Predicting holiday crowds can be a little tricky. Memorial Day weekend, for at least the past six summers, has been mostly rainy and gloomy, and not nearly warm enough to spend the day on the beach. In the past several years, only a handful of Memorial Day weekends have felt like true beach weekends. And in the rare occurrence it is a beach day, the water temperature still sits around the 55-to-65 degree range.
Next comes Juneteenth, which this year turned out to be somewhat cloudy and windy, scaring off some beachgoers. Despite lower numbers than the previous few years, decent sized waves and strong currents kept us all on our toes. We had only one rescue around 5 p.m. on Beach 97th Street, when three children ignored lifeguards’ whistles and drifted into a rip current near the rocks on Beach 93rd Street. Lifeguards quickly secured all three swimmers and brought them safely around the rocks and back to shore.
The past two years, Juneteenth has brought in bigger crowds than the Fourth of July.
And the beach seems to have it out for the Fourth of July crowds these past few years. Last year, the FDNY Robotics team spotted sharks around 10:30 in the morning, which meant we had to clear the water. The sharks stuck around for a few hours, and many beachgoers quickly grew frustrated with the closure.
At the end of the day, our shack gathered on rocks for an annual photo, which lasted all of two minutes before PEP ran over to report swimmers in distress, and we had to run from Beach 98th Street to Beach 92nd for an after-hours case.
Another curveball came on the Fourth three years ago, when a thunderstorm rolled in around 11 a.m., meaning we had to clear the entire beach. Naturally, a few people ignored us and went swimming right next to the rocks on Beach 98th Street. We had to run from the shack to rescue an entire family visiting Rockaway for the day, and once we got them out, we made sure they understood the danger they had put themselves and us in.
Hopefully this year, we’ll have a smooth sailing Fourth of July, but these past few years have shown us to be ready for anything.
The last holiday of the season arrives in September, when Labor Day closes out the summer season. The water is warmer, the air is slowly cooling, and half of our lifeguards have returned to college. It’s a slower goodbye to a long season in the sun. But it’s only June now, so we still have plenty to look forward to!
