Pompano Beach Lifeguard Konnor Katzmark Dies in Car Accident, Miami Fresh Times
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World Champ South Florida Lifeguard Killed by Car While Fishing Off Bridge
Coach Chris Nowviskie impatiently checked his observe at the Pompano Beach Aquatic Center while four junior lifeguards dragged faceless mannequins to safety. One of his lifeguards was forty five minutes late for training for Worlds, the big leagues of lifeguard competitions.
Seconds later, Nowviskie looked up to see the youthful man he`d been waiting for lounging face-up on the deck. His shaggy, sun-bleached hair draped the tiles, and his bod was crimson with a sunburn from surfing all day. Irritated, Nowviskie demanded an explanation. The youthfull man looked up and asked, «What`s the very first rule of surf training, Coach?» He smiled and answered himself: «When there`s surf, we don`t train.»
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South Florida’s surfing and lifeguard communities are still in shock this week over Konnor Katzmark’s death. The 22-year-old had won several national titles in lifeguarding competitions while mentoring junior athletes and working as a professional lifeguard in Deerfield Beach and Hollywood. On June 25, while he was bait-fishing off a bridge, Katzmark was fatally struck by a car.
A surfer by training, Katzmark joined the Pompano Beach Junior Lifeguard Program at nine years old. Over the next nine years, he won many titles in the paddleboard race and distance run events.
“Being a surfer,” Nowviskie says, “he had this capability to read the water and navigate through big surf. He was challenged so much at a youthfull age surfing in the strongest, most dangerous conditions in the ocean, and that translated into him being able to be that much swifter and more experienced than his peers in lifesaving sport.”
In 2012, Katzmark and another junior lifeguard, Julia Schulte, became the core of the nation’s inaugural youth team, signifying the United States at the World Lifesaving Championships in Adelaide, Australia. Once the two returned, the City of Pompano Beach honored their achievements with a proclamation, naming them the grand marshals of the Yuletide Parade.
As an only child to Albert and Judith Katzmark, the youthfull water athlete stayed local, attending Broward College. After graduation, he became a pro lifeguard in Deerfield Beach and Hollywood. Once again, he rose through the ranks, winning regional and national championships in the 2K beach run, the rescue board race, and Ironguard.
But for Katzmark, it was never about winning: Sportsmanship always mattered more. During one lifeguard tournament, he was entered in an event called beach flag, in which eight competitors sprint in sand to capture one of seven flags. If two competitors grab the flag at the same time, palm placement determines the winner, so those who lose often contest the decision.
“It’s typical of all beach flaggers to throw a fit and make fools of themselves,” Nowviskie says of one competition where Katzmark had lost, “but even tho’ Konnor was visibly frustrated, by the time he walked up to the judge, Konnor self-corrected, shook arms, and thanked him for his honesty.”
Even years later, Nowviskie spotted his other students go after the youthfull man’s lead. Katzmark’s mother, Judith, says tearfully: “He always used to say to me, ‘I love to challenge, but like you always told me, the best part of contesting is having joy.'”
Adds Jim McCrady, a lieutenant for Fort Lauderdale Ocean Rescue: “When you get someone who’s good at sports, they often do it for themselves, like an ego excursion. Then you get people who do it for the unspoiled joy of it. They get so much happiness out of it that they want to share their happiness with other people. Konnor was that stud.”
Shannon Snell, a 20-year-old competitive lifeguard who grew up with Katzmark, recalls his unwavering mentorship. “He often shoved me on the paddleboard, instructed me to catch the next wave, and told me where to go in the lineup,” she says fondly. “He trained me everything I know. He inspired me to do lifesaving.”
Snell has continued to rival nationally and credits Katzmark as a motivator. But beyond his career as a lifeguard, his colleagues, friends, and family members say there was nothing more quintessentially Konnor than his positive attitude and fearlessness.
During the Worlds competition in Australia, Schulte’s father took the two teenagers to explore a beach off the coast. They picked up foam boards from the local surf shop, paddled out, and came across a rock ledge.
“While my dad and I were still looking at the rocks determining if it was safe, Konnor had already hopped off and was halfway down the ocean with the thickest smile,” she says. “He never had any doubts about who he was.”
It’s unclear exactly what happened June twenty five as Katzmark fished off a bridge. No one has been charged in the fatal accident.
Update 7/6: According to a Pompano Beach Police incident report, Katzmark was crossing near eight hundred S. Federal Hwy. when a northbound car hit him. The driver, a youthful woman, stopped to help until Pompano Beach Fire Rescue responded. Katzmark was pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives at the Broward Sheriff’s Office are conducting an investigation.
But since his passing, the community of Pompano Beach, lifeguards and residents included, have posted tributes in memory of Katzmark across social media. This past weekend was the viewing and funeral, during which attendees were asked not to wear black.
“Only board cut-offs, T-shirts, and sundresses to feast his life,” says Nemia Schulte, Julia’s mother and president of the Pompano Beach Junior Lifeguard program. “There were three hundred or four hundred people there, among them around two hundred fifty kids, like a reunion of lifeguards and junior lifeguards from another era.”
