The expansion of the beach from replenishment and tremendous weekend weather all summer swelled attendance at the Sea Girt Beach. 4,500 seasonal badges and 38,000 daily badges set a record. Beach revenue exceeded $500,000.
The residents and guest were thrilled with the expansive width of the new beach. The only people who were unhappy were the shore fishermen and the lifeguards.
The surf casters lamented the burial of most of the rock jetties in the borough. The jetties had been a great source of food and shelter for baitfish, mussels and crabs which in turn attracted blue fish, stripers and flounder. The remaining rocks were in shallower water.
The lifeguards had more work. Not just for the increase of partons on the beach, but because the newly deposited sand, pumped from offshore mounds near Point Pleasant via barge, was piled up at the edge of the beach. The steep drop into the water quickly eroded into channels. Sand bars and rip currents were common all over the replenished beaches.
Swimmers, when feeling pulled out, generally fight the current and quickly lose energy. Even strong swimmers can drown. The Sea Girt squad had one of its most busy summers. On June 22nd, twenty swimmers were saved in one day.
John Holthusen, the grandson of the Morrow Castle lifeguard A. Jack Holthusen, was a lifeguard supervisor at the south end of town, by the Guard Camp, when a group of bodyboarders were carried out past a rock jetty. They screamed for help, and several would-be rescuers tried to save them. They too got caught up in the rip. Jack radioed up the beach for assistance, and it came from two directions. The Manasquan crew from the south came to help, and Tim Harmon brought a crew from the north. John rescued four, and Tim and his crew saved another eight, while the Squan crew kept watch on the rest of the beach. Four more swimmers got in trouble near the camp not long afterward, making sixteen swimmers. Further north, Sea Girt guards pulled an additional four from the surf. Other than a scare and some barnacle scrapes from the rocks, no one was injured.
The entire summer held stories about the dangers and stories of saves. When questioned by the press, a federal government representative said, “There was no evidence replenishment caused more riptides.”
Hurricane Bonnie stayed far out to sea but churned up the water at the end of August. The last weekend of the month, the beaches were open, but swimmers were restricted to ankle-deep water. This created friction between lifeguards and swimmers.
Labor Day Sunday was a busy day, and after the guards had gone home, 12-year-old Derek Serpe was on his way home from a paddle in his kayak. He lived on Ocean Ave and had been a member of the junior lifeguard program for three years. Around 6PM, as he approached his home beach at Chicago Blvd and was navigating the shore break, he heard a commotion over his shoulder. Two adults and a child were struggling in the water about 200 yards offshore. They were caught in a riptide. Derek paddled over to them. He calmly asked if they needed assistance, and asked each of the adults to grab one end of his kayak. He slipped off his life vest and helped the child put it on. His calm action saved three people, a testament to the junior lifeguard program.
Derek spoke to the Coast Star:
"The Sea Girt Junior Lifeguard Program has taught me everything I know," Derek said. He adds that he has known some of the lifeguards for as long as he can remember and wants to follow in their footsteps in the future, and also pursue a career as a lifeguard.
His mother, Cyndy Serpe, was on the boardwalk and didn't see what happened until she spotted the crowd.
“I am amazed that he could keep such a cool, calm head. I know my son has a healthy respect of the ocean and I am very proud," she said. "Thank goodness that it ended in a happy note and not a tragedy," she added. Mrs. Serpe credits the Sea Girt lifeguards for her son's phenomenal rescue skills.
"I have to thank the lifeguard staff in Sea Girt because they are just phenomenal in their dedication to the safety of the general public," she added. "We call them Sea Girt's finest."
Cynthia and Ralph Serpe long supported the Beach Patrol, and after she passed in 2019 following a long battle with cancer, the squad named a lifeboat and an enclosed lifeguard tower in her honor, near where she sat and watched her three kids grow up and serve as junior lifeguards.
Borough Lifeguard Chief Tim Harmon recently expressed the family atmosphere of the Patrol, “Working side-by-side with some of the best people that you’ll ever know in your life make coming to work a pleasure every single day and that adage that ‘if you like what you do you’ll never work a day in your life’ is wholeheartedly true to the Life-saving world and especially our Beach Patrol in town”.
The Serpe’s are still part of the Patrol Family
Cyndy’s surfboat