USCG Auxiliary teams up with OCBP
OCEAN CITY – The local flotilla of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary expanded the training of the new rookie class of the Ocean City Beach Patrol.
While the veteran instructors on the beach patrol teach the rookies all about saving lives and protecting bathers on the beaches in America’s Greatest Family Resort, the flotilla taught them boating safety.
Last week, USCG Auxiliary Ocean City Flotilla 08-01 took the 16-member rookie class through the safe boating class. Although the lifeguards spend the vast majority of their time on duty on stands on the beach keeping track of who is in the water, they can turn to paddleboards and lifeboats to rescue people in trouble.
Another tool on beaches throughout the resort are personal watercraft – different versions of water-jet powered vehicles that can be launched quickly and can race through the water to save people. Unlike using paddleboards or the sturdy oar-powered lifeboats that are iconic in the resort and through the Jersey shore communities, in New Jersey individuals are required to pass the auxiliary’s safe boating course to operate a personal watercraft, also known as a PWC. (People often call them Jet Skis, but that is a particular brand made by Kawasaki.)
OCBP Operations Chief Mark Jamieson approached Bill Quain, the flotilla’s staff officer for public education, about getting the rookie class trained in boater safety. The flotilla provided the course free of charge.
In two four-hour evening sessions after the guards spent the day on duty, flotilla members taught first in the Ocean City Free Public Library and then in the Senior Center at the Ocean City Community Center. The new lifeguards didn’t get much of a break, many of them stopping at Wawa to grab meals as they rushed from their stands to the course, and then sat wolfing down their dinners as the instruction began.
Quain and Nick Russo taught the guards the second night, but the evening before they had all four instructors on hand including Bill Fithian and Mary Beth Roadarmel.
They were happy to report that all 16 lifeguards passed the state certification exam and earned their Safe Boating Certification.
This is the same course the auxiliary teaches to any member of the public, meaning the lifeguards got the full understanding about boater safety, even though their main priority is now being able to legally operate the PWCs. As Quain explained, they can operate the PWCs and any other recreational vehicle in New Jersey’s tidal waterways. The tidal waterways, he said, include rivers, such as Patcong Creek, that empty into Great Egg Harbor Bay, the bay and the ocean.
“We teach boating safety for all those things,” he said.
As for why the auxiliary decided to provide the course for free, Quain said the USCG Auxiliary and the beach patrol have the same mission. “It is to prevent accidents if you can, and if you can’t, to rescue people,” he said. “We look at the boating safety course as a way to pre-empt search and rescue. If we do a good enough job and you’re listening, we probably won’t have to come get you.”
Quain said the class covers a lot of ground because it is meant for all potential boaters.
Some aspects have particular pertinence to the lifeguards.
The course teaches about the marine environment, boat handling and navigation.
“What we really stress is the personal responsibility of the operator of the vessel. Everything starts with them,” Quain said. “There is nobody else that has responsibility. If you’re running the vessel, you are in control and you need to know the rules of the road. It’s not as important for them (lifeguards), because they’re in the wide-open surf, but there are times when they do rescues in the inlet and need to know where to go and not to go and where other boats may be going.”
They also do a lot on how PWCs operate because that can be easily misunderstood. PWCs are steered by the jet so when a person takes their hand off the throttle, they lose steering capability.
“If you’re heading for something and there’s no brakes, but you take your hand off the throttle, you’re still moving forward but you have no steering,” he said. For lifeguards racing toward victims in the surf, that’s an important detail to know.
The course also teaches about the influence of alcohol, channel markers, things to avoid and boating courtesy. “We also give them a lot of practical knowledge, a lot to do with signals, markers, lights on the boat, when you can pass and not pass – we call it overtaking and give way. We teach people that.”
“We teach how to rescue a person from a boat. We talk about emergency situations,” Quain said. The lifeguards are also learning about surf conditions and how to navigate them so they’ll also be learning after the course how to operate a PWC with a sled behind them used to pick up people in distress.
Quain points out that having this certification also helps for lifeguards who hope to increase their levels of responsibility on the beach patrol and potentially move up through the organization.
“It’s kind of exciting,” he said. “Mark and I want to do this annually.”
Jamieson said it has always been his goal to create a tiered program to get his guards a boater safety certificate in addition to their regular training.
“We have such a high volume use of our PWCs in our daily lifeguarding this will give us more availability of operators,” he said. In a three-year program, the rookies get the USCG Auxiliary course in year one and get to be crew on PWCs and get training, get more in-depth training in year two so by year three all of their operators would be at least 18, certified and trained.
Jamieson said an initial conversation with the auxiliary in 2019 is coming to fruition this year. “We are very grateful to them for working with us in the future,” he said.
The OCBP has five PWCs, one at First Street, 12th Street, 23rd Street, 34th Street and 58th Street, and most days from noon to 3 p.m. they are out on patrol. Otherwise they are ready for response. The spare PWCs are used in special events, such as the Masters Swim.
Jamieson noted PWCs have been part of ocean lifeguarding ever since big-wave surfers began using them to get on waves. They were already in Ocean City when he got on the patrol in the late 1990s.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff