27 Photos
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
The Hampton Lifeguard Association took a team of nearly 100 lifeguards--both juniors and adults--to the USLA National Lifeguard Championships in Virginia Beach last week. NICOLE CASTILLO PHOTOS
Nearly 100 lifeguards and junior lifeguards from the East End of Long Island descended on Virginia Beach last week to participate in the United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard Championships, showing off the skills they’ve honed all summer on the beach and in the water.
A total of 52 junior and 44 adult lifeguards competed in a countless array of events, with the juniors in the spotlight on Wednesday, August 9, and adults competing in the open and age group divisions on August 10-12.
The Hampton Lifeguard Association team is made up of guards and juniors mostly from East Hampton, but also includes a strong number of guards and juniors from Southampton Town beaches and other agencies on the East End.
While taking off from work at the beaches where they are employed for a road trip down South might sound like a vacation, HLA chief John Ryan Jr. made it clear that the HLA guards who made the trek were there for two primary reasons: to compete and improve.
“This is work,” he said, pointing out that the guards and juniors who attend not only make a financial commitment to being there, but are expected to train and get themselves in the best shape possible before showing up. “It isn’t just about going and hanging out. They’re working the entire day.”
Many of the adult lifeguards who competed throughout the week spent Wednesday leading the group of juniors through their events. Craig Brierley runs the East Hampton Town Junior Lifeguarding program and conducts training sessions for the juniors for nationals, while guards like Bella Tarbet and Paige Schaefer help coach and organize the juniors during their long competition day at nationals.
After putting in that time on Wednesday, the adult guards were then up early and typically on the beach by 7 a.m. the following three days, taking part in various events in the hot Virginia sun well into the evening, competing against the best lifeguard teams in the country, from California, Monmouth County, New Jersey, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the home team of Virginia Beach, and everywhere in between.
Distance runs on the sand, distance swims in the Atlantic, paddleboard races and rescues, torp rescues, landline rescues, run-swim-run races, and sprint races and relays were all contested. Throughout the four days of competition, lifeguards of all ages ran up and down the beach in brightly colored bathing suits and rashguards, jumping, sprinting and paddling, tackling the surf with paddleboards, old fashioned Dory boats, impossibly narrow “surf ski” kayaks that require precision and balance to operate, and a host of other equipment meant to fine tune their athleticism and response times, and test their mettle as watermen and waterwomen.
The juniors shined for HLA, as they typically do, on Wednesday.
“Every year, the juniors seem to dominate,” Ryan said. “They do extremely well at the national level, which is quite impressive. It’s great to see that all this hard work they put in gets them success at the national level.”
In the U19 division, Brodie Schaefer won the distance run. In the ‘A’ group age division, Liam Knight, Miles Menu and Nicholas Chavez won the surf team race, and HLA had five of the top 10 finishers in the ‘A’ group beach flags event for boys, and four of the top 10 finishers in the ‘A’ group beach flags for girls.
In the ‘B’ group, Bridget Lockwood won the distance swim. In the ‘C’ group, Callie Amicucci won beach flags, Oliver Early won the distance run, and Heidi Rizzo won the female Ironguard event.
The adult lifeguards also performed well on the three days when they took center stage on the beach.
Several HLA guards and relay teams earned top-10 finishes in the highly competitive open division, including Bella Tarbet, Melina Sarlo, Ryleigh O’Donnell, Sophia Swanson, Dylan Cashin, Julia Brierley, Brodie Schneider, Owen McCormac, Colin Schaefer, Ethan McCormac, Jack Duryea, Luke Castillo, Thomas Brierley, Patrick O’Donnell, and Vincent Mullen.
There were standout point-earners in the age group divisions as well. Angelika Cruz won two events (the distance swim and 2K beach run) and was second in two others in the women’s 50-54 age group, while Sean Knight had a trio of top-six finishes in the men’s 40-44 division. In the men’s 45-49 division, Dave Riley, a Southampton Town lifeguard, had three top-seven finishes.
Ryan, Tim Treadwell, Sean Crowley and Barry Moore all earned points for the HLA team in their age group divisions as well.
Scoring points and earning top-10 finishes and medals is gratifying, but Ryan said all those who participated for HLA, regardless of how they finished, took something valuable away from the tournament.
“There’s a lot of learning that goes on,” he said. “We learn things about ourselves, and we learn new techniques that are implemented at each beach. We learn about working as a team, and with all the vendors that are there, we learn about equipment improvements and innovations that help make for better and quicker response times for rescues.”
As the name of the USLA organization implies, while the competition itself is exciting and rewarding, the true overall goal is to enhance every agency’s ability to save lives across the country.
For full results, visit usla.org.
Cailin Riley on Aug 16, 2023