By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Protecting the lives of thousands of beachgoers over the summer vacation season is an enormous responsibility for anybody – especially for someone who is only in their teens.
At first, Maddie Farley, a 17-year-old junior at Ocean City High School, wasn’t sure she wanted to become a Sea Isle City lifeguard and take on that responsibility, her mother said.
But she has her whole family to inspire her. Her father, Mike Farley Sr., mother, Margaret, and brother, Michael Jr., are all members of the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol. She also has uncles and cousins in Sea Isle and Ocean City who are lifeguards.
“I kind of decided that I wanted to push myself,” Maddie said of possibly becoming a lifeguard. “I also heard about all of the great people who are on the beach patrol and I wanted to surround myself with that.”
On Saturday, she took the first step by competing in Sea Isle’s rookie lifeguard tryouts, a normally grueling test of strength and courage made even more challenging this weekend by rough surf and chilly water temperature.
For the first segment of the tryouts Saturday morning, the nearly 40 prospective lifeguards had to run a mile in under 7 minutes and 30 seconds and followed that up by completing a quarter-mile ocean swim.
Mary Kate Leonard, 17, of Ivyland, Pa., finished first in the ocean swim, emerging from choppy waves and 66-degree water temperature.
“It was very rough. I couldn’t see anything,” she said. “It was also very cold. I felt numb in the water.”
For the candidates who met the qualifications of the run and swim, a round of interviews with beach patrol personnel followed next.
Candidates still being considered after the interview will be timed in a 500-meter pool swim Sunday morning. The final element of testing will be a simulated rescue consisting of a 220-yard run along the beach, a sprint through the surf and a 20-yard swim to a flag.
The Farleys expressed confidence that Maddie will be the next family member to become a lifeguard.
“She’s trained very hard,” said Mike Farley Sr., a lieutenant with the beach patrol who serves as its recruiting officer.
Maddie, who is a diver with Ocean City High School, began her training back in February. Her brother served as a training partner, swimming and running with her.
“I told her that if she put in the time, she would make it for sure. I also told her about all the camaraderie we have with the whole beach patrol,” said Michael Jr., 18, a freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
Margaret Farley said a key moment came when Maddie, whose formal name is Madelyn, decided she was ready to accept the challenge of becoming a lifeguard.
“Madelyn was hesitant at first,” her mother noted.
Sea Isle’s beach patrol has a 102-year history. In Sea Isle’s early days as a beach resort, the hotels hired their own lifeguards to protect their guests from drowning. Neighbors would occasionally pool their money to hire “subscription lifeguards” to keep an eye on swimmers.
However, an epic shift occurred on July 11, 1919, when the city established a professional beach patrol, forever changing how the lives of countless beachgoers over the past century years would be protected.
For this summer, Sea Isle hopes to have a total of 102 lifeguards, said Renny Steele, who is entering his 51st year with the beach patrol and has served as its chief for the past 35 years.
Steele said not all of the nearly 40 rookie lifeguard candidates who are trying out this weekend may qualify. But he believes the city will have enough lifeguards to protect the beaches this summer.
“We may be a little short, but we’ll be all right,” Steele said.
Traditionally, Sea Isle’s lifeguards protect the beaches from 24th to 92nd streets. But this year the beach patrol plans to also have lifeguards at Third, Sixth and Ninth streets as part of an expansion into the far northern end of Sea Isle.
