'Lifeguard Ken' still swims daily at 80, and knows the sea's dangers

Andrew J. Goudsward
Asbury Park Press

During his 26 years as a lifeguard in Belmar, Ken Cassie pulled 1,000 distressed swimmers out of the surf, but one rescue he made while vacationing in the Caribbean was different.

Cassie and his wife, Rochelle, were exploring a secluded beach in the Cayman Islands in 1990 when his wife spotted a man who had been caught in a rip current. Cassie, now a retired lifeguard, charged after the man telling him he was in good hands. But the swimmer wasn't convinced.

"He looked at me with these absolute dead eyes and said 'I'm going to die,' and he started to sink," Cassie said.

He had never seen someone drown in all his years patrolling the surf, but Cassie feared this might be the first. He eventually hauled the man to shore, shaken, but relatively unharmed. The man was one of two swimmers who had to be plucked from the water that day. 

Ken Cassie, an 80-year-old former lifeguard who still swims at the beach every day and has been involved in about a 1,000 water rescues in his career. He has a new  book out about ocean safety.

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"It was at that point I started thinking to myself, with more and more people bathing where there aren't lifeguards, where there is not protection, perhaps it might be a good idea to have a little knowledge about the water," he said.

Cassie, 80, of Brielle decided to use his vast knowledge and experience in the ocean to write a book about how to stay safe in the surf. It took a long time to come to fruition, but "Lifeguard Ken Tells All: Enjoy the Surf. Safely" was published in April, just in time for summer.

The book is filled with safety tips about how to respond to different ocean hazards like rip currents and turbulent waves. 

"Now of course you hear about rips currents all over the place, especially weather forecasts," he said. "But it isn't the rip currents that kill people. It's panic."

He said rip currents only pull swimmers out, not under the water, but often people panic when caught in a current and they aren't able to focus on how to get themselves to safety. Watch the video below to learn more about rip currents.

He calls the ocean "The Great Deceiver" because its hazards are much less obvious than visceral threats such as fire.

"It's illusionary," he said. "The ocean is tempting, it's inviting, it's beautiful and you don't realize it's dangerous."

It's a message all the more relevant now, Cassie said, after a spate of water rescues at the Shore already this summer including the two girls who died days apart after being caught in a rip current  off Belmar.

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Cassie's most important rule for ocean safety: don't go swimming if there's no lifeguard on duty, he said.

But Cassie's book is far from a dry manual of ocean preparedness tips. It's also a portrait of "Lifeguard Ken," a man with a lifelong, unyielding love of the sand and surf.

His safety tips are interwoven with a bevy of stories from his life in the water, beginning when he was 4 years old and terrified of the ocean.

Ken Cassie, an 80-year-old former lifeguard who still swims at the beach every day and has been involved in about a 1,000 water rescues in his career. He has a new  book out about ocean safety.

His hardnosed father forced him into the surf, but a giant wave clobbered them both, separating the father-son pair. As young Cassie sank into the water and then bobbed up to the surface on his own, he realized he wasn't afraid anymore.

By age 10, Cassie, then a Belmar resident, would pack a towel and a sandwich and walk the mile-long path to the beach with friends during the summer.

He became a lifeguard in 1956, patrolling the beach at 18th Street in Belmar where he would return for 26 summers after teaching Russian, art, photography and humanities at Ocean Township High School during the school year.

Cassie recounts for readers the packed beach day in the late-1970s when a massive rip current swept about 20 swimmers out to sea, including one man whose skin had turned blue and who needed to be revived on the sand.

He remembers having to "be flexible about verbal insults" trying to control an often crowded and unruly beach that had a bar across the street.

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But perhaps most importantly while working as a lifeguard he met Cecil Lear and Raoul Cordeaux, both of whom had also grown up in Belmar. The three became friends in the mid-1950s and later befriended Jack Hoban of Sea Girt.

They remain close even today and, despite their advanced age, they all meet up nearly every morning, from May through October, at the Union Avenue beach in Spring Lake to work out and go for a dip in the surf. Watch a video of Cassie swimming at the top of this story.

Ken Cassie, an 80-year-old former lifeguard who still swims at the beach every day and has been involved in about a 1,000 water rescues in his career. He has a new  book out about ocean safety.

"The water is our strong bond, but they’re really great guys," Cassie said. "It’s kind of a rare thing to have old, I mean really old friends going back 50 years."

At a recent morning in Spring Lake, all four wore matching yellow T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Lifeguard Ken's Beach Patrol."

Cassie said despite the aches and pains, he has no plans to stop going into the ocean.

"It’s what I do," he said. "Some people want to climb Mount Everest or spelunk or something. I like to hit the water.”

Cassie's book is available in independent book stores, Barnes & Noble and online through Amazon and lifeguardken.com.

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Andrew Goudsward: 732-643-4035; agoudsward@gannettnj.com