(Editor’s Note: The following is a series on the men and women who have spent their summers protecting all those who came to Ocean City for fun and safe vacation.)
OCEAN CITY — People join the Ocean City Beach Patrol for a variety of reasons. Some just want a memorable and fun job for the summer before the “real world” and careers come calling. Others try out as a way to push themselves both mentally and physically. Several get jobs in education and return each summer to a job they love.
But there are some who take on the job and become transformed by the adventure in ways they never could have predicted. Andy Schmidt was just such a guard.
As a kid growing up in Kensington, Md., Andy didn’t know that a chance meeting would change his life. It was 1987 when he headed over to a “beach party” at a neighbor’s house. At that party were two Ocean City Beach Patrol lifeguards Greg Pugh and Carl Krogmann. They were introduced and immediately began telling Andy of the adventures and rescues they had patrolling the beaches of Ocean City. Andy was a natural athlete, and the pair of guards convinced him that he should try out for the job. That’s just what he did as soon as the summer started and immediately began his time on beach patrol.
“So many moments were memorable,” he recalls. On one of his first rescues, Andy remembers going in after one guy in trouble and that he “got too close. He climbed all over me and I had to pull my buoy, so I wouldn’t go under. We were right on the jetty and had to go around to get in. When we finally got in, the guy laid down for a while after nearly drowning so close to shore. A bunch of his family members gathered around and started giving him a hard time about what happened and how he shouldn’t have been out there, not knowing how to swim.”
Andy would guard for two summers, but that was enough to carry a lifetime impact for him.
“OCBP and Ocean City changed my life. It prepared me for living on my own and gave me the courage to explore places further from my comfort zone,” he said.
After listening to the stories told by other guards who traveled the world in the off season, he knew that his life was not going to be ordinary. Like the others before him, Andy was ready to embrace adventure.
“That’s how I got out to Hawaii, that then took too me to other far out places, like Mexico, and Indonesia, and Alaska, and now the raddest of all, starting a family,” he said. “You have to build up to adventures and Ocean City got me my first taste of trying things out on my own. It will always stand out as one of the best times of my life.”
Andy Schmidt now lives in Hawaii with his wife and new son. His adventure continues.