The week ahead will feature the Hampton Lifeguard Association’s run-swim-run tomorrow at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett and what could be the last 18-mile Paddlers 4 Humanity paddle from Montauk Point to Block Island Saturday.
The run-swim-run, with a half-mile ocean swim sandwiched between half-mile beach runs — a fund-raiser for H.L.A.’s national team — is to begin at 6 p.m. tomorrow at Atlantic. It was won last year by Vanessa Rizzo, then 14; Tom McGlade, then 60, was the runner-up. The cost is $35 per person or $75 for a relay team. Contenders under 18 will need a parent present to register.
The run-swim-run is one of a number of lifeguard competitions that are to be contested here this summer, others being the Main Beach volleyball tournament this evening, the Main Beach invitational lifeguard tournament next Thursday, the Nipper tournament on July 28 and 29, the junior lifeguard tournament on Aug. 2 and 3, and the Red Devil open water swim on Aug. 31.
At the recent United States Lifesaving Association’s mid-Atlantic regional championships at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, Dylan Zucker placed eighth over all among the 83 open division male guards, garnering 34 points for the H.L.A. team, and Daisy Pitches placed ninth among the 66 female open-division competitors, amassing 34 points as well. She was the open surf swim’s runner-up, finished third in the open run-swim-run, and 10th in the paddleboard rescue. Zucker won the open run-swim-run, was the open surf swim’s runner-up, and took third in the landline rescue. Other H.L.A. place-winners were Liam Knight, Miles Menu, Ethan McCormac, Dane Dillenback, Gigi Michaels, Patrick O’Donnell, and Sean Knight.
Block Island Paddle
Saturday’s P4H paddle to Block Island may well be its last, Fred Doss, one of the child-oriented nonprofit’s board members, said during a conversation at The Star Friday. “Twenty years seems like a good stopping place, though we might change our minds. If anyone reading this is interested in taking up the mantle, please let us know.”
Doss said he expects there will be 40 to 45 participants — on either stand-up paddleboards or in kayaks, though prone paddleboarders are welcome — at the foot of Montauk’s Lighthouse at dawn Saturday. “Last year, we didn’t get off because of the conditions, so, fingers crossed, let’s hope everything bodes well on Saturday. Dan Farnham, who has captained our lead boat, the Kimberly, since the beginning, will tell us what’s up. Our options are always limited because of the tides, but wind-direction is a big factor. It can be too challenging if you’re paddling into the wind the whole time.”
He added that “I’m always telling people it’s not a race, it’s a community event. We want to stay together. . . . Besides Dan and his wife, Sue, on the Kimberly, we’ll have five or six other boats, depending on our number, to the side and to the rear of the paddlers, making sure everyone’s safe. Safety’s our number-one concern. We’ll have two [East Hampton Volunteer] Ocean Rescue members on Jet Skis too. . . . On average, the crossing takes six hours . . . sometimes it’s four and a half sometimes seven and a half. Once there, we have lunch and relax, and then take the ferry back to Montauk at 5.”
The money raised from the paddle — participants are asked to contribute at least $1,500 — “is passed through,” Doss said, to other nonprofit organizations such as Project Most, the Retreat, buildOn, and the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center. In all, over the years, he estimated that Paddlers 4 Humanity had contributed around $2 million toward improving the lives of children who live here. And while Saturday’s might be the last Block Island Challenge, Paddlers 4 Humanity will, said Doss, continue its work, the need being great.
