(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 — There are many paths that have led people to join the Ocean City Beach Patrol. Some do it to enjoy a summer of fun and adventure. Others have spent their lives watching guards in Ocean City and decide that it’s their turn.
Joe Karney found his way to the beach so that he could compete. Growing up in Central Valley, N.Y., Joe had excelled as an athlete in many sports, but it was swimming that drew him the most. After he graduated from Monroe Woodbury High School in 1983, Joe headed to Ithaca College. He took off to spend his summers working and racing at nearby beaches.
“I was a lifeguard at West Point and New York State Parks and Recreation all through college. That’s where I became involved in lifeguard championships,” he recalled.
Joe loved the competition and wanted to test himself against the best in the area. In fact, when he found that it was Jones Beach that always seemed to have the best team and training in the state, he decided to sign up there for a summer.
Lifeguard competitions are not just races involving swimming and running. The point of these championships is to test the skills used on the beach during rescues in direct competition among guards of different patrols. Because beach patrols in New Jersey and New York have always used boats in their day-to-day operations, it followed that “the races and events were more geared towards rowing.” Joe, however, was becoming more interested in swimming and individual open water rescue events. He found that this was his strength and he wanted to compete in competitions that tested swimming and rescue skills.
When Joe headed back to Ithaca in the fall of 1985, a chance meeting would offer him the opportunity to compete on his own terms.
“In my senior year at school, I met Andy ’Sid’ Vye and we discussed the topic of lifeguard competitions,” he said. “He told me that the Ocean City Beach Patrol had a great team and that I should come and try out. So I went down in the summer of 1986, and it was a real eye opener.”
Under the leadership of then Assistant Captain George Schoepf, the OCBP had aggressively opened up to regional, national and even international competition. Captain Schoepf wanted to turn Ocean City into a powerhouse of guarding talent, and Joe Karney fit right in. With Joe’s natural ability and leadership, the OCBP would field a powerful team for the Landline Race — an event where speed and power are used to rescue a “victim” with a long spool of rope and a buoy. It’s an exhausting event that demands a tremendous amount of energy. Against every beach patrol from all corners of the United States, the Ocean City team placed third. The OCBP program, in a very short period of time, had made their presence known and Joe had a lot to do with that fact.
Of course, the beach patrol is primarily concerned with protecting the lives of the people who visit Ocean City, and Joe would also see his share of action in the surf.
“I trained during my breaks and during one of them I saw Frank Sharkey making a rescue,” he said. “Frank was one of the best runners we had, but probably didn’t weigh more than 135 pounds. I saw him bringing in a man who had to be at least 350 pounds through the breakers. I ran to help out and when we got him to the beach, the man was purple. We signaled for the ambulance, and I ran up to his stand to get the CPR mask and we immediately started working to save the man’s life. With my ear to his chest, I detected a heartbeat as Frank breathed for the man. When the paramedics showed up, I knew the man had made it.”
It was proof that a well-trained guard can make the difference in someone’s life. As that summer in Ocean City came to an end, Joe planned to end his days of guarding and competitions.
“I applied for Flight School in the Navy/USMC. I was not going to come back. But because of the Graham-Rudman Act (an emergency bill passed in Congress to control the deficit), they froze all new entrants into the program,” he recalled.
Joe found out he’d have to wait until the next year to begin training, so he thought, “Why not go back to the beach?”
But this time, in lifesaving competitions, Joe was not going to settle for third place.
“With a year of competition under my belt I knew that being on the stand all day, and then working a job at night, would not give me the proper rest to compete,” he said. “I spoke to Captain Schoepf and asked to be a fill-in guard for lunches at various beaches where we were short. He agreed.”
As the summer approached, Joe threw himself into training and concentrated on two events. For the landline event, Joe recruited his old Ithaca friend, Andy Vye along with Steve Wheeler and Mark Reese, and together they formed one of the best landline teams the OCBP has seen. Throughout the summer, in every competition they entered, they were “untouchable.” The other event was the Rescue Race, which is an all-out sprint through the surf and back where Joe teamed up with Gretchen Schmindinger.
Joe and Gretchen would take first place that year at the Mid-Atlantic Championships against a guard who had been undefeated 5 years straight. The Landline team took second to the Ocean City, N.J. team by a margin of .001 seconds. It was a bittersweet ending to a wildly successful season, but that year established the OCBP as a major force in the world of lifesaving competitions.
“I look at those days as some of the best in my life. The camaraderie and the fierce desire to compete and win drove me. I hope that is how I am remembered at the OCBP,” he said.
And Joe will be remembered as a guard who helped the OCBP become recognized as first-class competitors and guards.
He went on to fly for the USMC until 1992. He would return to his home state of New York and worked as a firefighter until 9/11 and then went on to fly corporate jets all over the world. Joe now spends his retirement, fishing on his dock in Florida.