Annual ‘Battle of Southampton’ Will Test Speed, Endurance, & Teamwork
Southampton Town Parks and Recreation officials announced today that the annual Mike Diveris Memorial Interbeach Lifeguard Competition will take place next Tuesday, July 8, at Ponquogue Beach in Hampton Bays.
Town lifeguards will battle each other in teams over the course of seven events such as: a distance swim, distance run, four-man long board paddle relay, land line rescue, 4x100-meter relay, run-swim-run, and the “ultra-competitive” beach flags events.
Since 2019, the popular inter-beach contest has been named for local lifeguarding legend Mike Diveris, who passed away on June 17 of that year. A town lifeguard for more than three decades, he was among the first to pass the “grueling” Suffolk County ocean certification test in 1970. In addition to serving on the sand, Diveris taught first and fourth-grade at Hampton Bays Elementary School from 1971 to 2001, and then in the high school’s social studies department. As a football coach, he led the Hampton Bays varsity team to a league championship in 1987, and also coached for the Westhampton Beach School District. Lifeguarding colleagues donated a bench and plaque in his honor which adorns Ponquogue Beach in Hampton Bays.
The namesake contest has typically been a precursor to the East Hampton Main Beach competition held each July and the USLA National Lifeguard Championship in August. In the latter event, Southampton, East Hampton, and Montauk guards typically join forces to compete as the Hampton Lifesaving Association.
- WHAT: Mike Diveris Memorial Interbeach Lifeguard Competition
- WHEN: Tuesday, July 8 at 6:00 p.m.
- WHERE: Ponquogue Beach, 276 Beach Road, Hampton Bays, New York