The East Hampton Town and East Hampton Village entries topped the women’s field in last Thursday’s Main Beach invitational lifeguard tournament — the town’s A team with 47 points and the village team with 41 — and the town’s men’s A team finished third, behind Smith Point and Jones Beach.
Daisy Pitches was the town women’s most valuable competitor, coming from behind in the run-swim-run and in the paddleboard relay to win those events. Her teammates in those races included Gigi Michaels, Julia Brierley, Lexi Parsons, Ava Castillo, Lizzie Daniels, and Vanessa Rizzo.
“Jones Beach led the run-swim-run the whole time,” John Ryan Jr., head of East Hampton Town’s lifeguards, said Friday at the Dory barn. “Daisy was 20, maybe 30 yards behind the Jones Beach competitor on the last leg. On the swim out to the buoy, she cut the other girl’s lead to maybe 15, and exited the water five yards ahead, right on the flag. . . . The paddleboard relay was back and forth between the town A and B teams, with Daisy coming from behind and winning it in the end.”
The town men’s A team won the paddleboard relay with Miles Menu, Ronan Walters, Liam Knight, and Luke Castillo. It was a back-to-back feat for Menu, who was a last-minute sub in the previous event, the landline rescue, given the fact that Thomas Brierley, that event’s swimmer, was under the weather.
Amanda Calabrese, a six-time national beach flag champion, won that event — the tourney’s last, under portable lights — for the town women’s B team. The village’s women’s team won the distance run and the sprint relay.
In other local lifeguard news, Ryan said that the Hampton Lifeguard Association (which includes Southampton Town) plans to take 35 senior guards and 45 junior guards to the national lifesaving association’s tournament in Huntington Beach, Calif., next week. The tourney is to run from Wednesday through Saturday, Aug. 9. Twelve guards were to have competed at Smith Point’s tournament Monday.
The following were winners at the recent Mid-Atlantic U-19 regionals: Liam Knight, first in Ironman, paddle, paddle relay, rescue race, and swim relay; Liam Zucker, first in run-swim-run and Ironguard; Vanessa Rizzo, first in run-swim-run; Evelyn Rizzo, first in Ironguard, run-swim-run, distance swim, and paddleboard; Heidi Rizzo, first in Ironguard, and Dylan Zucker, first in swim relay.
In a related matter, Ryan said that a pilot Guardian program for parents of junior lifeguards has proven to be popular. “Parents impressed by their children’s accomplishments in the water have been saying to us, ‘We wish we could have done that when we were kids,’ and that led us to start this program, so they could do what their kids were doing. Forty-two parents have signed up so far. We’ve talked about how rip currents work, the sweep, wave types, tide changes, using the undertow to your advantage. . . . When we swim out through the break to a buoy 50, 60 yards out, there are three things to focus on — dive early, dive deep, and dive long. Diving early is key, to take advantage of the undertow pulling you to the wave and out the back of it. Once we all get out there — I stay back with the people in the back — we don’t come in right away, but, after the high-fives and everything, we sidestroke in, looking back at the waves so you know when to swim and when to hold up. . . . This program is making the parents a little less anxious and a little more confident. They’re excited to be able to do something their children are able to do.”
Asked if there had been any big saves lately, Ryan said, “We’ve had a number of rescues . . . as for big saves, we answered a 911 call earlier this month that resulted in saving a 250-pound guy who was in a panic state on a boogie board about 200 yards offshore of a motel on the Napeague strip. I was the first there in my truck and I had a guard with me who swam out. Two Jet Skis arrived at the same time . . . he was taken to the Pantigo emergency room. They put out nice beach umbrellas and towels at these places, but there are no lifeguards, no safety equipment. Go figure.”
Participants in the town and village junior lifeguard and cadet program will face off in a tournament of their own on Saturday and Sunday at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett. The competitions will run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day.
