Riptide rescue: Lifeguard pulls out 2 swimmers
Published: August 12, 2005
It’s a challenging task when a lifeguard rescues a swimmer from the strong pull of a riptide. It’s a near heroic feat when a lifeguard rescues two swimmers at the same time.
Such was the case on Aug. 3 when Lifeguard Megan Carter, who is 17, pulled two men from the riptide at Wells Beach.
Carter said that this is not her first rescue in the two years that she has been serving as a lifeguard on Wells and Drakes Island beaches. However, it was the first time that she ever rescued two people at the same time.
It was around 3:30 p.m. when Carter spotted a man in trouble about 200 yards out in the water. As she was running to rescue the man, another man that was already in the water on a boogie-board started to swim out to assist the man in trouble. According to Carter, the second man didn’t see her coming and attempted to complete the rescue.
Carter said the would-be rescuer got caught in the riptide and was being carried out to sea. According to Carter it appeared the man had given up struggling and was allowing the tide to carry him out. Carter grabbed her rescue torp and sprinted down to the water, reaching the stranded man in less than a minute.
“He had tried to swim back in and he just couldn’t do it, so he gave up,” said Carter.
Carter said it was hard to reach the man because the waves were so big.
“Just getting through the waves was tough,” said Carter. “The waves were huge that day.”
The second man, who had a boogie-board, had reached the man who was initially in trouble but was now also caught in the riptide. Carter gave the first man her torp and told him to hang onto the board with one arm and the torp with the other. The second man, who wasn’t as fatigued, was able to hold onto the other side of the board and kick with his feet while Carter guided them across the rip current and into shore.
Carter, who can’t weigh much more than 100 pounds, brought two full-grown men who were nearly twice her size safely back to shore.
“Physically it wasn’t that hard,” said Carter. “It was just kinda scary.”
“It is uncommon to have to rescue two people at the same time,” said Assistant Lifeguard Captain Nikki Roux. “Megan did an excellent job of getting the two men back to shore safely. She is one of our strongest swimmers and an excellent guard.”
According to Carter, both men were very grateful and thanked her when they reached shore, and people on the beach clapped. It felt good to help somebody out, said Carter.
Carter had just practiced a riptide rescue a week prior to this incident.
“The riptide is really strong this summer,” said Carter. “We’ve had a bunch of rescues. I think when people see those big waves they want to go out and play in them, and they don’t realize that they’re dangerous.”
Rip currents are narrow channels of water that flow seaward from the beach through breaking waves. They occur when opposing currents meet and create a swirling motion that can carry even the strongest swimmers away from shore.
Rip currents don’t have an undertow that can drag swimmers down beneath the water’s surface, but they can be strong enough to knock someone off their feet.
Although these currents are common on any ocean beach, they are said to be stronger and more frequent when hurricanes and other storms churn the ocean. Carter said that this might have been the case last Wednesday as she heard that there was an ocean storm present a few miles off land.
A riptide can sometimes be identified by a brown color because the current churns up sand as it runs back to sea. The surface of the water also might appear bubbly or choppy. Lifeguards can sometimes spot rip currents from their towers if the water is calm enough. To them, the current resembles a giant mushroom. The “neck” is the channel out to sea and the “head” is the churning water farther out.
Carter credited the man for knowing not to struggle against the current. If people try to struggle against the current, they can become exhausted and drown. Anyone caught in a rip current should try to swim at an angle to shore until they are free of the current, said Carter.
The best thing swimmers can do when they are aware that there is a riptide is to stay in shallow water, because, according to Carter, even people who are aware of what to do if caught in a riptide can still be taken off guard.
“When people are out there they just panic,” said Carter. “Even if they know what to do, they just start getting frantic.”
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