For whom the bell tolls

How the Taplin Bell was won, and lost, in the one of the greatest lifeguard races of all time

If there was any doubts what the South Bay Section was up against, they were dispelled in the waves off Avenue C on Friday night by a swimmer named Kicker.

The Bud Stevenson Lifeguard Intracrew Medley Relay kicks off the International Surf Festival. Teams of lifeguards from beaches from San Pedro to Malibu compete in a combined run, swim, paddle, surf ski, and dory race that is the second-oldest and most revered of local surf race events.

On Friday night, the swim portion of the event was almost all that mattered. The team from Central Section (Venice) included three Olympic-caliber swimmers, most prominently 2000 Olympic Silver medalist Chad Carvin. He has become the most dominant waterman the area, anchoring what has become a Central Section dynasty. The team has not lost a Stevenson relay since Carvin joined four years ago.

But on Friday night it was Kicker Vencill’s turn. The Kentucky native was an Olympic hopeful in 2003 when he tested positive in a drug test. He was later vindicated and won a lawsuit against the supplement company that had caused his positive test, but it was too late to salvage his Olympic dream.

Vencill has found redemption as a lifeguard. He followed Carvin Friday, and when he got in the water the race was still surprisingly close. When he emerged, Venice had an insurmountable lead.

“It’s just an amazing thing to be able to take your God given abilities and utilize them in an occupation that saves lives,” Vencill said. “And then to become part of a tradition like this, that honors the great watermen that came before us, and to keep that tradition and celebrate it…It’s just unbelievable. It’s so great.”

But the Intracrew Relay was only the warm-up. Many of the lifeguards wore face paint and crazy colored costumes. Laughs were abundant.

Saturday night’s Taplin Bell competition was another matter all together.

The Taplin, which began in 1936, is a similar relay, comprised of swimming, paddling, and rowing around buoys 200 yards from shore. Like the Intracrew, the Taplin takes place at night because the lifeguards still must work during the day. It is the oldest and most revered lifeguard competition in the world. The winners’ names are inscribed on a perpetual trophy that is an old ship’s bell.  Those who make it on the trophy join some of the great local waterman of years past – the likes of Greg Noll, Dale Velzy, Dewey Weber and Tom Zahn.

“It’s a little more for the blood,” said Michael Murphy, the leader of the South Bay’s LA County Southern Section team. “You won’t see costumes tomorrow night.”

The race promised to be especially blood-driven among the brothers Murphy. Michael, 31, and his brother Chris, 30, are stalwart members of the Southern Section team. Their little brother, Brian, 28, three years ago left the Southern Section team and joined the Central Section (unlike the Intracrew, the Taplin is divided by larger areas, making the 16-person team even more elite).

“I was really bummed when he transferred sections,” Michael Murphy said. “I was upset about it, which is another reason this means a lot to me. I loved racing with him. We had a couple years where all three of us where on the same team and it was pretty special. Brian is pretty much one of the best, maybe the best, board paddler in the country. Racing against him is cool, but racing with him is much more enjoyable.”

The South and Central sections are bitter rivals. Central – which includes Santa Monica and the Venice swimmers – wrested the trophy from the Southern Section in 2008 after a long period of local domination. The trophy had remained at South Bay lifeguard headquarters every year but one from 1993 through 2007. In 2009, a close race was blown open by Carvin, who opened up a more than 30-second lead, allowing Central to cruise to another Taplin victory.

Few people gave the Southern Section much of a chance this year.

Gary Crum, the director of the International Surf Festival has his name on the bell 11 times, mostly as a dory man for the Southern Section. But as he watched the swimmers from Venice Friday night, he shook his head. Crum said that Carvin, Vencill, and Juan Delgadillo – a former USC water polo star – are three of the top five ocean swimmers in the country. Each, he said, was fully capable of adding at least 15 second leads on their respective legs of the swim.

“That is a pretty steep hill to climb,” Crum said. “These are all elite athletes. But these are among the elite of the elite.”

The South Bay could not be easily dismissed, however. Their ranks included Catalina paddleboard race champion Kyle Daniels and Mel Solberg, a dory racer whose name is on the bell 15 times, more than any competitor.  And then there were the unknowns, including the conditions and emerging team members.

Crum noted that in surf racing, a single wave can change everything. Paddlers fall off their paddleboards, boats flip, and exchanges are fumbled. At Avenue C this weekend, a close shore break promised to make things dicey – one boat capsized on Friday night.

“If you are not the favorites,” Crum said, “you pray for surf.”

Under Murphy’s leadership, the Southern Section also has groomed several young lifeguards. Murphy is deeply committed to it. He has been involved in the Junior Lifeguard program for several years and conducts weekly clinics for lifeguard that focus on paddleboarding skills.

“Mike Murphy has had a lot to do with bringing the next generation into lifeguarding,” said Mel Solberg.

It isn’t easy to pass the tests required to join the lifeguarding ranks. And it’s even more difficult to make a Taplin team. Solberg, 45, remembers. He was 19 years old and cocky as hell, a young lifeguard who thought beating the old guys in time trials would be easy. But it took him five years to make a Taplin team.

“I was an okay swimmer and started my career up in Zuma,” Solberg said. “That first year in the time trials I got fifth place, and they take four swimmers. Next year, sixth, then fifth, then seventh…I’m thinking, holy cow, these guys are in their late 30s. How does this happen?”

Finally, he and another young buddy tried dory racing.

“We got our butts kicked so bad,” he said. “That was a big eye opener – that real experience, ocean knowledge and wave knowledge, has so much to do with the Taplin.”

One of Murphy’s young protégés made the Taplin team this year in only his second year as an LA County Lifeguard. Austin Bates, 20, had Murphy as a Jr. Guard instructor. He remembers when Murphy told him he was training for the Catalina Classic.

“I remember he pointed out to the island. ‘That is where I’m paddling.’ I’m like, ‘Whoa!’” Bates said. “It totally blew my mind. That’s insane. So to see him do that…I want to do that, too. I want to be like these guys, being 12 years old and not knowing what it was like, then learning about guys like Greg Noll, Tom Zahn, these old lifeguards. I look at all these guys and I want to be a part of that.”

Somewhere along the way he lost his way. He got out of the water and into trouble in high school. But when he reconnected with Murphy, Daniels, and waterman and swimmer Anthony Vela, something clicked with Bates.

“I got into some trouble, mixed up a little bit with the wrong crowd, going down the wrong road,” he said. “I definitely would not be here today if this life hadn’t pulled me out. Having this dream, day by day, got me through it.”

Last winter, he became so determined to make the Taplin team, he went to Australia to work on his paddling. Bates returned a different paddler. When the Taplin trials finally came, he was so nervous he threw up. But he went out and paddled like his life depended on it. He made the team. On Saturday, a few hours before the race, he was sitting at home wearing the cool parka that only Southern Section Taplin team members are given.

“I haven’t taken it off,” Bates said. “That was one of the biggest attractions, that visual – I wanted to be that guy on the beach wearing that parka. Because only 16 guys wear the parkas…I’m stoked.”

The race

The sun was down, the shore break pounding close, and the swimmers were warming up. Southern and Central, among the eight Taplin teams competing, were side by side on the beach. There were no costumes and few laughs.

The gun sounded and Kicker Vencill dove into the water. His long, sinewy form quickly disappeared into the darkness. Southern Section’s Micah Carlson stayed right in his draft and finished the first leg just a few seconds behind.

The other six teams were already far back. In the second leg, Southern’s Pat Jacobsen stayed right with Central’s Juan Delgadillo. On the third leg, a remarkable thing happened. Out by the buoys, Southern Section’s Jeff Hart overtook Central Sections Nick Sullivan. The Central crowd began chanting “Carvin! Carvin!” as Hart emerged from the water with a five second Southern section lead.

“I tried to get mine,” Hart said. “I knew Carvin was coming, and so I tried to get as much as I could.”

The Southern beach was going wild. It was indeed a steep hill, but they were climbing it. They knew if they could keep it close, their paddlers could beat Central. But Carvin was his beastly self. He immediately devoured the lead. Vela swam anchor for Southern, and he swam well, but by the time Carvin hit the beach, Central was ahead 30 seconds.

“The first three legs they were able to get on our guys and draft on them,” Carvin said afterwards. “But with him hitting the water ahead of me, he couldn’t draft me. I could see where he was, and I went by him. And there was no getting behind me.”

The first of the four paddleboarding legs was crucial. Brian Murphy was paddling for Central. If he opened an even bigger gap, the race could be all but over. But young Southern paddler, Shane Gallas, held his own. There was still hope. Gary Crum was pacing and bellowing on the beach.

“The other guys aren’t Brian Murphy,” Crum said.

Kyle Daniels flew into, and through, the water. He took away 24 of Central’s 33 second lead, and handed it off to Bates. The young paddler was hyped, and ready. He brought Southern almost even. His team piled on him as he collapsed on the beach and Mike Murphy took to the water.

“Mike is getting it,” Crum said. “This is coming down to the boats.”

Murphy had opened up a five second lead by the time he reached the buoy, then lost a few of those seconds coming in through the surf.

It would come down to the boats. As an old dory man, Crum couldn’t have been more delighted. He was dancing on the beach. “This is what it’s all about right here.”

The first two dory teams stayed within a few strokes of one another, with Southern holding on to the lead. But on the second leg, Central’s Jon Van Duinwyk and Anto Boghokian caught a wave on the way in to pull even. It was a big turning point. The third teams stayed within a few strokes of one another, but in the surf, one of the Southern rowers’ oars popped out of its oarlock. When Chris Murphy jumped in the boat for the anchor leg, he missed about five strokes while trying to get the oar back in.

Central pulled a boat length ahead. Two hundred yards out, at the buoy, you could see the experienced Central team turn towards shore a second or two ahead of Southern.

Rob Pelkey and the legendary Capt. Dan Douglas – who competed in his first Taplin decades ago with Gary Crum as his dory partner – held their lead coming through the surf. Douglas ran up the beach to the finish a bare four seconds ahead of the Southern section boat. He raised his massive arms in triumph.

For the third year in a row, the Taplin Bell was going back to Venice.

Brian Murphy was jubilant. He didn’t look at it as partisan victory of Central over Southern. It was more a matter of everybody lifting each other.

“It’s my hometown here, and I grew up here,” Murphy said. “I always say, we are lifeguards for life. It’s not ‘I’m only a lifeguard at this beach, or at that beach.’ It doesn’t matter where you are in the world – I’ve been on airplanes with Mike and we’ve saved people. I think whatever brings out the best in two people, whether it’s brothers or worst enemies, is an event worth racing.”

Each member of the winning team would gather at the bell and ring it once for every time their name was inscribed on it. Tom Seth, a paddler for Central from Manhattan Beach, would ring it 12 times. He was closing in on his buddy Mel Solberg, with whom he’d won six Taplins earlier in his career with Southern. That evening Seth noted that the competition improved their lifesaving skills.

“It could save a life,” Seth said. “Guys push each other, and everyone gets better.”

In fact, the brothers Murphy have a competition among themselves for rescues. Last winter, Brian pulled ahead of Mike with a dramatic rescue.

“It was one of those run, swim, run, swim, run, paddle rescues – three rescues in the span of few minutes,” Mike Murphy said. “I had a couple hairy rescues this past winter, too, and had to use the board a few times…but he’s got the lead there, too. It’s really a special thing.”

When Central gathered huddled around their boat to celebrate – everybody pounding on the boat like a drum – Douglas grabbed his crew’s attention.

“Hey everybody, a round of applause for our competition,” Douglas said. “South Bay took us to the edge. Let’s say South Bay, on three….South Bay! South Bay! South Bay!”

Kyle Daniels was standing not far away. He was smiling ruefully.

“I’ll be thinking about that one in January,” Daniels said. “You know, somebody has got to be second, and if we are going to be second in a race like that, it’s not so bad. Both teams poured their hearts into it, and it’s a cliché down here, but that’s surf racing – a wave will separate it.”

“That was the best Taplin race ever. You won’t see it any closer.” ER

Comments:

comments so far. Comments posted to EasyReaderNews.com may be reprinted in the Easy Reader print edition, which is published each Thursday.