The Avalon Beach Patrol will look for its third consecutive Cape May County Lifeguard Championships team title Monday.
The 10 Cape May County beach patrols from Ocean City to Cape May Point will compete in the 40th edition of the county event at 6:15 p.m. at the Rambler Road beach in Wildwood Crest
The eight races are the doubles row, the open box paddleboard race, the open box swim, the women’s box swim, the women’s box paddleboard race, the singles row, the open surf dash and the newly-added women’s surf dash. Both surf dash races consists of four dashers.
Scoring is 6-4-3-2-1 for the first five places.
Last summer, the open surf dash consisted of five people. The Wildwood Crest Beach Patrol and chief Bud Johnson, like many other patrols over the last couple of years, added another women’s only race because of the growing number of female lifeguards.
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“It’s the sign of the times,” said Johnson, noting his patrol is about 50% male and female. “If you were to talk to every beach patrol, you’ll find out that every one of them has increased in number, as far as females go, over the last couple of years.”
The North Wildwood Beach Patrol is about 60% female and 40% male, Johnson said.
“It’s the sign of the times. I am telling you, it’s the sign of the times," Johnson said. "They go through the same tests. They are good lifeguards. They are good athletes. A lot of women are getting involved in lifeguarding, as well as getting involved in athletics. You see they are good basketball players, good soccer players, good lacrosse players.
“It’s just the way it is right now. It’s pretty even as far as men and women now. They are getting a lot of recognition. It just trickled onto the beach patrols and now everyone is in the same boat.”
Last summer, Avalon and Sea Isle City both scored 22 team points, but Avalon was the winner on the tiebreaker of head-to-head results in the seven races. The host Wildwood Crest won the county titles in 2019 and 2021. The event wasn’t held in 2020 due to the pandemic. Ocean City won in 2018, and Wildwood won in 2017. Ocean City had also won from 2013-16.
“It’s all about everyone having a good time,” Johnson said. “It’s the first event of the year. Our distances are a little bit shorter than some of the major competition later on. Instead of a 15-minute row, our doubles is around 10 or 11 (minutes).
“The reason we did that is because the athletes are just getting in shape right now. They are down here and training, but they are not in the best of shape at this point. So, we try to reduce the distance a little bit. Nothing is out and in. We do the boxes right in front of you so you can see everything. We started with that philosophy and we held it. I think everyone enjoys coming down here. I think we do a good job making it fair and safe.”
All the Atlantic County beach patrols will be competing in the Chief Bill Kuhn Brigantine Lifeguard Invitational at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the 17th Street beach in Brigantine.
“That’ll be going on while this is going on, so everybody will be racing on Monday night,” Johnson said.
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