Cruising a wave toward the beach, Joe Pantaleo did his best to impersonate Michael Jordan. The Harvey Cedars lifeguard struck a pose on his paddleboard and let his tongue hang from his mouth as the surf carried him to shore, where he ran across the finish line, dropped his board and hopped into the arms of Kevin Wessler.

Pantaleo didn’t merely win the men’s paddle race for the first time in more than a half-dozen tries.