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Wrightsville Beach
Friday, March 29, 2024

My thoughts

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“It can happen so fast/ Or a little too late/ Timing is everything,” are the lyrics of a Garrett Hedlund country western song.

And timing was everything Saturday for the seventh annual PPD Beach2Battleship Iron Distance triathlon at Wrightsville Beach.

The weather was near perfect with a turnout of over 2,000 athletes, but the event organizers and their representatives receive a failing grade for the timing of how they responded when tragedy struck and the subsequent serious delay in releasing information to the public.

Questions are being asked because event organizers have not been forthcoming with transparent answers about what occurred regarding several aspects of how they handled things.

A swimmer had died. It took more than eight hours for an initial press release to be sent out from a PR agency to a news outlet. Inexplicably, only a percentage of the media was notified. Neither the list of news outlets the information was sent to could be confirmed four days after the event, nor those who had been notified of a 9:30 p.m. press conference at the convention center.

The next of kin had been notified within the hour of the death; why the wait?

The correlation between the delay in making the death known to the public via the media and the winning racers crossing the finish line at PPD has been called into question.

Wrightsville Town Manager Tim Owens said Monday it was relayed to him Saturday afternoon from one of his emergency managers that Set Up Events was issuing a press release concerning the death.

Dick Jones, CEO of the YMCA, which contracts with Set Up Events to stage their triathlons, said Monday he “approved what the press release looked like at 1 p.m.,” but he didn’t know why there was a time lag in getting that information out to the public and media. He said he would find out and make that known when he did. Jeremy Davis of Set Up Events referred all questions back to Dick Jones.

A second more-troubling set of questions has also not been adequately answered.

Triathlon participant Roger Ackerman of Sewanee, Georgia, became distressed almost immediately following the start of the half iron distance swim which launched from the beach, sound side of Banks Channel, at the Carolina Yacht Club at 8:30 a.m.

The 68-year-old was taken to shore by one of approximately two dozen paddleboarders hired to monitor the swimmers as they made their way across Banks Channel, around South Harbor Island to exit the water on temporary ladders constructed at the transient dock at SeaPath Marina. The tide was at its highest at 8:47 a.m. at Masonboro Inlet and would have been going out after that point.

From the off duty lifeguard’s paddleboard, Ackerman was moved to one of several boats also hired to monitor the swim portion of the event. One or more Coast Guard vessels from the nearby station was standing by, too.

The chain of events that followed is still not clear multiple days later. In those first few moments, radio contact was made with event organizers, with event medical responders, but 911 was not immediately called. CPR efforts, however, were ongoing.

Once an unresponsive Ackerman was brought to shore approximately 500 yards south of the Blockade Runner, someone ran to the Carolina Yacht Club to break down its doors to retrieve a defibrillator. The Coast Guard did not have one on board.

Understanding what happened is clouded because race organizers continue with a pattern of not sharing information that began immediately.

Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue director Dave Baker said Wednesday, “We were there within two minutes of the 911 call. … Once we are called through the 911 system, we respond as we always do.”

While not calling into question the professionalism of the responders who attempted to revive Mr. Ackerman, to not immediately call 911 is certainly problematic.

Mayor Bill Blair is one of those concerned. He also expressed shock that a defibrillator was not on a Coast Guard boat. He said Wednesday he had spoken to Tim Owens and an alderman to schedule consideration of how the town can better handle the process of permitting these large sporting events, and to ensure that all of the safety gear and measures that the town thinks is necessary are required and verified.

He expressed a degree of disengagement between the town and event organizers who are permitted to hold events in the town, and a desire to tighten up requirements to more than the minimum.

With another major sporting event permitted this weekend — the three-day North Carolina Surf to Sound Challenge, Friday, Oct. 31 to Sunday, Nov. 2 —  the mayor’s concerns are valid.

Several hundred standup paddleboarders are set to traverse the oceanfront, the often contentious inlet and the town’s channels. In light of the tragedy last weekend, it would be prudent of the town to know what the NCS2S and all future event organizers have planned for emergency medical response.

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