It is working with NBC Sports Philadelphia on two major events this summer
UPPER TOWNSHIP – For nearly a century, Jersey shore residents and visitors have packed the beaches during the summer to watch their local lifeguards show off their impressive lifesaving skills, battling each other and the ocean during exciting rowing and swimming races.
This year, Five Tribes Cinema Productions is teaming up with NBC Sports Philadelphia to televise those races, bringing that excitement to a wider audience.
Lifeguards competing in events that play to their lifesaving strengths have historically been a summer fixture on the barrier islands. Those events continue to include rowing and swimming and have evolved into additional races on paddleboards and in the surf dash.
Teams in the South Jersey Lifeguard Chiefs Association began competing in July in men’s, women’s and mixed events held from Brigantine to Cape May Point. Five Tribes Cinema is planning to livestream two of the biggest races in August and NBC Sports will broadcast them at a later date, showing the athletic prowess and skills of the men and women who guard the local beaches.
According to Five Tribes CEO Colin Stewart, a local man who began his own rowing career at Ocean City High School and then competed successfully for Drexel University, the aim is to make lifeguard racing accessible to viewers well beyond those who are able to watch the competitions in person.
Five Tribes began its South Jersey Lifeguard Racing Series in 2021 using a combination of cameras and drones to capture the races from start to finish, following athletes from the beaches, out into the ocean and then back to the finish lines in front of the roaring crowds.
Before starting the lifeguard series, Five Tribes began broadcasting crew races in 2021 to help parents who couldn’t watch their sons and daughters race in the Schuylkill River because of pandemic restrictions. Now Five Tribes, through NBC Sports Philadelphia, is going to bring lifeguard racing into a few million homes from southern New Jersey deep into central Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Stewart said Five Tribes has chosen to cover and air the Bill Howarth Women’s Lifeguard Invitational and the longest-runner South Jersey Lifeguard Championships, which are coming up in August. Five Tribes also will be live-streaming the races on YouTube for those who want to see the action as it happens.
After covering the regattas in Philadelphia last year, Stewart said his company realized it had the equipment, personnel and training to expand into covering and promoting the lifeguard races and did four of them last summer, including the South Jersey and Ventnor women’s events along with the Margate Memorial Lifeguard Races and Dutch Hoffman races.
“Each time we did it we figured a lot of things out and got a little better, better and better and this year we have a full-scale plan to cover the races,” he said. Five Tribes wants to see sports fans exposed to lifeguard races “because they have everything you need. They have the team rivalry with teams based out of cities that you can root for – people who live and stay in those towns get territorial about it. You have athletes who range from college Division 1 swimmers to high school kids who row at counties for their local high school.”
Stewart said it is exciting to be working with NBC Sports Philadelphia.
“It was a lot of hard work and legwork,” he explained, as his company had to show NBC work it has done in the past, how it was able to obtain sponsors, including Wawa, for that work, and to demonstrate that there is an audience for the lifeguard races.
“It’s very exciting for us because it shows that the stuff that we’ve been working on and moving forward with is becoming a reality,” Stewart said.
Five Tribes is based in southern New Jersey and mostly covers this area and the Philadelphia region. The main core of Five Tribes are Drexel and Ocean City High School alumni.
For those who want to watch the upcoming livestream of the races, it will be on the company’s page on YouTube.com – SJL Racing.
The Ventnor Women’s race is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 10 and the South Jersey Lifeguard Championships in Longport is 6:30 p.m. Aug. 12.
To learn more about Stewart’s company, go online to fivetribescinemaproductions.com.