Dans Hamptons

Southampton Village Police are going to have a tough time figuring out who gets to be the cop that patrols the “beach beat” this summer. The Southampton Village Police, following in East Hampton Village’s footsteps, is getting a brand new Yamaha quad to patrol the beaches of Southampton Village during the summer months. Perhaps the force will play a game of rock, paper, scissors every morning to see who gets to patrol on the quad.

The beaches of the Hamptons are our most valuable resource. So it makes sense to get these vehicles to patrol them, especially when you consider how much faster a rescuer can get to an emergency. However, you can’t ignore the fact that they are really cool to have and that they make us think of the television show “Baywatch.”

We have not always had vehicles like this for the government. In fact, they have appeared relatively recently in the Hamptons. Here is a brief history of quads and jet skis in the Hamptons.

About ten years ago, East Hampton Village and East Hampton Town purchased four-wheelers to get officers where they needed to be that trucks couldn’t get to. During the summer of 2000, the Village of East Hampton loaned a quad from its lifeguards at Main Beach and Georgica Beach, to patrol the coastline in case a rescue needed to be made from an unprotected public beach such as Wiborgs. This was in response to the many rescues that were made at unprotected beaches during Hurricane Bonnie. I was a lifeguard during this time, so you can imagine my excitement when our group of 17-22 year olds found out that we were going to be paid to drive up and down the beach in a quad.

The traffic enforcement police were not too happy about the Village lifeguards quad, nor were the Town lifeguards. The traffic police were especially unhappy because during this time, they had just received a new vehicle called a mule. Now the mule looks sort of like a mini pickup truck and doesn’t go on the beach. It is definitely not as cool looking as a mean looking four-wheeler.

Interestingly enough, the following year, the Village of East Hampton got a Yamaha jet ski. I had stopped lifeguarding by then and wish I hadn’t when I saw this machine. Now we are talking real “Baywatch” here. The only thing left for the Village Lifeguards to get was a big yellow powerboat.

Well, in 2002, the year after the year of the East Hampton Village jet ski, the Town lifeguards stepped up and got themselves some Yamaha jet skis as well, after they noticed their value in case of an emergency. Instead of getting just one, they got four. Two for the beaches in Amagansett (Indian Wells and Atlantic) and two for the beaches in Montauk. The jet skis served two important purposes. One was that they could basically get lifeguards to any beach at any time in less then three minutes (an amazing rescue tool) and the other was that it made every teenager who ever saw it want to become a lifeguard in the Hamptons. Meanwhile in Southampton, no jet ski.

I believe around 2003, the East Hampton Village Police Department got ATVs to do beach patrol in the Village of East Hampton to prevent crime on the beach and to attend to emergencies on the beach quickly. You might see them every once in a while driving up and down the beaches on their ATVs in the summer. It is very “Baywatch.” Even now, at this moment, jet skis are loaded on village trucks and a volunteer lifeguard rescue program is in place for the fall, winter and spring because of the warmer winters that we have been experiencing here.

Meanwhile, in Southampton, no jet skis or ATV’s, even to this day. Finally, this year the police are going to get an ATV. What was the hold up in Southampton? Perhaps money.

I can almost guarantee you that this new ATV they are getting for the police department in Southampton is going to be just the start. Although this particular ATV is going to be purchased because of a private donation, the money will be found to get new vehicles because they will quickly realize how powerful a beach patrol is as a law enforcement tool, and also, of course, the lifeguards are going to want their jet ski now that the police have their quad.

As of right now, the Southampton lifeguards are trained to use jet skis, but they don’t use them, because none of the beaches have jet skis in Southampton. Regardless, this is all good news for Southampton, because it will mean that rescues will be made safer and faster.

It would seem however, that this ATV purchased by the Southampton Village is going to be the start of what happened in East Hampton Village more then five years ago, assuming that history will repeat itself.