Skudin Surf, and the Skudin family, have been Long Beach mainstays for decades. On July 20, the Long Beach Lifeguards unveiled a donation of 10-foot and nine-foot rescue boards from Skudin Surf.
Each board is specifically dedicated to the memory of a Long Beach Lifeguard. The memorialized lifeguards include Captain Bernie Beirne, Michael Berube, Sherman Brown, Ray Ellmer, Gerrin Hagen, Michael Kiefer, Josh Krauss, Teague Murphy, John Nash, Assistant Chief George Schilling and Richard Wagner.
Long Beach Chief of Lifeguards Rich Borawski clarified that, while lifeguards use motorized water vehicles for daily patrols, the surfboards can allow faster response to potential victims that may be beyond a straightforward swimming response. Each board is equipped with a perimeter of handgrips, to more easily provide assistance to swimmers in need. The boards will be divided across the entire beachfront to accommodate county guidelines. “We have to have a surfboard, by Nassau County Board of Health regulations, on every other beach,” Borawski explained. “We have eight beaches, so four beaches have a surfboard on it.”
The City Council first announced the donation at the July 7 city council meeting, where City Manager Dan Creighton noted the Skudin’s charitable history, saying, “I would like to personally thank the Skudins for their ongoing legacy of generosity to the lifeguard patrol and the City at large.”
The rescue boards are the latest in the year’s overall bolstering of the lifeguards’ equipment. Earlier this year, the department added two new WaveRunners to support the water-based patrol operations. At the July 21 City Council meeting, the council approved the purchase of four new ATVs to facilitate land-based transportation and rescues.
The Skudins remain as active as ever in the beach community, hosting free Bands on the Boards concerts on the boardwalk every Monday night through the summer, in support of the Atty Lu Foundation. On July 13, Skudin Surf held an adaptive surf lesson for participants from the Helen Keller National Center, using their expertise to help deaf-blind young adults enjoy riding the waves. Earlier in July, Skudin Surf also held the 12th annual Surf Outing with Surf for All, providing adaptive surfing lessons to students from the Henry Viscardi School in Albertson.