Dear Ocean Rescue Community,

I’m Jimmy Minardi, Co-President of East End Ocean Rescue. We of the ocean rescue community often put our lives on the line to so recreational bathers can live to swim another day. East End Ocean Rescue is a non-profit whose mission is to provide the best lifesaving equipment , techniques and educational materials possible so residents and vacationers alike can enjoy our world famous beaches in confidence and safety. We will do what it takes to decrease response time and we will focus awareness on enhanced rescue training, water safety, and lifeguard identification.

I’m writing this letter on my 48th birthday. I started East End Ocean Rescue ten years ago to help ocean rescue efforts and to get more resources for saving lives. I first conceived of a year-round volunteer ocean rescue squad in 1998, as recorded in an emergency services magazine article of the time by East Hampton Village Police Captain Mike Tracy. In 2000 the East Hampton Town Volunteer Ocean Rescue Squad was made official by the Town of East Hampton and now has more than forty members.

We at EEOR are committed to lifesaving. My wife and I both work full time, and with three children under seven, I got up many mornings before the sun to make this happen. I and my Co-President, Sean Daly, feel it’s vital to have the safest beaches possible. As a community surrounded by water with a tourist economy we are dependent on people enjoying our beaches. When someone is lost to the ocean we are all diminished.

I come from a family of lifeguards. My dad was with Fire Island Ocean Rescue back in the 50s and 60s and I have been an Ocean Rescue Lifeguard since 1979. Before that I was a pool and bay lifeguard and an American Red Cross swimming and lifesaving instructor. In college I started my own “Water Babies” program to help pay for my degree.

Sean Daly, our East End Ocean Rescue Co-President, is also a long time lifeguard, a member of East Hampton Town Volunteer Ocean Rescue, and a NYPD officer on the Scuba Search and Rescue Squad.

We both have our professional reputations on the line and are approaching this East End Ocean Rescue project carefully and methodically so that it is done right. We are very aware of the responsibility and will see it through with passion and respect for the ocean rescue community.

We also take East End Ocean Rescue’s non-profit status seriously. EEOR was set up as a private non-profit organization to be independent of politics, bureaucracy and committees. Our attorney, William Fleming, donates his time to make sure our i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed to make the foundation legally secure. We all serve without salary.

EEOR’s activities are transparent. Contributions are deposited in the Bridgehampton National Bank in East Hampton. Transactions and other information will soon be posted online on a new East End Ocean Rescue web site. Email records are archived for review. We encourage your ideas and opinions. Please consider helping out and letting others know about East End Ocean Rescue.

Yours truly,

Jimmy Minardi
Sean Daly
East End Ocean Rescue

Who we are:
Jimmy Minardi was raised in a Hamptons family of lifeguards. His father, Tony Minardi, was a Fire Island Ocean Rescue lifeguard beginning in the 1950s and taught Jimmy ocean swimming and safety skills. Jimmy grew up body surfing at Coopers Beach, Shinnecock Inlet, and Georgica and Main Beach in East Hampton. He went through the American Red cross swimming program from “guppy” to Senior Life Saving and later became an American Red Cross swimming instructor under the rigorous training program at Ohio University Aquatics program under Joan Kappes. He became a certified Ocean Rescue Lifeguard in 1979. In 1985 Jimmy started his own ” Drown proof your child ” and “Water Babies” instructional program .

Over the years Jimmy has lifeguarded local swimming pools, and bay and ocean beaches including East Lake Drive, West Lake Drive, and Ditch Plains in Montauk, Georgica Beach, Two Mile Hollow, “IGA,” Georgica Association and Main Beach in East Hampton, and Coopers Beach, Sagg Main, Mecox, and Scott Cameron in Southampton.

Besides conceiving the East Hampton Town Volunteer Ocean Rescue Squad which was initiated in 2000, Jimmy started a branch of Minardi Training called the School of Surfing and Ocean Swimming and Rescue Skills. He continues to serve as a professional lifeguard in East Hampton Village with a supervisory role.

With over 200 rescues and assists since his first lifeguard job in 1977 Jimmy can frequently be found at tower one at Main Beach, especially when conditions are dangerous. He is also certified for Jet Ski Ocean Rescue.

More about Jimmy’s work is online at http://www.minarditraining.com. His telephone is 631-680-3000.

Sean Daly grew up in Bridgehampton swimming and boating from childhood. He spent summers racing sailboats and at Sagg Main beach. Sean passed his first Ocean Lifeguard test at 16 and now at 36 is still a certified ocean lifeguard. Sean joined the New York City Police Department in 2001 and in 2006 was assigned to the NYPD Special Operations Division Harbor Unit’s Scuba Team. The Team’s main tasks are search and rescue, evidence recovery, and counter-terrorism. Sean work is divided between a 55’ patrol boat and a water rescue helicopter. As a Dive Master, USCG Licensed Captain, and a NYS Safe-boating Instructor, Sean holds various Marine Law Enforcement Certifications and Water Safety Training Certifications.

Sean has been recognized for water rescues in Southampton, East Hampton, and New York City. He was a responder to the Miracle-on-the-Hudson US Airways crash, a Hudson River helicopter crash, the Ambrose Channel boat and tug accident, an overturned vessel rescue in high surf at Rockaway Jetty, and numerous other high stakes marine events. Sean was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the Honor Legion of the New York Police Department for the rescue and recovery of two victims of a boating accident.

Sean’s focus is on teaching water safety and decreasing rescue response time. He is committed to improving lifesaving techniques and believes lives will be saved by the efforts of East End Ocean Rescue.