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Mostly Cloudy Toiling for fun and profit under the sun
Beach club cabana boys work hard for their money during the summer season
What’s better than spending your summer on the beach? Getting paid to do so.
The beach clubs in Atlantic Beach provide young people with the opportunity to earn money without missing out on the summer experience. It’s no wonder that these jobs are in high demand every year. Howard Taub, the owner of the Sunny Atlantic Beach Club, said they typically receive upwards of 400 applications a season.
Besides the sun and the sand, other employee perks include access to the club facilities, the social aspect of working with peers and even the opportunity to network with some of the members. “A lot of past employees have found jobs with members,” Taub said. Of course the money is a major draw as well.
Employees usually receive tips from members in addition to their paychecks.
Ben Eneman of Hewlett, 20, has been working at Sunny Atlantic for nearly six years. Eneman is studying finance at SUNY Binghamton, but looks forward to coming back to work at the beach every summer. “I just had always came to the beach,” he said, “and I was like if I’m working during the summer I might as well get a job here.”
The work can be difficult, lugging chairs and umbrellas across the hot sand and waiting on the members, but the consensus from the employees is it’s better than a majority of summer jobs. Jesse Bochner of Long Beach, 20, has been working at the Inwood Beach Club since his older brother got him the job when he was 15. “I think it’s just a really good job, one of the best summer jobs besides lifeguarding, and it’s fun too,” Bochner said.
Eneman said that he loves that he doesn’t have to spend his summer in an office. “Just being on the beach is probably the best part, honestly… If I’m going to have to struggle through working there are definitely worse places to be,” he said.
Brandon Helicher, 22 said, “Some people get tired of the beach because you’re on it almost constantly… You have many days where you’re burned and tired and battered, but I love coming down on my days off.”
Austin Brillo of Bellmore, 19, might be suffering from beach fatigue, but he returns annually. “I really don’t like the beach anymore after being here for all these years … Though no matter how much I say I hate here I love coming back to work every year,” he said.
Mark Barrientos of Inwood, 19, said working at the Inwood club is a relaxing job for the most part, but, “The hardest part of the job is bringing all the chairs we brought out back in at the end of the day,” he said.
Some employees seem to embrace the hard work. Brandon Fabel of Lynbrook, 19, a cabana boy for Sunny Atlantic said that besides getting the experience of working with people face to face he likes, “Getting a work out running back and forth on the sand with the chairs.”
Darren Pinkerton, the beach manager at the Inwood Beach Club, neatly packaged the thoughts of many cabana boys. “It’s just enjoyable,” he said, “it’s not an easy job but at the same time it’s not that stressful, it is what you make of it.”
