For Jones Beach lifeguards, the job may end when the summer season comes to a close, but the bonds forged on the sand, and in the ocean, can last a lifetime.
That legacy was recently celebrated when the Jones Beach Lifeguard Association honored three members of the lifeguard community whose contributions span generations: Dave Spence, who spent more than six decades on the beach; Scott Riegel, founder of the Junior Lifeguard program; and Brandon Cullen, who donated a kidney to a fellow lifeguard.
For Spence, 84, of Babylon, the story began in 1959. A swimmer who had recently moved to Long Island from Westchester County, Spence was looking for a summer job when he decided to try out for the lifeguard corps.
He wasn't fast enough to qualify for an ocean spot his first summer, and instead worked at the park’s West Bathhouse pool. The following summer, he made it to the ocean — and ultimately spent nearly 60 years there, with 2018 marking his final season.
"There's a lot of personal satisfaction, a lot of lifetime lasting friendships, and a lifetime of fun," Spence said.
He remembers Jones Beach as a much different place when he started. On busy summer days, blankets could stretch from the berm above the high-tide line to the seawall and several lifeguard stands in either direction from the main stand.
The work itself could be intense. Spence remembers one day when a sandbar broke near the West Bathhouse, leaving about 60 people in suddenly deep water offshore and in need of help. The crew’s two best rowers loaded a rescue boat with buoys, hopped in and headed out. Other lifeguards followed, swimming out with lines to help pull the struggling patrons back to shore. All of them made it back safely.
"Beaches could have maybe 100 rescues in a day, or more," Spence said.
But for him, the most important part of the job was never simply the rescues. Lifeguards must rely on each other when situations become tense, he said, creating a camaraderie that doesn't fade when they leave the beach.
"I have friends from down there I've had for 64 years," Spence said.
That same connection is what Riegel has spent decades passing on to younger generations.
Riegel began lifeguarding at Jones Beach in 1978, and worked there for 44 years, primarily at Field 6. In 1998 he helped create the Junior Lifeguard program, after a child repeatedly approached him about wanting to become a lifeguard.
What began with about a dozen kids has grown into a program involving more than 300 each summer. The participants learn to deal with ever-changing ocean conditions and how to use rescue equipment, performing mock rescues and developing the skills they’ll need to eventually become ocean lifeguards themselves.
The camaraderie among lifeguards, Riegel said, was instrumental in the program's growth. Former and current lifeguards volunteered to work with the kids, including one colleague who drove from New Jersey every Sunday morning to help.
"The [lifeguard] shack is the kitchen, and you're living there with people," Riegel said, comparing the lifeguard community to the camaraderie he experienced in nearly three decades of work with the New York City Fire Department.
For Joe Clerici, president of the lifeguard association, that sense of family is precisely what the organization hopes to preserve.
Clerici, 70, of Seaford, has been a lifeguard since 1974. The association recently became a registered nonprofit organization, and began looking for ways to recognize lifeguards whose contributions might otherwise be overlooked.
The three honorees represented different aspects of the Jones Beach legacy. Spence represented longevity; Riegel, the future of the corps; and Cullen, the selflessness and teamwork that extend far north of the sand.
Cullen donated a kidney to fellow lifeguard Joe Curry after learning that Curry needed a transplant to survive. And according to Clerici, Cullen's willingness to help others didn't stop there.
Just weeks ago, Clerici said, Cullen was surfing off Jones Beach with his sister when the beach was closed and darkness was approaching, when five people headed into the ocean and were soon struggling unsuccessfully to stay afloat. Cullen and his sister rescued them.
For Clerici, stories like those explain why the lifeguard community remains so close. "We’re a big family as it is," he said. "We're a tight family. We help one another out."
The association is now looking beyond the beach itself, with plans to promote water safety education in schools, and to connect former lifeguards with those in younger generations.
That connection is already evident in the Clerici family. His 9-year-old grandson took part in this year’s Junior Lifeguard program, representing a potential third generation of lifeguards named Clerici.
The next generation isn't simply learning to be strong swimmers. They're learning what it means to watch out for the guard beside them. And for Spence, that's what made the job worth returning to for over half a century.
"It's a lifetime of fun," he said. "There's a lot to enjoy in that job."
