Racing To and Fro: Avalon Beach Patrol Commuters Go to Great Lengths
Ryan Finnegan on duty on Avalon’s beaches.
This is a different kind of Fab Four.
Dolan Grisbaum, Ryan Finnegan, Katie Scanlon, and David Giulian share a unique stage with the Avalon Beach Patrol community.
Unique because they move logistical heaven and earth to preserve their dual role of public guardian and lifeguard-racing participant. They juggle the world of instructional whistles and ear-splitting race-crowd roars with that of jet planes, highway honking and other duties linking their race to satisfy obligations many hours away.
The guards criss-cross morning and evening shifts, car trips, airports, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and weather delays.
They work not only here but at another job. They spend significant money out of pocket, lobby their college coaches for scheduling latitude and, somehow, at the end of it all, stuff The Great Juggle into one bulging itinerary.
The public may know them from lifeguard-racing accomplishments, but what’s not seen is the essence of their story.
THE FLIP SIDE OF RACING
Lifeguard racing has two distinct vehicles.
The one most seen is the glory. It’s an athlete hoisted on the shoulders of teammates, sometimes boat and all. It’s thousands of spectators cheering at the South Jerseys, the Super Bowl of a shore-based racing circuit dating back to 1924.
Lifeguard racing success has cachet. It’s the source of motivational speeches by captains and chiefs. Victory can produce a snapshot for a lifetime. A photo of Avalon’s 2015 South Jerseys team trophy greets visitors to beach-patrol headquarters.
That’s one side.
The other realm is invisible. It is a blue-collar push and pull, far away from the limelight, and it’s by choice.
EXTRAORDINARY EFFORT
“If I could use one word connecting all of them, it’s the word ‘sacrifice,’ ” Avalon Beach Patrol Chief Matt Wolf says. “I am proud that they value the beach-patrol experience so much.
“It also points to the fact that lifeguard competition is so important for many reasons,” he adds. “One of them is that it draws people like this to the patrol. Without the competition, I think the four of them probably wouldn’t be here. Because of the competition, someone sitting on the beach is fortunate to have people like these guarding them.”
Wolf indicates that the real heroes are the guards up on the stands who keep the people safe. There are many of them. There are only a few who can do all that and take the extra step of representing the patrol in competition.
This group has managed to do that, overcoming big obstacles.
Grisbaum flew back and forth from Boston to Avalon several times in July and August, managing to set up a defense of his South Jerseys swim title.
Finnegan balances a landscaping business in Haddon Heights with the Avalon Beach Patrol. That means he works seven days a week. His payoff is the ability to survive patrol challenges and represent Avalon as a singles rower.
Scanlon travels to Pennsylvania each weekend to swim for her local team.
Giulian was excused from summer football workouts at The College of New Jersey, where positions for the fall may be decided, to row with this patrol. He was rewarded here with a strong campaign as a top doubles rower, teamed with Gary Nagle.
Here’s a look at the individual pieces of this puzzle.
FINNEGAN: E-ZPASS, HARD ROAD
One if by land, two if by sea …
Ryan Finnegan, 23, handles the land aspect via the landscaping business he owns in Haddon Heights. On Sunday nights, the Avalon rower travels back to Camden County and then conducts two long workdays Monday and Tuesday. He’s responsible for lawn maintenance and running the business, among other responsibilities.
On Wednesday afternoon, it’s the sea portion. He travels to Avalon, filling the after-hours lifeguard shift. That’s followed by four more workdays Thursday-Sunday and a ride back home along the Atlantic City Expressway. E-ZPass is about the only simple part of the process.
Finnegan not only accepts less revenue from the landscaping business, but he eagerly commutes here each week. Wolf says Finnegan might complete a landscaping assignment one day, leave by 6am to make the Avalon challenge row-off, and then go back home. He’s back here the following day.
It has paid off for Finnegan, who represents Avalon in the singles row.
But he made this commitment with no guarantee to race. Avalon has stiff inner-patrol competitions.
“All you get is the chance to compete,” Wolf says. “If someone is better than you, that’s life. Ryan made an extraordinary commitment to us.”
Why do this?
“I love lifeguarding, being on the beach and being with the people I work with,” says the Rowan University alumnus. “It’s an honor to compete in these races for Avalon and to try and bring victory here.
“This is a unique patrol. We are three and four deep in this spot, so just the challenges within the patrol keeps you on your toes.”
Toward that end, he’ll take the boat out in the morning, alone. He will engage in a time trial, pretending the workout is a race. Finnegan will practice racing toward the flag, turning it, jump into the boat, put his feet in the straps. He will work on riding the waves.
On other days, he’ll row five or six miles. Or he will sprint. After the workouts, he may lift weights.
This long effort aims at shaving off precious seconds in a real race that may take four-to-six minutes.
For those few seconds, he’s willing to drive nearly three hours a week, get up with the sun and practice late.
Finnegan’s results won’t be his barometer this summer. The journey will be. He embodies a team player who says, “Big We, Little Me.”
GRISBAUM: S. JERSEYS, S. MASS.
Who would think the road to a South Jersey lifeguard racing championship goes through Logan Airport in Boston?
It does because that’s where Dolan Grisbaum is twice a week. An interesting set of events prompted him to make an unusual connection between Beantown and Avalon.
The Ocean City native has become one of the all-time swim talents on the South Jersey circuit.
Grisbaum swept all seven races he appeared in last summer, including the South Jerseys. Last summer, he became Avalon’s first swim singles champion since 1989.
And then it was off to Boston University. When a paid internship for accounting surfaced there in March, he took it. This looked like the end of his local swim reign, as Grisbaum’s future dangled an opportunity.
But late in June, something happened.
“I had made it pretty clear that I was not coming back,” he recalls. “But I came down here for a weekend and suddenly I had FOMO [fear of missing out]. I honestly miss being here. There is something about being on the beach and being with people I know here. So, I made what was kind of an impulsive decision.”
That’s an understatement.
Grisbaum works full-time all week. That means putting in a couple of long days in Boston and jetting down to Avalon on Thursday. He remains on the job here, remotely, and then finds enough time to satisfy lifeguarding and training requirements. When the weekend is over, he flies back to Boston.
He put his money where his sentiment was.
The unspecified tab for the summer-long flights is probably a couple of thousand dollars … not to mention the possibility of being stranded in airports or rebooking amid cancellations.
Most people need a few minutes to get to work. He needs a few states.
“I love doing both things,” he says. “It is my hope to be great with both of them. I am working about 80 hours a week now. I would not say that I had to come back to defend my South Jerseys title, but the races are a great remembrance of my youth. I grew up near the water and felt I had an advantage in the ocean races.”
SCANLON: ROOKIE COMMITMENTS
Katie Scanlon is at the earliest stage of this process. She is 16, and a student at Mount St. Joseph Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school outside of Philadelphia.
This is a family affair for Scanlon, whose sister Maura is on the Avalon patrol. Maura enlightened Katie about the experience, Katie tried out and did more than make the team. She represents the Avalon women in out-of-town competition.
Katie spends most of the week locally, as her grandparents have a home here. But on Saturday, she returns to Pennsylvania to be with her summer team that competes in a pool.
“The pool races are more like sprints,” she says. “The ocean is more like a distance, with a running component involved.
“Not many people where I live have ever experienced this. They think it is interesting to hear about. I think this is exciting.”
Indeed. Take a break from high school, spend quality time with grandparents, get a great summer job, compete, and not miss a beat back home.
GIULIAN: GRIDIRON SHUFFLE
It’s been quite a couple of years for one of the most celebrated athletes to graduate Middle Township High School. In 2022, David Giulian was named The Press of Atlantic City’s male athlete of the year for his exploits in football, wrestling, and track and field.
Along the way, he gravitated to the Avalon Beach Patrol headed by Wolf, his high-school wrestling coach.
Giulian is a rising sophomore with The College of New Jersey football team. But while captain’s practices and preseason conditioning take place a couple of hours away in Ewing Township, Giulian’s drills are with an oar, and a boat. Teamed with Gary Nagle, he’s a prominent doubles-rowing first-stringer for Avalon BP.
He attends football drills with his teammates and comes back here to represent Avalon on the beach-patrol circuit.
And what goes on here?
Once or twice a week, he reaches beach patrol headquarters before work. He’ll get in around 7am, and, with Nagle, work out for however long is needed before roll call.
At some point in the day, the tandem may put in another workout.
“When I explain to a lot of my friends what I’m doing down here, they think I’m crazy for missing football,” Giulian laughs. “But then I will show them pictures of us beating other patrols, doing well out on the ocean, and they love it.
“My coaches up there support me. When I asked the head coach if I could juggle the football and lifeguard competition, he said I could, but if I lost, I owed him sprints,” he laughs.
“We have an expectation of winning around our beach patrol, that’s not something I would just want to leave. We hold ourselves to a higher standard. Avalon has a big reputation over the years for rowing the boats. I was able to learn how to row and now I can represent them.
“I love winning, I am willing to do what it takes to win.”
Readers who now know them better have more reasons to cheer them on. When they look back one day, Grisbaum, Giulian, Scanlon and Finnegan may come to realize their performance result was secondary. The glory was in the attempt.
