Pa. man dies after bodysurfing accident at N.J. beach

Ken Matthews was retired after a long career as a music teacher and band director at Central York Middle School. He died at age 73.

Avalon beach

A beach in Avalon. (Public Domain)

A Pennsylvania man has died after a bodysurfing accident at a New Jersey beach.

The accident happened around 6:20 p.m. last Thursday at the 21st Street beach in Avalon.

Witnesses told authorities that a 73-year-old York, Pennsylvania man, identified by the York Daily Record as Ken Matthews, was bodysurfing when a large wave caused him to strike his head on the ground beneath the surface.

Matthews was unresponsive when bystanders and emergency personnel pulled him out of the water and began performing CPR, authorities said.

  • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

He was transported to Cape Regional Medical Center in Cape May Courthouse, where authorities said he was pronounced dead.

Lifeguards were off-duty at the time. An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Matthews was retired after a long career as a music teacher and band director at Central York Middle School. A Facebook post by the school’s fifes and drums band remembers him as “a visionary starting a fife and drum corps in a public school in 1971.”

  • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

Get the WHYY app!

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal