By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
They are the speedboats of rowing – open-water craft that can glide along much faster than the typical lifeguard boats ubiquitous at the Jersey Shore.
Known as coastal rowing, these sprint boats could very well end up competing in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
A newly formed group called South Jersey Coastal Rowing has been pushing to get the sport sanctioned for the Olympics and is getting ready to launch a series of events this summer to begin developing a talent pool of young local rowers.
“We’ve been very active. We’re really trying to make it grow,” said Tom McCann, a retired captain with the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol and board member with the South Jersey Coastal Rowing group.
McCann envisions the high school and college athletes who spend their summers as lifeguards at the Jersey Shore comprising a hub or “farm system” of coastal rowers who could eventually represent the United States in the Olympics.
“The foundation is the lifeguards and the high school and college rowers around here,” he said. “We have a lot of kids.”
In a major step toward its goals, South Jersey Coastal Rowing is in the process of acquiring six new boats – four single-seaters and two doubles – that it needs to begin holding rowing clinics and races this summer.
Joe Grimes, a former lifeguard with the Ocean City Beach Patrol and a member of the South Jersey Coastal Rowing task force, has been involved in the fundraising efforts to buy the six boats.
Grimes noted that the boats will cost nearly $40,000 and should arrive by the end of July or early August.
The boats will allow South Jersey Coastal Rowing to hold a clinic this summer to teach the basics of coastal rowing.
The clinic is planned for July 19, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., at the Whale Creek Marina at 100 Taylor Ave. in Strathmere, next to the Sea Isle City border. The cost will be $50 per person. McCann said the clinic will be open to rowers between the ages of 18 and 22.
“We’re exposing the sport to other people,” McCann said of the clinic. “We’re going to teach kids the rudiments of coastal rowing.”
Tom Feaster, a South Jersey Coastal Rowing board member and retired lieutenant with the Sea Isle Beach Patrol, will bring his teaching skills to the clinic as the featured speaker. Feaster has coached national championship rowing crews at the high school and college level.
Feaster also coached three Stewards Foundation coastal crews for the United States at last year’s World Championships in Portugal. One of the crews was the silver medalist in the mixed youth doubles event.
In another development, South Jersey Coastal Rowing plans to showcase local rowing talent with its own spectator-friendly races this summer, possibly at the end of August. McCann said details are still being worked out for the first race at Seaview Harbor in Egg Harbor Township, next to Longport.
After considering a number of locations, South Jersey Coastal Rowing has found its new headquarters. It will share a boathouse under the 34th Street Bridge in Ocean City with the Under the Bridge Rowing Club. The Ocean City High School crew team also uses the boathouse.
Under the Bridge Rowing Club is the only community rowing club in Cape May County. It promotes and develops area amateur rowers — oarsmen and oarswomen — for local, national and international competition in amateur rowing, according to UBRC member and Ocean City resident Jennifer Bowman.
Coastal rowing, meanwhile, bridges the gap between open-water and flat-water rowing, such as what high school and college teams do.
The sport, which is performed in open water, such as the ocean or bay, includes singles, doubles and quad boats in male, female and mixed boat categories.
Grimes, who was a member of the Ocean City Beach Patrol from 1972 to 1978, calls coastal rowing a “gender equal” sport. Female and male rowers can compete together in mixed rowing competitions.
“It’s a sport that will also attract female rowers,” said Grimes, an Ocean City resident and attorney.
Grimes believes that New Jersey’s rich tradition of lifeguarding and rowing fits in perfectly with coastal rowing as a competitive sport.
“It combines, in essence, navigation and rough-water rowing skills that every lifeguard rower has mastered,” he said.
Now, South Jersey Coastal Rowing is ready to begin tapping the talented pool of lifeguards and rowers at the Jersey Shore in Atlantic and Cape May counties – all while keeping an eye on the horizon for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
“New Jersey has had more ocean rowers probably longer than any other state,” Grimes said.
