The System

There’s been quite a bit of talk lately about the relationship between the city and the Park Board. When the Park Board was originally formed, it was intended to be a vehicle for tourism management. The beach, being Galveston’s primary attraction and driver of tourism, was a big part of that equation. It’s tough to talk about the relationship between the city and Park Board without including the management of the beaches, namely Beach Patrol, Beach Maintenance, and Beach Parks Departments. No matter how nice the attractions, hotels, and restaurants on the island may be, they would have a tough time staying afloat if they were located in the desert.

Making sure the beach is clean and safe is an integral part of the tourist experience. If there was a general perception that the beaches were not well maintained and well protected, tourists would not come in the numbers they do now. If they didn’t visit the beach, they wouldn’t be on the island to stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, shop in stores, or visit any of the wonderful amenities the island has to offer. Creative and comprehensive advertising is important, but it only works for the long term if you have a good product to promote. A clean and safe beach with decent amenities is the best advertising there is.

To make sure the beaches were managed properly, in the very early 80’s a highly intelligent group of people figured out a system that enabled us to have adequate resources to keep the beaches maintained and protected by a first class lifeguard outfit. Lifeguards and Beach Maintenance were moved under the Park Board of Trustees. Actually financial management fell under the Park Board but operational oversight of the Beach Patrol was moved from the Police Department to the Sheriff Department at the same time the funding source changed (Nowadays, the Beach Patrol is a mature organization and is an independent lifesaving and law enforcement entity). Using tourist dollars that came to the Park Board in the form of hotel tax (H.O.T.) monies and beach user fees guaranteed this independent funding source because the money came with the caveat that it could only be used for specific purposes. Beach Patrol received one penny for every dollar spent in the hotels.

When the first large beach nourishment project happened, Beach Patrol received an extra half a penny of hotel revenue to help cover the increase of beach use the new sand enabled. But a decade and a half ago, about a third of a penny (22% of the Beach Patrol’s H.O.T. allocation) was taken from Beach Patrol and Beach Maintenance to help build the Convention Center on the Seawall. How this affected the operational sustainability of both programs is another story, but the upside of using H.O.T. tax monies and beach user fees is that, in theory, as tourism grows the two programs could grow proportionally.

We all owe a lot to the group that designed this system.

 

Tri Swim Tips

This Sunday the 21st is the big triathlon day at Moody Gardens. The Lone Star Spring and the Ironman are great events 5150 kick off early in the morning. There’s info at http://5150.com/race/5150galveston if you want to register or find out the details. Great event if you’re able to go watch.

The longer race has a swim of 1.5 Kilometers, or just under a mile. The short race has a swim of about 500 meters, which is the equivalent of 10 laps/20 lengths in a 25 meter pool. The Galveston Island Beach Patrol provides the water security for the two races each year and it’s a big undertaking making sure everyone gets through the course safely.

Part of the challenge is how popular the sport of Triathlon has gotten and thus how many people are new to it. This means that a huge percentage of the swimmers are swimming in open water for the first time and don’t know if they can make it all the way through the course. People who can barely complete the distance in a pool, or aren’t even sure if they can make that distance at all, jump in with hundreds of others and go for it. We’ll rescue scores of people, who panic, have cramps, get exhausted, etc. on Sunday. But it’s easy to prevent it with a few simple tips about open water swimming.

First of all, you should be able to swim at least double the distance in a pool that you plan on swimming in open water. Second, if the water is cold enough to wear a wetsuit you should. Not only is it faster, but a layer of neoprene adds a lot of flotation which means you essentially are bringing a lifejacket with you. Third, in open water you don’t usually get to touch bottom so you want to go a little slower than you might try to go in a pool. Conserving a little air and strength gives you a margin for error that makes it easier to recover if you hit some chop or get smacked by someone’s foot by accident. The extra buoyancy of salt water will help as well. Another good trick is that if you’re not a strong swimmer it’s not a bad idea to line up on the side of your swim wave so you don’t get knocked around when everyone is starting off and not yet spread out. You’ll actually do better as a strong swimmer by lining up in the middle of the pack because if you get behind a group of slightly faster swimmers you can benefit from getting sucked along in their draft. Finally a great tip is to look up every few strokes as you breathe (eyes first, breath second). Even if this slows you a little you’ll be faster overall because you’ll swim a straighter course.

Most importantly we have a great bunch of guards. If you get in trouble stay calm and hold up your hand. We’ll be there.

 

 

Clear Water

The orange ball of the sun balanced on the horizon line, mirrored in the glassy water. The world was silent, except for the faint sound of the surf ski slicing through the water, and occasional gulls as they flew by.

When the water is glass, a surf ski, which is essentially just a skinny fast kayak, really comes into its own as you skim across the water. As I settled into my workout, I fell out of time for awhile until, much later, movement caught my eye. The sun was a bit higher and I was about a mile or so offshore paddling parallel to the island when I noticed shadows passing beneath me. As I looked closer, I realized the water was exceptionally clear and I could see a school of cow-nosed rays passing beneath me. A few minutes later I saw more and then again more. All in all I must have seen 40 or 50 of them.

I like training early on the beach. An empty beach is a really different thing than a crowded midday one. You see things you’d never notice when the press of humanity and the operational needs of the Beach Patrol combine. This past week has been extraordinary because we’ve had some of that rare, super clear water we only get from time to time. While swimming in 10 feet of water you’ve been able to see the ripples of the sand on the bottom. While paddling a board you can see fish below the surface. The only bad part is that for those who spend a bunch of time in the water it’s a bit unnerving to actually see all the animals that you know are there, but don’t have to think about because you rarely see them.

Just the right set of conditions of a gentle east wind causing a slight east to west current with no surf came together to make this happen. The seaweed even stopped coming in, at least temporarily. I’ve noticed the few beachgoers we’ve had the past few days often wade out to shoulder deep water and stop for long periods looking down at their toes and small fish swimming around.

One of the good and bad things about living here is that it’s such a dynamic environment. The bad part is this beautiful water will be gone soon. But the good part is that we’ll be seeing cooler weather, maybe some surf, and soon this mosquito infestation will be over!

The weekends will still be busy for quite some time but the weekdays in the fall are finally here. Locals, this is your chance. Time to go to the beach without all the hubbub and be reminded that one of the best things about living here is the ability to enjoy this incredible environment we all take too much for granted.

Even if you don’t go to the beach it’s now safe to drive down the seawall. At least on the weekdays when drivers stay in their own lanes for a change!

End of Summer

“Good Morning. Ma’am, do you mind hopping down out of our lifeguard tower?”

“Why?”

“The towers are there for the lifeguards and we prefer other people don’t sit in them.

“That’s ridiculous.”

“There’s a sign right next to where you’re sitting saying ‘no trespassing’, so it would be the same as sitting in someone else’s house and refusing to leave.”

“Well then I guess I’ll leave. But I’m leaving the beach in that case. It’s too hot out here!”

Late in the summer it seems that people just get frayed. There are more complaints, arguments, fights, and weird things happening than earlier in the season. It’s like the veneer of civility gets burned away by the heat and sun and all the raw emotions people usually have tamped down come boiling to the surface. It can be a challenge, but if I have my head right it can be wildly entertaining. I especially like it when people seem to feel that they have their own little bubble of rules that differ from everyone else.

“Excuse me sir, do you mind putting your dog on a leash?”

“Why?”

“Galveston has a city ordinance requiring dogs to wear leashes. Also, there have been instances where dogs have been off a leash and…..” (you get the idea)

Then it goes into a whole list of reasons that all generally have the same theme that this particular case should be exempt from the rules. Some of the best ones are: “he’s really friendly and loves people”, “she just likes chasing birds and hardly ever bites anyone”, “I have him for protection”, or, my personal all-time favorite, “my dog is on a verbal leash”.

The other common technique that can be fun is the “stall technique”. We open with something along the lines of, “Hey, I’m sorry but you can’t use a tent or tarp in this area. You can, however, use it on the other side of those blue poles” And from there it goes a little something like this:

“What?”

“Can you please move your tarp to the other side of those blue poles?”

“I have to move my tarp?”

“Yes”

“Where?”

“To the other side of the blue poles”

“So…. I can’t have my tarp here?”

After it runs on for a while like that, they realize that even if you keep asking the response is the same. Then they might move it. Or if you’re lucky they might go into the previous technique and point out that they need shade more than other people because…..

End of summer grumbling aside, we got through the weekend pretty well. Despite the weird weather we still had moderate crowds out in the rough surf conditions. We moved about 520 people from dangerous areas, made four rescues, and a number of enforcement actions. Busy, but not like a holiday weekend would traditionally be.

It’s been a busy summer and I don’t think any of my staff minded ending the high season with a whimper as opposed to a bang!

 

 

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