The nation’s champion lifeguards are from Sussex County.
In the 20th century, the Rehoboth Beach Patrol under Capt. Jate Walsh achieved advanced United States Lifesaving Association certification and eligibility to be part of the Delaware United Open Water Lifesaving Program, which cooperated with the Aviation Division of the Delaware State Police, Delaware State Police Maritime Section, the marine police, Natural Resources Police, et al. This program both provided and required of its participants first responder emergency medical training conducted by the Delaware State Police Aviation Division.
In 1996, U.S. Surgeon General C. E. Koop was set to recognize the perfect safety record of the beach patrol's 76 years with no drownings. In 2005, U.S. Surgeon General Richard Henry Carmona flew to Dewey Beach on a DSP helicopter from Andrews Air Force Base and proclaimed the program was "the best thing he'd seen in his four-and-a-half years in office."
Carmona himself was an open-water lifeguard in New York, a medic in Vietnam, a police chief in the U.S., and one of the nation’s top doctors. Clearly he knew and recognized superior training, and saw it in Mid-Atlantic lifeguards.
RBP was often runner-up in USLA competitions. This summer, with training from Derek Shockro, a veteran of the Coveleski/Walsh era, the Sussex County Lifesaving Association dominated the national competition for the third year in a row.
Tiny Sussex in tiny Delaware with fewer than 1 million people came in at the top, going against places like Los Angeles with 10 million people and several more million in LA County, and 12 months of beach guarding and time to practice.
Ocean lifesaving is not a sport; it is life or death, pure and simple. It ranks in the highest occupational risk categories.
Congratulations to the RBP for its part in this endeavor.
Mark "Woody" Marderwald
Former Rehoboth Beach Patrol lieutenant
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