good for rescue scenarios here and for helping them get over their fears about the ocean and what lies within it,” says Joe Sykes, 50, captain of the Atlantic City Beach Patrol and a lifeguard for 34 years. “Fear is a good thing because it keeps them alert. But they have to learn to get over that fear to stay healthy in this job.”

Some of the 23 members of the rookie group seem to be no more than children - the youngest is only 14 and part of a quasi-apprentice program that leads to certification after three years. Others are grown-ups with regular jobs. The oldest is a 29-year-old teacher.

“It’s surprising, but there really is a lot to learn,” says the teacher, Patrick Scherbin of Ventnor, who decided it was time to return to the summer occupation of his youth.

“A lot of the things we’re learning are things that I learned before when I was a lifeguard,” he says, “but you really do need to start all over again and relearn them, like handling a boat, because you don’t remember and don’t know all the nuances until you are actually doing them every day.”

By graduation day, in early July each year, the rookies have to be ready to apply their training to final exams that test their endurance and quick thinking, Sykes says.

Last year, the 100 applicants who began the program early in the summer were weeded down to 18 by the end. The final tallies aren’t in for this year. Those who do make it will be paid about $76 a day for six-day weeks.

“Other towns along the Shore offer their new recruits some type of training, of course, but I’m sure there is nothing else like this anywhere,” Sykes says. “We’ve been doing it a long, long time here.”

In 1855, Atlantic City hired its first “constable of the surf.” The lone lifeguard, William Cazier, was paid $117 for the entire season. In 1870, a British inventor named Capt. William Tell Street developed his patented “life lines for surf bathing.” The lines were heavy cables, from pilings on the beach to anchors offshore, that bathers held on to as they made their way into the ocean to play. The new diversion became all the rage on the beaches in front of the resort’s fashionable hotels. Within two years, a volunteer lifeguard patrol had been formed.

But as ocean bathing became more popular and was followed by a series of drownings in the late 1880s, town leaders decided in 1892 to establish a paid beach patrol. Today, the beach patrol has more than 170 members who watch over 52 of the city’s beaches.

Sykes and three colleagues who help teach the rookie class have a combined 126 years of experience, a number that Sykes uses to illustrate just how much there is to know about this occupation.

“As a lifeguard, you have to realize that you are learning all the time, even after you go through basic training,” says Sykes, a gravelly-voiced, drill-sergeant-football-coach combination of a man, who is a union sheet-metal worker.

“You have to keep learning and keep your skills sharp and then pass that knowledge on to someone else. It’s very important to share what you know because that could be the kernel of information that could be the difference between saving someone’s life and not being able to help them.”

Even those who graduate from the rookie camp are still not completely accepted as full members into this coveted “club” of lifesavers.

For three more summers, the recruits are paired with more experienced lifeguards who scrutinize their performance and continue their training.

“But it really is the best job they’ll ever have,” says Lt. Fred Day, 60, a retired firefighter who has been a member of the group for 22 years. “The camaraderie and the lifesaving element of the job can bring you a lot of satisfaction.”

Day smiles as he says that. And his memories drift to all those summers, high up in his wooden lifeguard stand, by the sea.

“Yes, it is the best job I’ve ever had,” he says.

© Philadelphia Inquirer 2000.