It's Official: The Ocean Is Unlocked for the Summer

Ocean City had the only thing it really needed to kick off the summer season at noon on Friday afternoon: gorgeous blue skies and forecast for more of the same throughout Memorial Day Weekend.

But for goofy good measure, Ocean City and Ocean City Beach Patrol officials carried on the century-old tradition of "unlocking the ocean."

Mayor Jay Gillian, former Mayer Bud Knight, Councilman Keith Hartzell, Ocean City Beach Patrol Director of Operations Tom Mullineaux and former Ocean City Beach Patrol Lieutenant Fred Miller turned a ceremonial wooden key four times into the soft sand of the beach at Ninth Street to mark the opening of the ocean.

The ceremony on the beach adjacent to the Ocean City Music Pier included live music by the Cumberland Regional High School choir and recorded music honoring the late local Elvis entertainer Ted Prior.

The festivities ended with the Business Persons Plunge, in which fully clothed local professionals and students promenaded into the surf accompanied by "Pomp and Circumstance."