Shooting Seas with Coffman
VanSant surfboat - Mike Coffman, Dave Williams and Rick Dove after a collision with another boat. ! I had many partners during 29 years of lifeguarding but one fearless and wiry partner in particular was stand partner and childhood friend Mike Coffman. We became rookies the same year in 1970, when we made "the beach." Slang for surviving rookie school and passing rigorous rowing, swimming, running and surf dash tests. Both interested in rowing, as having rowed 8 oared crew shells in Ventnor Heights while students at Holy Spirit High School in Absecon NJ. We naturally took to the challenges of learning to row the surfboat. The VanSant cedar on oak lapstrake surfboats were 17 feet long, had excellent flotation. The stable boats weighed 350 to 400 pounds and were crewed with either singles rowers or doubles teams. Many nights long after we had gotten off work, we would hungrily pulling our boat up the