Tobay Beach
History

TOBAY TODAY .... AND YESTERDAY
by Corey Kilgannon

Historical accounts of TOBAY Beach -- a half mile of pristine oceanfront property just east of Long Island's Jones Beach -- go back to the 1700's when settlers established a whaling outpost here and hired Native American tribes (including the Merrick, Marsepeque and the Unqua tribes) to staff a thriving whaling industry. The Rhoda, a tanker loaded with bananas and copper crashed in 1906, then on the shore line. Now, about a quarter mile out, you can still see it's stern post at low tide (or is that a shark?).

Developer Robert Moses opened Jones Beach in 1930. It was a mammoth public area with lavish facilities and an expansive staff clad in sailor suits. But, even then, parking lots were filled before noon, so Moses began expanding the Ocean Parkway eastward -- with the intent of running it along the ocean, through Fire Island and eventually to Montauk Point. (Faced with opposition, he settled with building the Captree and Robert Moses Bridges.) In 1950, the Town of Oyster Bay officially opened TOBAY Beach -- but it wasn't the tri-tunnel setup of today. A small parking lot, snack bar and a staff of less than ten lifeguards manning a single large stand.
It was a far cry from today's TOBAY, which has over 50 guards, 11 stands, acres of paved parking lot and over a hundred slips of dock space in its marina.
The original lifeguards wore heavy wool tank-suits (overall style), pith helmets and, when it rained, wool stadium jackets. First captain was Ed Ocker(1937) where only 3 lifeguards staffed the beach, later Jimmy McCabe became "HAT number #1" followed by Joe Heinlein (whose twin brother, Father John, was Tobay's own lifeguard-priest), Norman Dahm. George "Doppy" Doherty, Tyler Lynde and Gary Mims. At the beginning there was no "can and bucket" rescue apparatus, no rescue boards or dories. Soon came wooden buoys, hollow cedar surfboards (with drain plug), three lifeguard roundhouses and more lifeguard stands.
The beach started staffing bayside beaches in 1961, with three stands on the bayside alone. In 1956, Tyler Lynde, captain from 1975 to 1991, joined the lifesaving crew at age 16, and served several years as a captain on the bayside. Then, lifeguards of rank were given white "captain's" hats with the official TOB insignia, and to this day, the captain Gary Mims and his lieutenants are still called "hats." TOBAY guards have always been innovators. From fashioning their own "Hawaiian slings" from bamboo poles and surgical tubing for spearfishing at the Rhoda wreck, to trial and error creation of Long Island's first surfboards, homemade 12-footers copied from Jones Beach rescue boards. Tobay was something of a Jerusalem of Long Island Surfing. Lifeguard Gordon Carbury was the first East Coast Surfing Champ, and the Beach Boys first album cover featured a long board made by Tobay Lifeguards. Colt 45 beer filmed a TV commercial right here and used Tobay guard George Weber as a surfing waiter who rode in a wave to deliver a beer to a surfside customer. The original concrete pavilion (that formed the structure where an early group of surfers called "the wall gang" hung out) was destroyed by the 1986 Hurricane Gloria. Several years later, the current pavilion, a structure supported by scores of thick concrete pilings, was complete.

1st Surfboards

Wreck Shark

Monastery

Old Hats

History

70's

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