With two swimmers bearing down on him in the surf at the end of a half-mile ocean swimming race on Friday evening, Ocean City Beach Patrol’s Graham Parker stopped.
Parker, 28, stood and waited a second — so he could hit a perfect spot to catch a wave and bodysurf it to an easy victory, leaving Brigantine’s Shane McKenzie and Ventnor’s Mike Toy Jr. behind.
The gutsy move left no doubt who would win Friday’s Atlantic City Lifeguard Classic on the beach at Albany Avenue. OCBP took the overall title with 25 team points in four races: the swim, a mile doubles row, a 600-meter paddleboard race and a 1,000-foot singles row. The next closest team, Brigantine, had only 9.5 points.
Ocean City’s Brian Pasternak opened the competition with a decisive win in the paddleboard. Pasternak is headed to Hawaii this week to compete in the 32-mile Molokai Crossing race from Molokai Island to Oahu on July 27.
Matt Garbutt and Dylan Kosten finished second in the doubles row, and Kosten came back in the final event to take second in the singles.
OCBP will host the Women’s Invitational Lifeguard Competition on Wednesday (July 23), and the men return to action on Friday at the Dutch Hoffman Races in Wildwood.
