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Surf City 2006 Yearbook


The 1987 Squad Photo Recreation Shot

 

2006 Surf City Beach Patrol season statistics:
 Total Rescues � 37
Missing Persons Recovered by the Patrol � 11
First Aid Responses � 9
Total Estimated Beach Population � 204,300
Average Water Temperature � 68 degrees Fahrenheit

Summer Recap - MVP and Special thanks to the Lifeguard Parents
 2006 was another banner year for the Surf City Beach Patrol.  The Surf City Lifeguards remained vigilant from the first day of the season to the last in order to keep the beach patrons of Surf City safe while they enjoyed the Surf City beach and the Atlantic ocean.  In addition to their busy days spent guarding the beaches and training, the lifeguards participated in a number of off duty events.  The always supportive Surf City lifeguard parents hosted a number of dinner parties before and after the various tournaments the patrol attended.  Special thanks go out to the Welc's, the Friel's, the Gronostajski's, and of course the DeAngelis's for once again hosting the big party before the Island tournament.  The tradition of having a "pasta party" the day before the big race started in 2000 with the DeAngelis's.  I apologize if I missed thanking anyone.

Congratulations to all of the lifeguards on safe and enjoyable season and a great performance on the beach and at the competitions!  Below are some highlights from this season.

The Most Valuable Player for 2006 was Ross Reynolds.  Ross was part of FOUR 1st place teams and SIX 2nd place teams.  Ross always motivated the team, coached, launched boats, took on the "bull" position when landing boats, and in general always gave 100% for the team.

Some Memories from the 2006 Season

   

  

   

  

     

  

 

Lifeguard Try-Outs - Saturday, May 27th, 2006

As has been the case for the past few years the 5 lifeguards needed to fill out the squad were hired at the initial lifeguard test.  This year we welcomed Brendan Petty, Allison Hemphil, Matt Kaminskas, Amanda Kimmish, and Katie Bonanni to the SCBP family.  The 2007 lifeguard test will be Saturday May 26,2007 at the St. Francis pool.  The test for returning lifeguards will be held at 10:30AM and the test for new applicants will be held at 11:30AM.  CPR for recerts and First Aid will take place after the lifeguard test at the Borough Hall.  First timer CPR and First Aid will be 12 noon the following Saturday at the Borough Hall.  Next year the test will again consist of the 22 length swim (500m) and a dive test.

 

Pre-Season Training - Saturday-Monday, June 11-13, 2006

In order to ensure that each Surf City lifeguard acquired the USLA required 20 hours of First Aid training in addition to CPR training before the start of the season, three days of mandatory training occurred Saturday through Monday of the week before the season was to start.  This training will occur each year on these days the week before the start of the season.  So, remember to put them in your date book now.  The Saturday and Sunday sessions will start at 10AM at the Borough Hall and the Monday session is scheduled to start at 7PM at the Surf City firehouse.

 

Lavallette Tournament - Monday, July 10, 2006
Team 4th Place out of 9 Teams

Since the Epic had to be rescheduled due to extremely cold water, the Lavallette was the first tournament of the season.  Although the water was really cold, probably in the upper 50's, none of the swims were too long.  So, it was bearable.  In 2006, the Lavallette tournament team consisted of Darren Podolak, Brett Friel, Ross Reynolds, Steve Welc, Rip Wagner, and Mark Dileo. 

 

 

 

In the first event of the night, the Iron Man, Darren came in 5th place (out of 9 teams) in an extremely competitive field.  Darren was just a few seconds out of 3rd place.  A very solid showing for it being so early in the season and his first Iron Man event.  Next up was Brett, Steve, Rip, and Mark in the swim relay.  The goal was to stay out of the basement and they did that.  The "City" continued it's streak of solid performances in the Iron Man Medley with a 2nd place.  Darren swam, Ross paddled, and Rip and Mark rowed.  Surf City won this event in 2004 and came in 3rd in 2005.


Come on guys, we need MORE Speedos!

Ross and Steve were up next and came in 5th in the Row Out/Swim In.  Another 5th for Darren and Brett in the Line Pull and yet another 5th for Ross, Darren, Steve, and Brett in the Paddle Relay.  The final event of the night was the boat relay.  The teams consisted of Rip/Mark, Steve/Brett, and Ross/Darren and Surf City came in 4th overall.  I don't remember the overall finish of the team but I think it was 4th or 5th out of 9 teams.  Not bad for the first tournament of the season.


The boat doesn't touch dry sand... (and yes, the Tivas)

 

Seaside Park Open Tournament - Monday, July 17, 2006
3rd Place Overall out of 10 Teams

After some dubious judging calls at this tournament last year, the team was eager for another shot at this tournament.  There were 10 teams competing and the conditions were perfect.  Warm water, low tide and 2 to 4 foot waves.  Kyle was up first in the highly competitive Beach Flags event.  The Iron Man Medley team consisting of Brendan (mile run), Darren (swim), Ross (paddle), and Rip/Mark (row) finished with a 4th place.  Steve and Brett rowed the 1000' doubles row to a respectable 4th place.  Jeff Hahn, Darren Podolak, Matt Holloway, and Kyle Gronostajski came in 6th in the apex style swim relay.  It was a long swim, just ask Matt or Jeff!


Kyle takes off in beach flags

  
Brett and Steve on the line in the 1000' Doubles

 


Matt Holloway going after it in the Swim Relay

As mentioned above, last year Surf City received some questionable judging calls in this tournament and the paddle relay was one event where our team, consisting of Ross and Ryan Curtin were disqualified for the tip of the board not touching the buoy.  Now I want to be clear on this.  If the board didn't touch the buoy it was perhaps 2 inches at most from the buoy.  Every rule in a lifeguard tournament is NOT strictly enforced.  If it was there would be 3 or 4 disqualifications in every event for minor rule infractions such as early starts, boats and boards being over the start line, boats and boards crossing into neighboring lanes, and a host of other minor rules that are often broken.  But one has to remember that it is the "Spirit of the Tournament" that must be maintained.  This means that if the offending team was not seeking a competitive advantage and the breaking of the rule did not change the outcome of the race then in the spirit of the tournament the team should not be disqualified.


Ryan and Ross coming in 1st place in the paddle rescue

Well this year Ross definitely made sure the tip of the board touched the buoy on his turn.  In addition, he smoked the other 9 teams to the mark and he and Ryan won the event.  Nice job! Unfortunately things didn't work out so well for the boat relay team of Rip/Mark, Steve/Brett, and Ross/Darren; they came in 8th place.


Ryan battling it out for 1st place in the 2nd leg of the paddle relay

The paddle relay was the next event and the team of Steve, Ross, Ryan, and Brett didn't disappoint with another 1st place.  In the final event, the Run Relay, Surf City quick twitch guru's Mike Szymanski, Nick Labida, Brett Friel, and Kyle Gronostajski finished with a solid 3rd place.

Overall a good tournament effort with a final team finish of 3rd place overall out of 10 teams.

  

 

Seaside Park Women's Tournament - Tuesday, July 18, 2006 (9 Competing Teams)

The Seaside Park Women's Tournament had a great turnout this year with 10 squads sending race teams to the competition.  Seaside Park doesn't score this tournament by teams because in the past it was difficult for many teams to field a full team.  But things have changed and most squads have more than enough capable women to field a competitive running, swimming, paddling, and rowing team.  Hopefully next year Seaside Park will consider team scoring this tournament and having the same events they have in the Open tournament held the previous night. 

The first event of the night was the Run Relay.  The Surf City team of Carly Bargiel, Blair Bargiel, Maggie Dunn, and Cat Dewling put in a solid mid-pack showing in this extremely competitive field. 

  
Sprint Relay

The Paddle Relay team consisted of Jenn Welc, Carly Bargiel, Blair Bargiel, and Cat Dewling.  They finished up 5th just place, which was just out of the medal rounds.  Next up was the Swim Relay and Alyssa DeAngelis, Blair Bargiel, Carly Bargiel, and Katie Bonanni got another chance to mix it up.  Like the Open tournament the swim was an apex course with a quite long run.


Jenn takes off on the board in the Iron Woman Medley


Carly makes the tag to Katie in the swim relay

The next event was the 1000' doubles row and the experienced team of Jenn and Collette dominated the field with a 1st place finish.  The Iron Woman Medley team consisting of Cat (run), Katie (swim), and Jenn (paddle) worked it out for a 5th place finish.  The final event of the tournament was beach flags.  Cat, Carly, and Maggie represented Surf City in this event.


A round of beach flags

 

Ortley Tournament - Tuesday, July 25, 2006 (8 Competing Teams)
(Overall finish not recorded)

The Ortley Beach Lifeguard Tournament is another very competitive tournament.  As always, the  tournament opened with the 1000' doubles rowing event.  Steve and Mark rowed this event to a 3rd place finish.  Darren, Mike Vile, Ashley Morris, and Jeff Hahn earned a 5th place in the apex style swim relay.  Another 5th was in the cards for Surf City as Mike Vile and Steve Welc completed the Row-Out/Swim-In Event.  The Surf City team improved to 4th place in the Iron Man Medley entering the team of Brendan Petty (run), Darren Podolak (swim), Ross Reynolds (paddle) and Rip Wagner/Mark Dileo (row).

The "City's" best finish of the night, a 2nd, would come from the Paddle Relay team of Ross Reynolds, Mike Vile, Steve Welc, and Brett Friel.  Darren and Jeff completed the rescue race while Rip/Mark, Steve/Brett, and Mike V/Ross completed the row relay.  Brett had little rest this night as he also took on the line pull with Ryan Bonanni and Darren.  Gavin Marconi, Kyle Gronostajski, Mike Szymanski, and Brett Friel completed the last event of the night the Run-Relay.  Unfortunately, the results for these events were not recorded.

 

 
The Ortley Tournament Team (yes, the Tivas again)

 


Steve and Mark in the 1000' Doubles


Darren displaying that form!

 

  
Mike and Brett in the Paddle Relay

 


Mike and Ross in the Boat Relay - Yeah baby!

 

 
The Boat Relay

 


Brett getting down in the Line-Pull (and Mike making sure he does!)

 

Sandy Hook Women's Tournament - Wednesday, July 26, 2006


2006 Sandy Hook Tournament Team

Since 2004 Surf City has been sending a team to the Sandy Hook "All Women's Lifeguard Tournament."  Although I have never been to the tournament from what the women tell me and the photos it looks like a great tournament.  There are so many competitors the event starts look more like triathlon wave starts than lifeguard tournament events.  This year Surf City sent the largest team of all the years we attended.  9 women in total.  Congratulations to Ashley, Alyssa, Carly, Blair, Cat, Maggie, Caitlin, Farrell, and Collette on proudly representing Surf City in this well-known tournament!

Unfortunately I don't have results from the tournament but I do remember that Collette and Alyssa placed 2nd or 3rd in the women's row in their division.  Since Surf City has more than 10 women we compete in the largest division with patrols that have more women than we have total lifeguards!

 

Midway Beach "Battle at Midway" - Thursday, August 3, 2006 (2nd Place Team Overall)

It always seems to come together for Surf City at the "Battle at Midway" tournament.  Rowing teams are starting to gel, paddlers and swimmers are getting their "feel" for the water, and all the hard training is starting to pay off.  Having won this tournament in 2004 and 2005, the team had high hopes for 2006.  Ross, Mike, Ryan, and Brett started off the night with a very close 2nd place finish in the Paddle Relay.  Ship Bottom edged out the Surf City team in a very close race to win the event.


Mike Vile shows the form on the paddleboard

 
An exciting Paddle Relay race

In the next event, Steve and Mark took a 3rd place in the Boat Pick-Up.  Darren, Mike, Jeff Hahn, and Ashley put on a great show easily winning the swim relay.  Building off of their momentum, the boat relay team of Steve/Mark, Ross/Nick, and Rip/Brett dominated the Boat Relay.

  
Darren and Jeff in the Swim Relay

 
Steve and Mark take off for the first leg of the Boat Relay

If you know Darren then you know when he's fired up he's unbeatable.  And after those two 1st place victories I don't have to tell you how fired up he was.  And I also don't have to tell you he and Ross won the Row-Out/Swim-In.  That's three 1st place's in a row for Surf City.  But Ship Bottom had been consistently getting 2nd place when Surf City was getting 1st and they had won the remainder of the events.  Surf City and Ship Bottom were tied going into the last event, the Run Relay.

Gavin Marconi, Brian Holloway, Kyle Gronostajski, Nick Labida, Brett Friel, and Ryan Curtin put in a flawless performance but couldn't hold off the Ship Bottom juggernaut in the final event.  Surf City ended up with a 3rd place in the Run Relay and 2nd overall in this unbelievably exciting tournament.

 

Island Beach Open Tournament - Monday, August 7, 2006

When  you think of the Island Beach Lifeguard Tournament think of up to 15 boats squeezed in from jetty to jetty.  This year there were "only" 13 competing teams but the lanes were still tight.  As you can imagine when you have a tournament with this many teams the water conditions are going to be substantially different from one end of the competition area to the next.  Usually the teams at one end do well and those at the other end not so well.  Unfortunately the only event place that was recorded was a 3rd for Steve and Mark in the 1000' Doubles Row.


Get out of our lane!


See Ross, Mark DOES catch the boat! (What?  No Tivas?)

  
Brendan on the line and Ryan on the board

  
Ross making it look easy and Ross and Nick in the Boat Relay


Brett taking it easy (just kidding!!!)

 

Island Beach Women's Tournament - Tuesday August 8, 2006

Kudos to Island Beach for having a Women's Tournament this year.  Eight strong women's teams competed.  The swim relay team of Ashley, Carly, Alyssa, and Katie earned a 5th place in the first event of the night.  Next up the Paddle Relay team of Jenn, Cat, Carly, and Blair coming in a solid 4th place.  In the Iron Woman Medley Cat ran, Ashley swam, Jenn paddled, and Alyssa and Collette rowed.  Next up was the Row-Out/Swim-In and Alyssa and Jenn did a great job coming in 2nd place.

 

Ashley and Katie came in 5th in the Buoy Rescue race while Ashley, Katie, Cat, Maggie, and Alyssa took on the Line Pull.  The final event of the night was the 4-Person  boat relay which Surf City absolutely dominated.  Congratulations to the boat relay team of Jenn/Carly and Alyssa/Collette!

 

LBIBPA Tournament - Friday and Saturday, August 11/12, 2006

One again the culminating event of the season was upon us.  It's always an exciting and depressing time.  Exciting because this is the chance for the guards to test themselves against their fellow Long Beach Island guards.  Depressing because this tournament signals the end of the summer is fast approaching.  Okay, here we go...

Steve and Mark had their first go at the Mile Row and finished up in 2nd place.  Surf City's best female paddler, Jenn Welc, once again took on the Women's Paddle while Andre Garner and Ashley competed in the Buoy Rescue.  Brett Friel,  Matt Holloway, Ryan Curtin, and Kyle Gronostajski handled the Paddle Relay duties.  Favorites Jenn and Collette came in 2nd in a close race in the 1000' Women's Doubles Row.  Brett and Jeff Hahn had a little trouble with the turn in the Boat Pick-Up and it definitely cost them precious seconds.  Darren put in a great performance in a very competitive Iron Man field and earned a 3rd place finish.  Surf City was in 5th place after the first night of the tournament.

  
Steve and Mark in the Mile Row

 


The Women's Paddle Start


Women's Doubles Row

     
Darren in the Iron Man

After a disappointing first night the second night of the tournament started on a good note with Rip and Mark winning the 1000' Doubles Row.  Ashley came in 4th in the Women's Swim and Darren cruised to a 1st place in the prestigious 1000' Open Swim.  Two 1st place finishes in the first three events.  Surf City seemed to be on a roll.  But could they maintain the momentum?

  
1000' Doubles - Ryan Bonanni starts the celebration a few seconds early


And there are the Tivas again...

  
Ashley and Darren in the swimming races

Ross and Ryan kept the medal streak alive with a 3rd in the Paddle Relay while Jeff, Brendan, and Nick did their best in the Line-Pull.  Once again Barnegat Light one this race.  But if you watched them the race was over in the first 15 seconds as their swimmer ran out about a 1/3 of the way to the buoy while the other competitors started swimming in knee deep water!  For the 2nd year in a row, Steve once again took on the always up in the air Singles Row.


The Paddle Rescue


Singles Row

Rip and Collette came back strong for Surf City with a 1st place finish in the Mixed Doubles Row.  Next up was Ross in the 1500' Paddleboard Race.  Ross came in 2nd in an extremely close finish.  In the final event of the tournament the Surf Dash Relay team of Brendan Petty, Andre Garner, and Matt Holloway fought hard for a 2nd place finish.  With a solid second night, Surf City moved from 5th place after the first night to a 2nd place overall finish.  The best Surf City Finish since 1995!


Mixed Doubles


1500' Paddleboard


Surf Dash

  
Surf City 2nd Overall

 

   Surf City Epic - Thursday, August 15, 2006

If there was one thing we could count on this summer it was cold water.  Due to the cold water and scheduling conflicts, the Epic tournament had to be postponed until after the Island tournament.  This year the competing teams were Surf City, Ship Bottom, LBT, Beach Haven and two off-island teams, Island Beach State Park from the North and Brigantine from the South.  Brendan and Mark battled with the cold water for a 4th place finish in the Epic run-swim event while the Surf Dash competitors Ross, Rip, and Darren braved the same cold water for a 2nd place finish.

Steve, Ross, and Darren finished 2nd in the Paddle Relay while Darren, Ross, and Steve/Mark finished in 4th in the Iron Man Medley.  The final event of the night was the Run Row and the veteran team of Mark and Rip once again took top honors in that event.  This is a very unusual tournament and generally a shock to teams competing in it for the first time.  You can bet Brigantine and Island Beach will be prepared next year. 

I want to thank all of the guards and parent's for once again helping out with the tournament and making it a smooth running event.  Special thanks go to Sean Gordon our Epic head judge and announcer.

The final teams standings were as follows. 
1st Place - Long Beach Township - 33 points
2nd Place - Surf City - 27 points
3rd Place - Beach Haven - 18 points
4th Place - Island Beach State Park - 14 points
5th Place - Brigantine - 13 points
6th Place - Ship Bottom - 10 points

  
Judging and Scoring

 


Board Exchange

 
Uh oh...


 
That's better

 

We'll that's about it.  Thanks again to the lifeguards, kids on 5th Street, parents, and everyone that helped out with the beach patrol.


Stay off the dunes...or else!

 

 

Surf City Beach Patrol, 813 Long Beach Boulevard, Surf City, NJ 08008
Surf City Borough Hall (609) 494-3064  dileomd1@gmail.com