This is why we train

2024 saw an odd election season. The Democrats decided not to run a primary. President Joe Biden was their nominee until his first unscripted moment in June at his first debate. It revealed just how much the 82-year-old had deteriorated. His opponent, Donald Trump, seemed charmed. After avoiding attempts to silence him, convict him on 92 counts, he narrowly missed being assassinated twice, and easily defeated replacement candidate Vice President Kamala Harris in November. Harris did not distance herself from Biden or his agenda, and Americans demanded change.

In Sea Girt, after the departure of Jim Gant, the council asked Police Chief Justin Macko to do double duty as Borough Administrator.

SGES is a tale of two schools. The academic achievement is unquestioned, and Niche.com ranked the school number one in Monmouth County out of 92 schools in their 2023 survey. Teachers were ranked #2 for elementary and #2 for middle schools. It was ranked #22 out of 1,400 in the state. But declining enrollment and few babies born in the borough threaten the viability of the school.

John Clark of Spring Lake, a former School Board member, outlined the problem in a 2024 letter to the Coast Star. Spring Lake and Avon have similar problems, but Sea Girt’s is most pronounced. The minimum number of employees to run a K-8 school is about 30, and Sea Girt’s projections take them below 70 students. While tuition-based students offset some of these expenses, John pointed out that the time to work with other small districts is when you have some flexibility. While it generated some hard questions, the School Board was reluctant to make any changes.

On July 4th, 2021, Paul Bouchard, an experienced surfer in his 50’s, was trying out the GoPro his wife gave him for Christmas. He had surfed earlier in the year, but could not operate the camera with his heavy cold water gloves. The waves were fun size, and the tide was low. Lifeguards had not yet taken their posts, it was before 9 AM, and they were doing roll call. Paul pressed the button on the camera on his chest and dropped into the wave. Seconds later, he wiped out and hit the hard, shallow bottom. Unconscious, Paul floated in the water face down, paralyzed and unconscious. His GoPro was still running, filming his death.

The SG Beach Patrol Squad (Borough of Sea Girt)

When he came to, he saw the sun, but also could not move. He was on a stretcher, paralyzed. Sea Girt Police bodycam footage was recording this scene.

While he was unconscious, he was technically dead, not breathing, with no pulse. Paul had been pulled from the water by Rhonda and Roy Furey, who were walking the Baltimore Blvd Beach. Brenda Davis saw the commotion and started CPR while lifeguards Emma Hecht and Brianna Murphy were running to the shoreline. They stepped in with Chief Tim Harmon, but it took them over eight minutes to get a pulse on Paul. They brought him back to life. The quick action allowed Paul to have only an eight-day stay in the hospital, and after rehab, while he has limitations from the injury, and still needs medical care, he is surfing again.

Tim Harmon convinced Paul to save the footage. They got a documentary film crew to do a high-quality production, interview the guards and supervisors, with the intention of having a training video for new lifeguards. They got more.

‘This is why we train: The Sea Girt Beach Patrol’ jolts viewers into the seriousness of being a lifeguard, what is at stake, and why coordination and training are so critical. Paul is alive and walking because his heart was restarted, water was cleared from his airway, and he was properly transported.

The film was entered into several film festivals, including the 2024 Garden State Film Festival, organized and run by lifetime Sea Girt resident Diane Raver. Filmmakers Sean Bell and Kevin Nulty were moved by the footage. “It was gut-wrenching to watch, you held your breath along with Paul”. It took over a year to edit the various footage and to get all the interviews. The film won the “Best Homegrown Award” at the festival.

Paul, far right and Filmmaker Kevin Nulty right get interviewed at the GSFF by Ming Chen

Chief Tim Harmon notes in the film, “We did everything we could to give that guy a second chance at life, and I am extremely proud of my staﬀ and the lifeguards that work here. It was evident that the training kicked in and they went to work.”.