On Saturday, while the New York Metro area prepared for massive transit shut downs and evacuations in advance of Hurricane Irene, entrepreneur and Jersey boy, John Supino of Buoy Beach LLC, was putting up an umbrella – more importantly, a beach umbrella tethered to his invention, the Shade Anchor™ beach umbrella anchor.

“I did get a lot of strange looks from folks outside the New Milford Swim Club where I set up the umbrella,” says Supino, founder of Buoy Beach LLC and inventor of the Shade Anchor beach umbrella anchor. “I had to put my money where my mouth is because I was confident the Shade Anchor would stand up to the hurricane. It did and I have the pictures to prove it!”

The former Long Beach Island lifeguard was proven right when he returned to his umbrella on Sunday, after the storm subsided, and found the umbrella and Shade Anchor bag virtually undisturbed.

"The umbrella stayed put. The Shade Anchor prevented it from blowing away, even as the state of New Jersey experienced wind gusts exceeding 70 MPH," says Supino.

New Milford Swim Club lifeguard manager, Jason Schlereth, was on site when Supino set up the Shade Anchor wind test. “I was laughing. I thought he was crazy – NOTHING would hold a beach umbrella down in a hurricane! I mean, this was an OPEN beach umbrella, not folded up – that’s a prime target for high winds,” said Schlereth.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I went back on Monday and, sure enough, this guy’s umbrella was still standing . The grounds were locked up and no one would have been able to get in to tamper with the umbrella or anchor. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Schlereth added, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Having spent so much of my life on the beach, both as a lifeguard in high school and college, and now as a dad, I’ve seen hundreds, maybe thousands, of umbrellas go flying down the beach in a gust of wind,” says Supino. “I’ve seen people get seriously hurt when they crossed the path of a runaway umbrella -- and some were attached to sand screws. As a father of two young kids, I wanted to develop an affordable, easy to use product that would keep beach umbrellas stable even on the windiest beach days.”