Beach Patrol

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. - Not much about how ocean lifeguards protect swimmers has changed since the late 19th century, when the country's first beach patrol was born on the Jersey Shore. For Sea Isle City patrol captain Renny Steele, it has been 40 seasons of watching with a keen eye, then jumping into action - and training others to do the same. There's the basic equipment: the ubiquitous lifesaving boat and missile-shaped floats called rescue "cans. " But for the amount of time it's in use, the prosaic guard stand - the power center of any swimming beach - is his patrol's most important tool.

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. - Not much about how ocean lifeguards protect swimmers has changed since the late 19th century when the country's first beach patrol was born on the Jersey Shore. For Sea Isle City patrol captain Renny Steele, it's been 40 seasons of watching with a keen eye, then jumping into action - and training others to do the same. There's the basic equipment: the ubiquitous lifesaving boat and missile-shaped floats called rescue "cans. " But for the amount of time it's in use, the prosaic guard stand - the power center of any swimming beach - is his patrol's most important tool.

Aside from a hundred or so cottages, a motel, and two or three restaurants, there isn't much here. It seems like a place that time has forgotten - or, at least, one that has long been forgotten by the rest of the township. Until now. When a contractor hired by Upper Township in the spring began driving pilings and constructing a foundation for a beach patrol station at the end of Williams Avenue, residents noticed. "When we saw this thing going up, we worried that it was going to be some big new thing that we didn't want to see on our beach," said Patty Miller, whose in-laws have owned a home in Strathmere for years.

The beach in Avalon, closed Saturday when medical waste washed ashore, reopened yesterday, luring bathers to its freshly cleaned sand. Borough officials walked the beach before dawn and gave it "a clean bill of health," said Murray Wolf, captain of the beach patrol. The beach reopened at 10 a.m. Lifeguards had shut down more than a mile of shoreline when beachgoers found intravenous needles and cotton swabs on the sand. Wolf said about 150 items reached shore between 10:30 a.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. That forced the closing of a stretch of beach from Ninth Street to 28th Street, as fire company and rescue-squad workers scrambled to collect the materials.

After spending the night drinking in bars in Margate and stopping for an early morning pizza, former Eagles lineman Kevin Allen and his roommate, Scott Cartwright, went for a walk on the beach. They hadn't planned to hurt anyone, Cartwright testified in court yesterday. But when he and Allen came across a couple lying together on the deserted beach about 5 a.m. Labor Day, Cartwright beat the man into unconsciousness while Allen sexually assaulted the woman, Cartwright said.

As lifeguards in Cape May City, Craig Forrest and Justin Kurtz have had their share of rescues at sea. Monday night, they made their first rescue in the sky. Their first sign that someone was in trouble came shortly before 8 p.m., less than 30 minutes into Continental's Flight 1266 from San Jose to Denver and Philadelphia. Was there a doctor or paramedic aboard, the captain asked. A 38-year-old passenger was having seizures - the effects from medication. No one spoke up. Then the lifeguards jumped in. "I said, 'We're qualified.

Three men intimately familiar with the sands of this Victorian town stood yesterday on the Grant Street beach, where blacks used to bathe, and where the lifeguards' surfboats now boast "Nation's Oldest Seashore Resort" in big block letters. At 68, Bill Bart, the senior member of the trio, was about to be the oldest entrant in a competition that attracted 200 lifeguards from New York to Virginia. The youngest of the three, Jack Schellenger, 54, a descendant of a family that came here before the Revolutionary War, held a walkie-talkie and co-directed the beach patrol as Lieutenant No. 1. But the longest memory of the Grant Street beach belonged to Lieutenant No. 2 of the beach patrol, J. Ronald Owens, the only black person to be found under the scorching sun. Owens, 60, last sat atop the Grant Street lifeguard stand in 1961, when it was still a racially segregated beach.

As Hurricane Bonnie churned toward the U.S. mainland yesterday, her turbulent effects had already reached the Jersey Shore in the form of roiling surf and dangerous riptides. The Atlantic City Beach Patrol rescued 101 swimmers Sunday from severe rip currents that quickly formed along the beachfront and pulled the swimmers from the shoreline into unsafe waters, according to assistant beach patrol chief Rod Aluise. Though some of the rescued swimmers in Atlantic City suffered minor head and neck injuries, none were seriously injured, officials said.

The heat is on - yet again. Brace yourself for a high temperature today of 94 steamy degrees that will feel like more than 100. Ditto for tommorrow. The heat wave that has choked the area, with brief pockets of relief, since July "just doesn't seem like it wants to break," said Laura Anderson, a meteorologist with Accu-Weather. "It's uncomfortably humid, especially this next few days," Anderson said. Health Commissioner Estelle Richman raised yesterday's Hot Weather Health Alert to a Hot Weather Health Warning that stays in effect today.

Authorities said they believe that a body found floating in Great Egg Harbor Bay yesterday near Ocean City, N.J., may be the 19-year-old Temple student who was pulled out to sea in a rip current last month. Josias Sterling, of Olney, disappeared July 24 in the waters near Ocean City's Longport Bridge. Positive identification is awaiting a medical examination this morning. Authorities said the body was found in the Rainbow Channel near the Route 52 Bridge between Ocean City and Somers Point . "We suspect that it is our missing swimmer, but we cannot confirm that" until the examination is complete, said Ocean City Police Lt. Steven Ang. Ang said police have been in contact with Sterling's family.

CAPE MAY - Like an army vigilant in a singular mission, a uniformed patrol took to the beach for the 100th time Saturday, the unofficial start of the 2011 summer season. Despite the active surf - among the most roiling at the Jersey Shore, as the Atlantic Ocean meets the Delaware Bay at the state's southern tip - the Cape May Beach Patrol can celebrate its centennial by reveling in a remarkable record: No one has drowned on its watch. "That record has to do with training, with a certain understanding of what the conditions are here, and with procedures and traditions that have been passed down through the years," Beach Patrol Capt.

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. - Not much about how ocean lifeguards protect swimmers has changed since the late 19th century, when the country's first beach patrol was born on the Jersey Shore. For Sea Isle City patrol captain Renny Steele, it has been 40 seasons of watching with a keen eye, then jumping into action - and training others to do the same. There's the basic equipment: the ubiquitous lifesaving boat and missile-shaped floats called rescue "cans. " But for the amount of time it's in use, the prosaic guard stand - the power center of any swimming beach - is his patrol's most important tool.

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. - Not much about how ocean lifeguards protect swimmers has changed since the late 19th century when the country's first beach patrol was born on the Jersey Shore. For Sea Isle City patrol captain Renny Steele, it's been 40 seasons of watching with a keen eye, then jumping into action - and training others to do the same. There's the basic equipment: the ubiquitous lifesaving boat and missile-shaped floats called rescue "cans. " But for the amount of time it's in use, the prosaic guard stand - the power center of any swimming beach - is his patrol's most important tool.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - The six-member Troy family travels from Wrightstown, Bucks County, to the Jersey Shore every year at this time, and never has it been too hot to hang out on the beach. But Wednesday morning, with a westerly wind so hot it felt as though a blow dryer was aimed at the coastline, a leisurely stroll on the boardwalk sounded much more appealing to Jeff and Kelly Anne Troy. "Usually the water is too cold for the kids to go in. But this year, I've even been in," said Kelly Anne Troy as she showed her children - who range in age from 16 months to 6 years - the intricacies of the taffy-pulling machines in the blessedly air-conditioned Shriver's Salt Water Taffy & Fudge.

Authorities said they believe that a body found floating in Great Egg Harbor Bay yesterday near Ocean City, N.J., may be the 19-year-old Temple student who was pulled out to sea in a rip current last month. Josias Sterling, of Olney, disappeared July 24 in the waters near Ocean City's Longport Bridge. Positive identification is awaiting a medical examination this morning. Authorities said the body was found in the Rainbow Channel near the Route 52 Bridge between Ocean City and Somers Point . "We suspect that it is our missing swimmer, but we cannot confirm that" until the examination is complete, said Ocean City Police Lt. Steven Ang. Ang said police have been in contact with Sterling's family.

They say it's a dog's life - but not at the Jersey Shore, where canines are pretty much banned from frolicking on the beach all summer long. Among the lengthy list of don'ts that greet beach visitors, "No dogs" is the command most often highlighted in red. Let Fido set one paw on the sand in places such as Atlantic City, Cape May, and Ocean City and you could be fined up to $100. Most municipalities make it clear they aren't keen on pooches ever being on the shoreline - fearing that animal waste could foul the water and jeopardize tourism - even if many allow dogs in the off-season.

The beach in Avalon, closed Saturday when medical waste washed ashore, reopened yesterday, luring bathers to its freshly cleaned sand. Borough officials walked the beach before dawn and gave it "a clean bill of health," said Murray Wolf, captain of the beach patrol. The beach reopened at 10 a.m. Lifeguards had shut down more than a mile of shoreline when beachgoers found intravenous needles and cotton swabs on the sand. Wolf said about 150 items reached shore between 10:30 a.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. That forced the closing of a stretch of beach from Ninth Street to 28th Street, as fire company and rescue-squad workers scrambled to collect the materials.

The surf was up and so was a tide of medical waste that came ashore yesterday at Avalon, N.J., and forced lifeguards to close three-quarters of a mile of beach between Ninth and 21st Streets. An estimated 150 items, including used intravenous needles and cotton swabs, were found and about 1,000 people evacuated, public information officer Scott Wahl said. That portion of the beach was expected to remain closed until at least this morning, when it will be reinspected, he said. Investigators were not sure of the waste's origin, but Wahl said the needles should be easy to track through their serial numbers.

With winter officially here, the juniors and seniors at Pennridge High School in Bucks County have summer and the prospects of a lifeguarding job on their minds. The students are enrolled in a physical education course - one of only 32 in the Philadelphia region - where they are learning skills that will qualify them for Red Cross certification to work as lifeguards. The class is in its premier year at Pennridge and has attracted 156 juniors and seniors. It is an extension of the district's mandatory swimming programs for second graders and for high school sophomores that began two years ago. Sophomores must pass a skills test before they can enroll in the course.

Last weekend was the kind of weekend at the Shore that people try to explain to those who insist the season ends on Labor Day, but probably never quite fully succeed in conveying its graces. On a day with a definite autumn chill in the air, but ocean temps still nudging 70, you could see the tableau breaking down into two camps. There were those determined not to give up on summer, out there with their chairs, their bare chests and bathing suits. Then there were those more forward-thinking types, with giddy dogs in tow once again, sweatshirts, jeans and sneakers, hoofing along the water's edge.