75-Year-Old Man Has Been Lifeguarding the Same New Jersey Stretch of Beach Since 1968

A 75-year-old lifeguard has been saving lives for most of his life on the same stretch of beach in New Jersey. Joe Bongiovanni has never missed a summer on the Asbury Park shores since he joined after high school in 1968. He’s saved thousands of lives and prevented the drownings of thousands more.

75-year-old lifeguard is Still Rescuing After 57 Years

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This is Joe's 57th summer as the safety supervisor. He trains and supervises the other lifeguards and works as a regular lifeguard as needed. 

“I still do it, someone will call up and say they can’t make it and I will sit in for them, sometimes for an afternoon or even a whole week,” Joe said. “I also ride around and pull up behind the lifeguards and make sure they are watching the water and not their phones.”

Joe does an hour of cardio every day to keep in shape. 

He Was Taught By the Best

“I was very fortunate when I started here. We had a lot of good lifeguards who taught me a lot,” Joe said. “They were old school, that is the way you learned, there was no official training program. You picked it up from them.”

After his first summer, he attended college and got a degree in physical education. His first job after college was as a physical education teacher at Neptune High School. His teaching schedule allowed him to work at the beach in the summer, and he spent 38 years at that high school before he retired. 

“I don’t know how many rescues I’ve had. I used to keep track, it became kind of routine,” he said. “We didn’t have radios to communicate or paddleboards. We had to communicate by whistles, three or four lifeguards on a bench, you would give three blasts on a whistle to send help. Now you get on a radio and help is in two minutes. Most beaches have motorist ATVs to get around.”

Joe’s Dedicated to Preventing Drownings

People usually think a lifeguard's job is just to save people when they’re drowning, but preventing drownings is a critical part of it. 

“We may have 300 rescues each summer but we probably prevent 3,000 of them,” Joe said. “The hardest thing a lifeguard has to do is watch the water and be disciplined to watch the water. We like to be preventative and proactive. You see that rip starting to form you get on the whistle and move the people in.”

“Lifeguarding is 90% prevention. We don’t want to make a million rescues. We want to keep people out of trouble,” he said. 

Joe is proud that he’s never had to use CPR, and he’s never lost a swimmer who was at the beach during regular hours. 

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Ocean Swimming has its Dangers

He admits lifeguarding certainly has its scary times. 

In 1971, right after July 4th, over 20 people were pulled under in a rip tide.

“One lifeguard had four or five people, another one had a couple of people, and I was cross-chesting people into the beach,” Joe remembered. “We must have pulled out more than 20 people between the four of us. We've had a few of those.”

People who swim after hours don’t have lifeguard protection.

There Are After Hours Drownings

“I’ve had to pull two bodies out of the ocean,” he said. “They were after hours drowning, after we had left the beach, people who had gone in the water… It is something that you never forget, it is a very morbid thing.”

Another time, a woman ignored a sign and swam where she wasn’t supposed to.

“One lady dove in the water off the jetty by the side of Convention Hall, ignoring a sign and a rip current pulled her out,” said Joe. “The waves are crashing into the jetty, a 10-foot surf, she was flailing around and I responded.”

She didn’t have a single scratch when he eventually got to her.

Most of his memories at the beach are positive.

“You had rock shows in convention hall and pretty much everyone played there except the Beatles,” Joe said. “The Rolling Stones, Sonny and Cher. Everybody came there. The Four Seasons were there every year. And The Doors.”

Lifeguards–and Rules–Are There for a Reason

The beach has changed a lot since Joe first joined.

“People were a lot more respectful of rules than they are today, like everything,” Joe said. “They would listen to instructions. When you blow the whistle and tell people to move in or move down, they would obey their instructions. You get a little more kick back now, more people think the rules are not for them.”

“These young men and woman are putting their lives on the line so that you can come to the beach and understand lifeguard directions,” he shared. “A lot of people ignore lifeguard instructions. Most of them are young kids and they are putting their lives at risk to save people. It is important to respect and obey them.”

Asbury Park gets around 8 million visitors every year, and those who get in the water need protection. Joe’s dedication to lifeguarding shows how important his job is. The 75-year-old is one dedicated individual, and he’s creating an incredible legacy.

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Michaela Gordoni is an avid reader and part-time globe-trotter. With a bachelor's degree in International Relations and experience in the non-profit world, she has a passion for people and reporting. You can check out her portfolio here.