Girls finalist in Beach Flags

Shore Beach Service's 11th annual lifeguard competition started June 25th at the Coligny Beach. 2008 marked the eighth year that the competition was both an individual event and team event. Shore's five beach supervisors were the captains and drafted lifeguards for each team. Whether the competitors finished first, last, or anywhere in between, they earned points for the teams. Any finish first through fifth earned the competitors points for the individual competition.

Dan Condell led defending champs Team Spicoli into the competition in his eighth year as captain. Kjell Pederson captained a team for the sixth year, this year known as Palmetto Mafia. Jerry Staub directed the Sea Monkeys for the third time, hoping to improve on 2007's last place finish. Second-year captain Charlie Knapper hoped a name change would move the Regulators up from fourth place, while the Sand Devils had first-time captain Justin Bubeck at the helm.

2008's events were completed over three nights instead of the usual two, as weather did not cooperate. In each event, men and women competed separately. The competition kicked-off with the Run-Swim-Run which is a 200 meter run, followed by a 300 meter swim and finishing with another 200 meter run. Spicoli's Rachel Robinson and Cari Hekert of the Regulators repeated last year's 1-2 finish, while rookie guard Jimmy Donahue of the Regulators dominated the men's race, nearly finishing the final 200 meter run before anyone else was out of the water.

Jimmy Donahue takes first in the Surf Swim

The second event of the night was the 100 Meter Dash. The women ran first, with Palmetto Mafia's Elise Kuczera edging out Spicoli's Meghan Rooney for first. In the men's dash, the Sea Monkey's Grant Sasse literally dove across the finish line to beat the Mafia's Dan Gorman in a photo finish. The 4X 100 Meter Dash Relay was next, with each team having two men and two women run the relay. Gorman anchored Palmetto Mafia's relay team of Richie Winning, Elise Kuczera and Lindsay Calkins to a first place finish.

The preliminary heats for Beach Flags were postponed due to an incoming storm on the first night, so the team captains decided to do the preliminaries and finals of the event all in one evening. Beach Flags is always the most entertaining and spectator friendly event. The event starts with anywhere from 10 to 13 competitors in each heat, laying face down with their toes on the starting line, facing away from the “flags” (actually 1 foot lengths of garden hose) that are evenly spaced 60 feet away. There is always one less flag than there are competitors in each round. When the starter's whistle blows, participants hop up, turn, and sprint to grab a flag, usually ending with several competitors diving for the last flag. Like the game “Musical Chairs”, the person that does not get a flag is eliminated. The process continues round by round until only the winner is left.

A crowd gathered to watch as the preliminaries trimmed the field down from 72 competitors to 24 finalists, 12 men and 12 women. With only the best women and men advancing from the prelims, the finals are always intense. Kjell's Palmetto Mafia had the most finalists survive with eight, followed by Spicoli and Sea Monkeys with five, the Sand Devils with four and the Regulators with only two survivors. As the 12 women's finalists were pared down, rookie guard Meghan Rooney was dominating, leaving her and the Sand Devils' Ellyce Lippert as the final two. In the final heat, Rooney easily out ran Lippert for the victory. The men's finals were extremely physical as always. The last pair was Richie Winning and The Regulators' Nick Lopez. The final race was exciting, as Winning beat Lopez to the flag but did not hold on to it as he dove for it, leaving it behind for Lopez to grab the flag and take the crown.

Men's Beach Flags finalists

The last night of competition started with the Surf Swim, a 400-meter swim race. Rachel Robinson made it a clean sweep of the swimming events for the second consecutive year, beating Meghan King of the Sea Monkeys who edged out Cari Heckert for 2nd. Jimmy Donahue again crushed the field in the men's swim, to make him the winner of both swim events.

The last event the competition was the 2 Kilometer Beach Run. The Sea Monkeys' Chelsey Kucera bested the women's field, outlasting Meghan King for the victory. Meanwhile Dan Gorman smashed the men's field as expected.

When the points were finally tallied, Palmetto Mafia gave Kjell Pederson his first win in six tries. Kjell's team had the most points in each event on the way to setting a record for most points. Team Spicoli finished a distant second, followed by the Sea Monkeys, Regulators, and the Sand Devils. Meghan King finished in the top five in every event to become the Women's Overall Champion. The Men's Champion was settled by a tiebreaker, with Dan Gorman getting more team points than Jimmy Donahue, to take the championship.

2008 Team Champs - Palmetto Mafia
Team Competition Results 2008
PLACE	TEAM	CAPTAIN	POINTS
1		Kjell Pederson	1907
2		Dan Condell	1602
3		Jerry Staub	1519
4		Charlie Knapper	1476
5		Justin Bubeck	1424

Women's Overall Champions 2008 Meghan King 2007 Cari Heckert 2006 Lauren Buck, Kelli King, Meghan King 2005 Kelli King 2004 Elise Thornell 2003 Hannah Fraser 2002 Linda Spencer 2001 Hannah Fraser 2000 Claire Halloran 1999 Erin Ferrell 1998 Janci Smith	Men's Overall Champions 2008 Dan Gorman 2007 Justin Carver 2006 Justin Carver, Charlie Knapper, Andy Motlis 2005 Justin Carver 2004 Justin Carver 2003 Garrett Kelly 2002 Brad Jones 2001 Mike Dull 2000 Sean Connolly 1999 Travis Gay 1998 Dan Condell
Women's champion Meghan King takes 2nd place in the 2K Run	Men's champion Dan Gorman waits for the whistle in Beach Flags

Meghan Rooney grabs the flag at regionals

Carolina Beach, North Carolina hosted this year's South Atlantic Lifesaving Association Competition, held July 16th and 17th. 189 lifeguards representing 14 agencies from Virginia Beach down the east coast to Ponte Vedra, Florida competed in the event. Shore Beach Service sent a team of 15, determined by the individual points in Shore's competition.

The SALA Competition is divided into age groups. Most people compete in the “open” division, which is primarily for anyone under 30, though anyone can compete in that division. All of Shore's women and most of the men competed in the open division. Dan Condell and Kjell Pederson competed in the men's 30-34 age group, Frank Heinrich was in the 45-49 group, and Ralph Wagner competed in the 60+ division.

Shore's 2008 team had a strong performance; with 21 top ten finishes in various events, including 16 medals for top five finishes. As a team, they finished with 109 points to earn 4th place in the large agency or “A” division. After several years where the women were the strength of the team, Shore's 2008 team was balanced with the men taking 12 of the medals, but the women earning one more point than the men.

The 2K Beach Run was again Shore's best event, winning 26 points. Dan Gorman took 1st on the men's side, while Chelsey Kucera and Meghan Rooney raced to 5th and 8th respectively in the women's run. Frank Heinrich placed 2nd and Kjell Person was 3rd in their age groups.

2nd place Swim Rescue team

The men's 4x100 Meter Dash team of Gorman, Nick Lopez, Grant Sasse and Matt Brown raced to win a 5th place medal. Meanwhile, the women's team of Kucera, Rooney, Ellyce Lippert and Elise Kuczera just missed a medal, finishing 6th.

In the women's swimming events, Rachel Robinson was 4th in the Run-Swim-Run while Jessica Hober placed 8th, Robinson then finished 6th in the Surf Swim with Hober following in 9th. Robinson and Hober also teamed with Elise Kuczera and Ellyce Lippert to finish 2nd in the Swim Rescue Race.

In the men's swimming events, Frank Heinrich won his age group in the Surf Swim and took 2nd in the Run-Swim-Run, Dan Condell placed 2nd in the Surf Swim and 3rd in the Run-Swim-Run and Jimmy Donahue swam to a 4th place finish in the open surf swim. A men's team of Jimmy Donahue, Dan Condell, Matt Brown and Grant Sasse finished 9th in the Swim Rescue Race.

Shore's team finished of the competition with a bang, as Meghan Rooney won Beach Flags, Shore's first win in the open division of the event. Not to be outdone, Ralph Wagner defended his 2007 Beach Flags title. In their age groups, Kjell Pederson took 2nd, while Frank Heinrich placed 3rd.

2008 South Atlantic Lifesaving Association Competition
Shore Beach Service Team Roster

2008 Regional Team

Dan Gorman wins the 2K Beach Run	Men's Swim Rescue team
Years of dedication push Ralph Wagner to first in the Veteran's Beach Flags