In a flash, the joy of a school trip to the beach turned to panic and ultimately sadness for sixth graders from a Harlem school.

Their classmate, 12-year-old Nicole Suriel, drowned in the waters of the Atlantic ocean, off Long Beach.

Suriel was among more than 20 students from the Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science and Engineering who traveled to Long Beach.

Her identity has been confirmed in a memo from the Harlem school memo to parents.  The memo from the school’s principal called the drowning a ” tragic event.”

“All the kids were hysterical, screaming on the floor, crying that their friend was gone,” said witness Cassie Perez.

The other students watched in horror as rescuers searched frantically for Suriel after she was reported missing.  The search lasted for more than an hour before Suriel’s body was pulled from the surf.  She was taken to Long Beach Memorial hospital, but was eventually pronounced dead.

“She could have been caught in a rip current,” said Long Beach fire chief Scott Kemins. “But the bottom line is, she should not have been in that water.”

That’s because there were no lifeguards on duty in Long Beach.  They don’t begin working seven days a week at the city’s beaches until next week. Signs indicating that fact are on display around the beach.

A teacher and two interns were with the group of students at the beach; but, it’s unclear why they let the sixth graders into the water.

According to the DOE there were 24 6th graders on the trip and 3 supervisers: two eachers and on undergraduate intern teacher.

“I saw her head moving and I said to my friend, like why is there a kid out there by herself? said beachgoer Brittany Polini, who claims to have seen Suriel, unattended, far off shore, before the drowning.

Questions, tears and anger were on display outside the Harlem school after the drowning.  Grief counselors were called in and all after school activities were can celled.

A member of the school’s Parents’ Association wondered why the school’s principal authorized a class trip to a beach without lifeguards.

“He is to blame for this child’s death. No one else,” said parent David Suker of school principal, Dr. Jose Gabriel Maldonado-Rivera.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said the incident is under investigation.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Suriel family and the entire school community at this sad and tragic time,” Klein said in a statement. “Obviously, we are working diligently to determine exactly what happened and to provide immediate support to the students and staff of the school.”

For out of city middle school trips the rule is to have 2 staff members, one who must be teacher and one adult for 30 kids.

via With No Lifeguards on Duty, Student Drowns On Class Trip to Beach | NBC New York.

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A 19-year-old has died after getting caught in a rip current off the coast of Galveston.

Authorities say two men started having trouble in the water off 51st Street and Seawall. The beach patrol rescued one man quickly. The other was pulled underwater. He was found about 20 minutes later.Beach patrol says he was rushed to UTMB, where he was pronounced dead.

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Rip currents blamed for drowning in Ormond Beach surf; rip warnings issued countywide for today

ORMOND BEACH — Rip currents were blamed for a 55-year-old tourist’s drowning Saturday, the Volusia County Beach Patrol said.

Philip Standley, 55, of Noblesville, Ind., was swimming in waist-deep water with his brother when they got caught in a rip current, Beach Patrol Capt. Scott Petersohn said of the 3 p.m. incident near the Granada Avenue Approach.

A lifeguard rescued him and broght him back to shore in the care of bystanders, because she had to go back out and save his brother, too. While she was rescuing the brother, Standley stopped breathing and was pronounced dead on arrival at Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center in Daytona Beach.

Standley’s death is the fourth drowning fatality in Volusia beaches so far this year.

In all, lifeguards made 30 rescues Saturday, including one in Ormond-by-the-Sea where they literally drove several miles to get to the swimmer because no lifeguards are posted up there, Petersohn said.

He said rip currents could be a problem Sunday as well.

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Surfer survives 14 hours at sea

October 25th, 2009

When John Baker III stepped into the water at surfside, he never expected it would be nearly 14 hours and 14 miles later before he could get out. He found himself stuck in currents he couldn?t avoid.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — When John Baker III stepped into the water at surfside, he never expected it would be nearly 14 hours and 14 miles later before he could get out.  He found himself stuck in currents he couldn’t avoid.

“[It was] because of the turbulence at the end of the jetty and the fact that I couldn’t cross that rip current again,” said Baker.

Baker had been surfing for over 40 years.  He’s a former Coast Guard man who knows the water. He also used to organize rescues.

But on Friday, he needed one of those rescues himself.

“I left here about 10:30 Thursday morning got down to Surfside around noon,” said Baker.

Baker had driven from his Woodlands home to Surfside hoping to catch some good waves, but he quickly found himself in an area by the jetties and he couldn’t get out.

“I paddled for about an hour and it was very obvious I wasn’t making any headway,” said Baker.

Baker says the currents kept pushing him away from shore.  At about 4 p.m., he saw a boat from a rig pass by but the crew didn’t see him in the water.

By 8 p.m., it started getting dark and he was worried about hypothermia.  He had a wet suit on and he kept paddling on his surf board to keep his core temperature up.

At 10 p.m., he spotted an oil rig.  He was now about 10 miles from shore and estimated the rig was about four miles away.

He started counting his strokes. He would paddle 30 times; then rest for a minute before starting the process again.  Each hour he increased his strokes to stay warm — paddling 40 times, then 50 times before allowing himself to rest for a minute in between.

“I knew a helicopter would be out there at first light. I knew I had to survive the night, and if I could, in order to save myself, I had to get to the rig,” said Baker.

By 2 a.m., Baker reached the rig.  He found a rope to hang on to and when the water surged, he used it get as high as possible onto a nearby ladder.

Then he had to climb up the rig.

“By that time, I realized how tired I was,” said Baker.

After climbing into the rig, he climbed a flight of stairs and finally reached a door that he thought was locked.  He banged on the door calling for help.  No one answered.

“I just happened to pull on the knob and opened it,” Baker said, his voice cracking with emotion. By that time, it had been 14 hours since he first started out and it was only then that he knew he had reached safety.

Two men were on the rig and heard Baker come in. They gave him food, a place to warm up and a phone to call his wife of 30 years, Geneva Baker.

Geneva had alerted authorities when Baker hadn’t come home and the Coast Guard was out looking for him.  Finally, around 2:30 a.m., her phone rang.

“She answers her cell phone and I said are you looking for me?” said Baker.

“And I went, ‘John where are you?’ I thought he was washed up on a beach somewhere half way to Galveston,” said Baker’s wife.

Then this former Coast Guard man made one last strategic decision.  He decided not to leave the rig that night, despite the offer from the Coast Guard to pick him up.

“The Coast Guard goes out when your life’s at risk,” Baker said.  “I told them to take those guys home. Call it a day. I’ll make arrangements in the morning.”

“When the Coast Guard called me back and said that he had opted not to come off, I said, ‘What?’” said Geneva Baker, laughing at the memory.

But when the Coast Guard explained to her that John was worried about their safety at night she said, “That sounds just like John. That’s something he would say.”

John does have one regret. He left his surf board at sea to climb the rig.

“I sure miss that board. If someone finds it, I wouldn’t mind having it back.”

Despite his ordeal, Baker says he can’t wait to hit the surf again.

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ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — A Crescent City man in his 60s seeking to beat the heat at a St. Johns County Beach drowned after being caught in a rip current, according to St. Johns Sheriff’s Deputies.

Investigators said a couple were standing in a shallow area off of Crescent Beach when they were caught in a rip current which took both of them into deeper water.

Authorities said Ronald Herron began to explain to the woman how to escape from a rip current when he himself went beneath the surface. Deputies told Channel 4 the woman made it to shore and, when she couldn’t find her male companion, called 911.

Surfers located the Herron after a brief search in the area and brought him ashore, where they started CPR. Firefighters took over the life saving measures when they arrived on scene shortly thereafter and transported Herron to Flagler Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

“We didn’t see any movement at all when he was on the beach,” beachgoer Lisa Tinnerman said. “We honestly didn’t think he would survive because we saw no signs of life.”

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PANAMA CITY BEACH — A rough day on Bay County beaches ended in tragedy Friday night when a man’s body washed ashore.

The man, who is believed to be in his late 40s, was in the Gulf of Mexico near the 23000 block of Front Beach Road about 6 p.m. when he and a female companion got into trouble, officials said. The woman was able to make it back to shore, but the man could not, witnesses at the scene said.

Law enforcement officials said the man was calling for help while trying to stay afloat 75 to 100 yards from shore. However, it was unclear Friday night if the man purposely swam out that far or if he was snatched out by a rip current.

Betty Sanders was watching from her balcony at Pirate Cove Villas.

“I heard somebody hollering for help,” Sanders said. Several men at the scene tried to get a garden hose to the man to pull him back in, but he was too far out, she added.

“I watched him till I couldn’t see him any longer,” Sanders said.

Rescue workers searched the water and called in the Coast Guard and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office helicopter for assistance.

About an hour after he went missing, the man’s body washed ashore and rescue workers attempted to revive him using CPR, but it was no use, said BCSO Sgt. John Sumerall. The man’s identity was not released Friday night because his family had not been notified.

Red flags had been flying all day, but as daylight waned, more and more swimmers began getting into trouble, officials said.

“Today the surf was extremely strong,” Sumerall said. “We were actually in the process of changing the flags from red to double-red because of the high volume of rescues that we had.”

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PANAMA CITY BEACH — Two men died in the gulf Monday during red flag conditions generated by a storm system that moved through earlier in the day.

Beach police said 46-year-old Glen Merideth, believed to be an off-duty sheriff’s deputy from Louisville, Ky., began struggling around 6 p.m. Monday.

“His wife and kids and another deputy were on the beach with him and they looked up and he was floating,” said Beach Police Maj. David Humphreys. “Double red flags were flying.”

Merideth was pronounced dead at the scene.

A single red flag was flying a few hours earlier when a Tennessee man was found dead in the gulf.

Mark Mays, 43, a husband and father who was visiting the area with his family, was seen floating in the water just before 4 p.m., some 100 yards behind the Carillon Beach Resort on the west end of Panama City Beach, Bay County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Ruth Corley said.

Mays’ wife had last heard from him 30 minutes earlier, Corley said.

Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene five minutes after a 911 call, Corley said. By then, Mays was floating in knee-deep water.

He apparently had been staying at the Pinnacle Port, about a quarter mile away from the scene.

Earlier Monday, the state Division of Emergency Management issued a rip currents warning and urged beachgoers to be careful. Beach police said the warning flags were double-red Monday morning.

“We did have red flags flying today, and there were rip currents out there, but we do not know if that’s what happened to him,” Corley said of the dangerous currents.

She said Mays’ death was believed to be the year’s first drowning on a Bay County-maintained beach.

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2002

July 21: Jakada Brooks, 11, of Muskegon, is swept to his death “by a strong undertow” at Muskegon’s Pere Marquette Park.

Aug. 12: Marco Delgado, 16, of Muskegon, drowns offshore from Pere Marquette Park. Waves were reported to be up to 5 feet, and strong offshore currents were present. A sheriff’s department report says “waves moved him 200 to 300 yards.”

2003

July 4: Seven people drown along a three-mile stretch of Berrien County shore after thunderstorms with 50 mph winds churned dangerous rip currents. Roland Rodriguez, 15; Ismael Gonzalez, 22; and Marcos Reynoso, 25, all of Chicago, died trying to save a boy who was rescued by others. Nearby: Randall Farmer, 44, of Chicago, drowns at Bethany Beach; Bruce Chapman, 57, and his wife, Judith, 66, of Sawyer, drown at Cherry Beach; and Mark Weiss, 59, of Chicago, drowns at Harbert Beach. Police believe one of the Chapmans was trying to save the other.

Aug. 20: Scott Allen Smith, 17, of Spring Lake, is pulled under waves after diving off Grand Haven’s south pier and trying to swim to the beach. Two others with Smith unsuccessfully tried to save him.

Sept. 3: Andy Fox, a 17-year-old Grand Haven High School senior, drowns while swimming along the Grand Haven pier. Fox and a friend were swimming after classes when bystanders noticed the teens were struggling. Rescuers pulled the friend to safety, but rip currents swept Fox into deeper water.

Nov. 29: Daniel Reiss, 19, a Grand Valley State University sophomore from Grand Haven, was among eight young people on the Grand Haven pier when he was swept off by a large wave. Rip currents pulled him into deeper water. The tragedy led to life rings, donated by Reiss’ mother, being placed along the pier.

2005

July 18: Aaron West, 19, of Grand Ledge, disappears while swimming with friends in 3- to 5-foot waves at P.J. Hoffmaster State Park, near Muskegon. Red flags were flying onshore. He was found by a Coast Guard helicopter about two hours later, 150 yards from where he last was seen.

July 24: Jiang Wei Lim, 20, a Michigan State University student from Malaysia, disappears while swimming on the south side of the south breakwall at Pere Marquette Park in Muskegon. Red flags were flying onshore. Waves were 5 to 6 feet, and strong rip currents were present.

Aug. 10: Marino Akhavong, 9, of Holland Township, drowns while swimming with friends near the north pier at Holland State Park. The park was flying yellow flags to warn of rip current danger.

Aug. 27: Juan Lopez, 21, of Chicago, drowns offshore from Warren Dunes State Park in Sawyer. The Coast Guard says rip currents were strong.

2006

July 4: David Ni, 16, of Mattawan, drowns about 50 yards offshore near South Haven’s north pier. Police said 4- to 7-foot waves and a strong undertow caused the death. A teenager with Ni was rescued.

July 4: Debra King, 43, of Grand Junction, drowns at Warren Dunes State Park after reportedly being pulled under by strong currents.

July 9: Mark Graves, 37, of Cedar Springs, drowns at North Beach Park in Ferrysburg. Shortly beforehand, a young girl was rescued from strong currents by surfers. Waves were 3 to 6 feet.

July 18: Carlos Fabian-Zoto Pedraza, 28, of South Bend, Ind., drowns at Lions Park Beach in St. Joseph. Waves were 2 to 4 feet. The Coast Guard reported rip currents in the area.

2007

June 18: David Lambert, 20, of Elkhart, Ind., drowns after jumping off the Silver Beach pier at Benton Harbor. Witnesses said he was swept away. Police rescued four other people the same day, two who jumped off the same pier and two near the beach.

July 11: Kyle Bartlett, 15, of Laingsburg, drowns while swimming with a friend at Manistee’s Fifth Avenue Beach. “They were out bobbing around in the waves, and he got caught in the rip current,” Police Chief David Bachman said. Waves were 4 to 6 feet.

July 19: Luke Laudolff, 10, of Batavia, Ill., drowns while swimming with two other youths at Douglas Beach near Douglas, where the family was vacationing. A father was able to rescue two of the children, but Laudolff went under the waves.

2008

July 17: Chiara Wysong Howard, 9, is pulled to her death in Grand Haven Township. She was wading in water up to her knees when a wave knocked her off-balance and a current took her to deeper water. Her younger sister and two older brothers survived.

2009

July 26: Karl-Heinz Becker, 57, of Granger, Ind., drowns off Warren Dunes State Park. Authorities say the beach had been prominently “red flagged” before Becker went for a swim.

Aug. 1: Martin

Jordan, 45,

of St. Charles, Ill., drowns near the South Haven pier while leading five young relatives to safety from strong rip currents.

NOTE:National Weather Service compilations come from published reports on drownings associated with strong currents. They may not be complete.

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A 10-year-old boy drowned Saturday afternoon at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, and rescue workers at other area beaches said rip currents were the cause of several other near-drownings.

Just after 4 p.m., after a two-hour search off the beach of Fort Fisher, the U.S. Coast Guard located the boy in the surf. The boy was not conscious. He was transported to New Hanover Regional Medical Center, where a doctor pronounced him dead, said Deputy Charles Smith of the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office.

Lifeguards at Fort Fisher reported about 2 p.m. that three swimmers were in distress. The lifeguards rescued two adults who were swimming with the boy, but the boy was missing in the water, Smith said.

The search included officials with the Coast Guard, the sheriff’s office and a number of local police and rescue units. The Wilmington Police Department’s SABLE helicopter flew overhead and there were at least three search boats in the waters.

Coast Guard members located the boy’s body from a helicopter and sent a diver into the water to retrieve him. After bringing the boy to shore, rescue workers tried to revive him while family members sat in a circle on the beach, just in front of the rescue vehicle, in prayer.

Hundreds of bystanders at the state park huddled while they watched the rescue. Officials made sure people didn’t enter the water while the search was under way.

Smith said the boy’s parents were taken to the hospital. Officials were withholding the boy’s name pending notification of other family members.

Near-drownings and ocean rescues were reported at other New Hanover County beaches.

Cpl. Simon Sanders, of Carolina Beach Ocean Rescue, said one woman was transported to the hospital at about 5 p.m. after she was rescued from a rip current near the Oystershell Lane beach access. He said the woman had a pulse, but he did not have information about her condition.

He said lifeguards on duty were flying red flags to signal rip current danger and advise swimmers to use caution.

Kure Beach Ocean Rescue director Tom Cannon said lifeguards had rescued a handful of swimmers caught in rip currents Saturday, but he said none of the rescued individuals had serious injuries.

At the beginning of the tourist season, budget cuts had forced Fort Fisher to eliminate its lifeguards.

But in one rough weekend, Kure Beach lifeguards repeatedly responded to emergencies at Fort Fisher, Some eventually remained stationed at Fort Fisher.

But that left Kure Beach understaffed, so town officials and concerned residents lobbied state legislators to put lifeguards back on Fort Fisher, and on June 6, the lifeguards returned.

Earlier this season, an Ohio woman died after being caught in a rip current at Kure Beach.

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The body of a Brooklyn man who disappeared off the Rockaways while trying to save his friend washed up on the beach Thursday morning, his heartbroken family told the Daily News.

Anthony Bolden, 21, was swimming in the surf off Jacob Riis ParkMonday night when he saw his friend struggling in a powerful rip current.

Bolden tried to fight through the treacherous water to reach his pal but was overcome himself – and soon vanished under the waves.

“I believe he went straight to heaven,” said his uncle Luther Bolden. “I’m so proud of him because not everyone would make that same decision to help.”

An intensive search effort that deployed NYPD boats and scuba teams could not locate Bolden either Tuesday or Wednesday, but a jogger spotted the body on the beach at 6:30 a.m. Thursday.

Hours later, Bolden’s tearful mother Sheila confirmed to police that the corpse was her son.

“She is distraught,” said Luther Bolden. “She is … about to lose her mind over this.”

Anthony Bolden, who just accepted a job assisting passengers in wheelchairs at Kennedy Airport, would have celebrated his birthday tomorrow – but now his mother has to plan his funeral, relatives said.

“She doesn’t know how she’ll afford to bury her own son,” said Luther Bolden, 42. “It’s so tragic.”

Hours before Bolden disappeared near the Rockaways coast, 56-year-old Michael Mathleson died apparently of a heart attack while fighting strong currents off Breezy Point. Two other people drowned in the waters off the Rockaways earlier this summer, and officials suspect that strong rip currents played a role in both deaths.

One person died off the coast in the Rockaways last summer, city officials said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/08/07/2009-08-07_beach_rescuer_body_is_found.html#ixzz0Sww8exRx

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GALVESTON — A man who drowned Sunday in a rip current off a Galveston pier has yet to be identified, prompting an appeal to the public to learn the man’s name, authorities said Monday.

The man, possibly Hispanic and in his 20s, stood 6 feet tall and weighed 180 pounds. He had short, black hair with gray sides and many distinguishing tattoos, John Florence, a spokesman with the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office, said.

“One was a dragon-type tattoo on his back, and he had the Virgin Mary on his left shoulder,” Florence said. “There was the letter A in Old English on his left hand, plus he had numerous tattoos on his legs and arms and the word ‘Aziel.’”

The man, who had been on a Boogie Board, was found at the end of the 29th Street pier and pronounced dead at 5:12 p.m. The cause of his death was ruled drowning, pending a toxicology exam, Florence said.

The man had the board’s leash wrapped around his wrist, rather than using an easily removable Velcro strip, Galveston Island Beach Patrol Chief Peter Davis said.

“It was tied around his wrist five times, and was a major contributor to him drowning,” Davis said. “When the board became wedged between the rocks and with the current pulling him sideways, he was unable to stay afloat.”

The longshore current, estimated at 10 mph, created strong rip currents around the piers, hampering recovery efforts that lasted about 50 minutes, Davis said.

“The current was too strong for even our good swimmers to maintain for very long with fins,” Davis said.

Two lifeguards, who suffered lacerations when they were slammed into the rock pier, returned to work Monday, Davis said.

If no one comes forward with the man’s name, the medical examiner would attempt to identify him with fingerprints, Florence said.

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A St. Charles man who drowned Saturday in Lake Michigan while leading several young relatives to safety is being remembered as a kind man who enjoyed life and was quick to organize benefits to help the families of several friends who had died prematurely.

Martin Jordan, 45, vacationed every summer in South Haven, Mich., with his wife, Maureen, and three children, said his sister-in-law, Kathy Davila. Jordan had been in Michigan for two days when he and five young family members became caught early Saturday evening in strong rip currents while swimming near a pier.

“The wind changed and picked up and the water became violently rough,” Davila said. “He immediately started pushing the kids to the ladder of the pier. His niece said she could feel his hand by her back, pushing her. The last thing he said before he died was, ‘Swim for your life.’ “

Jordan did not survive, despite resuscitation efforts.

“I don’t know whether it was a loss of energy, panic, the force of the water and the waves or just probably exhaustion,” Davila said.

South Haven police are investigating but noted that paramedics had responded to two earlier cases on Saturday of swimmers in rough water. South Haven police now are asking beachgoers to stay out of Lake Michigan when there are high waves and heavy rip currents.

Born and raised in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, Martin Jordan graduated from St. Patrick’s High School and Illinois State University, and spent his entire 25-year  career working in group homes with teens, said his brother, Dan.

He also helped plan benefits for friends who needed assistance, including for relatives of friends who had died young, Davila said.

“Now his friends are thinking of doing the same thing for his wife and his three kids,” she said.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Police say a teenage swimmer has died after struggling in the Atlantic Ocean off Queens.

Police say lifeguards pulled Daniel O’Neil out of the water around 3 p.m. Saturday near Beach 25 Street in the Rockaways. The lifeguards tried to revive the 19-year-old, but he was pronounced dead soon after being taken to a hospital.

It wasn’t immediately clear what swimming conditions were like in the area when O’Neil began having trouble. Lifeguards on nearby Long Island have reported rescuing an unusually high number of swimmers from rip currents in the last 10 days.

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As parents watched a handful of young baseball players from a Glen Burnie team enjoy the surf Thursday near Myrtle Beach, S.C., the unthinkable happened.

Two boys were whisked away by a rip current, vanishing beneath the water. Quick thinking teammates rescued one, but the other, a 13-year-old from Baltimore County, apparently drowned.

Horry County Police were still searching late yesterday for the body of Lonnie Hill of Woodlawn, who was on the beach at about 12:40 p.m. with other members of Greater Glen Burnie Patriots when he was pulled under.

“My daughter was out there and she said he was right next to her one minute and gone the next,” said a parent who was on the beach and asked not to be identified.

“It’s devastating I feel so sorry for Lonnie. I just (imagine) him … struggling and nobody seeing him.”

Parents accompanying the team said they were watching when five teenagers, four of them players, got into trouble in the surf.

Police said the water at the Garden City Beach where Lonnie drowned has been choppy recently, and the current gets stronger at the point where the water is chest depth. Just beyond that is a precipitous drop.

That’s the spot where Lonnie and an unidentified boy were taken by the rip current.

Teammates saved one, but it happened so quickly they couldn’t grab Lonnie, the parent who saw the tragedy said.

“I stepped out over the ledge and it just pulled me out pretty quick, I could barely get back, It was really scary,” he said. “You let them go out there and you think you’re safe because you are there. But you know, we aren’t familiar with the rip tides. We don’t have those like that in Ocean City.”

Sgt. Robert Kegler, Horry County police spokesman, said his officers were still looking yesterday for the boy’s body.

“There has not been a recovery yet,” Kegler said. “We are going to continue to have 24-hour coverage of that area, concentrating on the area where he went missing.” The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources flew an airplane over the area during the weekend. Georgetown County officials assisted with boats Monday and Horry County took over that responsibility yesterday.

“We are going to continue our efforts,” Kegler said. “The water has been very choppy, even at the shore. We’ve had several rescues in the past few days due to the water conditions and rip currents.”

Lonnie traveled to South Carolina with his grandparents, Andrea and John Darden. Neither the Dardens nor the boy’s parents could be reached for comment.

Lonnie pitched the night before in the Big Kahuna Tournament for players 13 and under at The Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach. Players pay as much as $695 to play in a minimum of six games at fields that imitate former Major League stadiums like the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field.

Patriots Head Coach Tom McCormick said Lonnie’s father contacted them about getting the teenager on the team.

“He was a very quiet, nice kid,” McCormick said. “We never had any problems, he was just a great kid, he loved baseball. I think he’d play 24/7 if he could.”

The Patriots are one of many teams from Greater Glen Burnie Junior Sports League. The group runs leagues for baseball, softball, boys and girls soccer and boys and girls basketball

McCormick said he will try to retire Lonnie’s number 21, for all Greater Glen Burnie ports.

“He will not be forgotten that’s for sure,” McCormick said. “Everybody’s thoughts and prayers go out to the family and everyone is devastated.”

Lonnie and his teammates were on the beach Thursday to eat lunch and have fun in the water, according to the parent who saw the drowning. He said he had warned the kids about going out too far.

He heard the teenagers calling but figured they just needed someone to retrieve a football they were playing with because it had gone out too far. But he headed out to see what was going on.

“I’m halfway out there and I didn’t even know what was going on,” the parent said. “I just hear, ‘Lonnie! Lonnie!’ and my heart sunk and I’m like, ‘Oh no.’”

The parent didn’t know the boy extremely well but knew him enough to like him.

“He was great kid, he really was,” the parent said. “This is tragic.”

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A Granger man who drowned over the weekend in Lake Michigan was the first drowning victim at a Michigan state park along the lake in three years.

Police say 57-year-old Kale Heinz Becker had been swimming with his wife at Warren Dunes State Park Sunday in Bridgman. At one point, Becker’s wife turned around and he was gone.

Becker’s body was found a short time later, about 30 yards from shore.

Authorities said Sunday was a risky day to be swimming in Lake Michigan, as red flags were flying to warn of a strong undertow and rip currents. Police think that may have caused Becker’s death.

Mary Dettloff, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said there have been no lifeguards at state parks in Michigan for more than 10 years. She said studies have proved that lifeguards give people a “false sense of security,” which leads to riskier behavior.

Dettloff said it is not against the law to go in water when the red flags are up, but she added there’s increased danger.

“That means there’s rip tides present and other unsafe conditions — high waves, things like that,” Dettloff said.

There are 17 state parks along Lake Michigan’s east coast. Sunday’s drowning was the first since 2006, when three occurred, including one at Warren Dunes.

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HATTERAS VILLAGE, N.C. — A Springboro man has died while saving his children from a rip current off the North Carolina coast.

Robert Cook, 43, was pronounced dead after he was found in the water about 75 feet from shore just after 5 p.m. Saturday.

Cook was with his children and a friend finishing a vacation at the north end of Hatteras Village, Cyndy Holda, a spokeswoman for Cape Hatteras National Seashore, told the Virginian News-Pilot.

Cook’s children and his friend’s child were having trouble swimming, so Cook and his friend were bringing them in to the beach, she said.

When they went back for the last child, Cook became tired and couldn’t make it back to the shore, Holda said.

Rescue crews found Cook a short time later while conducting a grid search of the water, but could not resuscitate him.

Officials said red flags were posted at the time due to rough water conditions.

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After suspending the search for a missing 13 year old swimmer, authorities plan to resume the search in Garden City at first light, around 5:30 am, Friday morning.

The 13-year-old Maryland boy disappeared around 12:30 Thursday afternoon while swimming in the ocean, in between 15th and 16th Avenue South in Garden City.

Authorities say it is now considered a recovery mission instead of a rescue mission.

Dozens of first responders spent the entire day searching the area with hundreds of people looking on, even helping.

Authorities were in the water — rafts, boats, jet skis, and in the air with helicopters. On lookers even joined the search, as about 100 people locked arm in arm and combed the shore, searching for the missing teen.

“It’s always difficult when it comes to any child. It’s a lot harder to swallow, a lot harder to take,” said Sgt. Robert Kegler, with Horry County Police.

Authorities say the boy was swimming with seven other friends in the ocean when someone noticed several of the boys were struggling in the water.

That’s when a lifeguard jumped in to help bring the boys to shore, but one was left behind in what were rough waters all day long.

“The most challenging has been the physical conditions, the weather itself. You can feel the strong winds out here, the currents a lot higher. The waves are a lot stronger than it normally is. It’s made it very difficult,” said Kegler.

Those who were in the water noticed.

“Very tiring, because you have to keep fighting your way back, it’s exhausting,” recalled George Denton, of Surfside Beach.

“As you can see it’s windy and the current is pulling really bad towards the north,” said Randy Johnson, of Garden City.

“The currents are really bad. They’re pulling you down the beach, and they’re also pulling you out. The waves are pretty busy. One comes right after another. It’s hard to time them like normal surf, so all those combined together, it can drag you out of here. If you’re not careful out there, it’s bad,” said Denton.

Bad, even for really good swimmers

“A majority of swimmers who are really good still can only swim two to three miles per hour, a rip (current) can go as fast as six miles per hour, but we recommend they get on their back and let the rip (current) carry them out to the head of the rip (current) or try to swim parallel to the beach, but don’t try to swim towards the beach,” said Duke Brown, with Horry County Beach Patrol.

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PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC (WMBF) – A family continues to mourn the loss of a Myrtle Beach man who died while trying to rescue his son in Pawleys Island Thursday afternoon.

Robert Beebe, spokesman for Midway Fire Rescue says the father was fishing in the surf when his son was hit by a wave and pulled under water. The man went in after his son and saved him, but was pulled back under the water.

The man, identified as Salomon Sifontes by Georgetown County Coroner Kenny Johnosn, was able to save his son, but in the end, lost his own life.

The reality of what happened on Thursday still hasn’t hit 7-year-old Darwin, who says he remembers seeing his father in those final moments.

“My dad tried to help me, and we were like going really far away, and he couldn’t breathe anymore and he drowned and he was floating with his mouth in the water,” he recalled.

Sifontes’s brother, Moises Sifontes, says he couldn’t believe the news when he first heard.

“They were together all the time. When he sees the picture, he starts crying, and says ‘I want my daddy,’” explained Moises.

Moises says his brother did the right thing by saving his son.

“We are hurt, but we are glad [Darwin] is alive,” said Moises.

The Sifontes family says they would like to send Salomon’s body back to his home country of Honduras, but so far, do not have enough money to do so.

The father, rescuers estimate, was underwater for 30 minutes before he was brought ashore.

An autopsy Friday confirmed Sifontes died as a result of drowning.

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Carolina Beach | A man who lifeguards pulled from a rip current at Carolina Beach late last month died at an area hospital this week, according to his family.

David Weaver, 41, of Leland was brought to shore June 27. Though he wasn’t breathing, he was revived on the way to New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, officials have said.

But family members say Weaver remained on life support after the rescue attempt.

On Wednesday, the family took him off life-support to see if he would survive, said Debbie Ward, Weaver’s sister-in-law. He died soon after.

The death is the third drowning to occur this season at New Hanover County beaches, and the second at Carolina Beach.

Earlier this summer, authorities said high winds had cut deep troughs in the sand just off shore at the area’s east-facing beaches.

Those areas between the shore and sandbars are conducive to the formation of rip currents, officials have said.

Weaver’s emergency and the prior drowning at Carolina Beach this year occurred near the Hamlet beach access, officials said. In May, a 19-year-old man from Fayetteville disappeared in the water there. His body was found days later. Then in June, a woman from Ohio drowned at Kure Beach after she was pulled from a rip current.

The emergency

Weaver’s emergency occurred around 7 p.m. on a Saturday, while the beach was crowded with swimmers, according to Weaver’s wife Sandy.

Authorities said lifeguards had recently finished their shift but were still in the area. Sandy said the family did not see any flags indicating the surf conditions, and said the flags, which could serve as a warning, should remain even after lifeguards leave.

Sandy says Weaver went into the water to help his 13-year-old daughter Amanda, and Kesha Davis, a 27-year-old family friend, who was swimming with her. Both were caught in a rip current. But Weaver never made it to them, Sandy said. Instead the current took him in a different direction.

Davis said trouble began when she and Amanda were in waist-deep water. “We were not far out,” she said. “One minute we could touch the bottom of the ocean, the next minute we couldn’t.”

Davis and Amanda eventually made it back toward the beach, where Sandy helped them ashore. Lifeguards brought Weaver to shore, started CPR and handed him off to EMS workers who took him to the hospital.

Ward, Weaver’s sister-in-law, remembered Weaver as fun and friendly. After a burn-injury, which family members say he sustained while painting streets, Weaver passed his time as a stay-at-home dad.

Sandy said he lived for their three children – Michael, Megan and Amanda – who are between the ages of 11 and 13.

His funeral is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday at Andrews Mortuary, with burial to follow at Greenlawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

Authorities have said anyone caught in a rip current shouldn’t fight it. Instead, swim parallel to the shore until you can get out of the current. Swimmers should swim near lifeguards, officials say, and signal to them if they get in trouble.

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VIRGINIA BEACH – A 33-year-old woman drowned on the oceanfront Friday night after being caught in a rip current, according to police.

Sujana Unesh, of Ashburn, was swimming with her family when a rip current pulled her and other family members further into the water, according to police.

Lifeguards and citizens tried to rescue her but initially lost sight of her in the water, according to police.

Unesh’s body was recovered later Friday night.

A few months ago, a Maryland man drowned on the oceanfront after a rip current pulled him under.

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NORTH WILDWOOD – Police have identified the woman who drowned Tuesday evening in the Hereford Inlet as Jamilah Watkins, 27, of South Carolina. The second victim has only been identified as a 15-year-old female from Middletown, Conn.

The third person rescued from the water was treated at Cape Regional Medical Center.

Jamilah Watkins is the daughter of Jesse Watkins, a Middle Township man convicted of murdering his cousin, Craig White, in February.

Watkins and the child were pulled from the surf off the north end of the island Tuesday after apparently getting caught in a rip current.

The U.S. Coast Guard and North Wildwood police said the child and the woman died after being pulled unconscious and unresponsive from the water south of First Avenue, where they were swimming on an unguarded beach.

The drownings happened at about 6 p.m. south of the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse shortly after lifeguards left their stands for the day.

Rescue crews recovered the unresponsive body of a child from the water and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The child was taken to Cape Regional Medical Center in Middle Township.

About 90 minutes later, rescue crews found the body of the female swimmer in the water.

Helicopters made wide circles around the Second Avenue beaches in the Anglesea section of North Wildwood. On the water, members of the North Wildwood Beach Patrol searched the water in personal watercraft alongside boats operated by local fire companies, the State Marine Police and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Vacationers such as Nancy DeMara, of Hazleton, Pa., on Tuesday said the rip currents were strong on this section of beach just south of Hereford Inlet. DeMara, a former lifeguard, said the waves were big enough to lift her off her feet in waist-high water.

“You could feel the undertow pulling you. I’m a good swimmer, and I could only stay out there 20 minutes before I got tired,” DeMara said.

This section of beach in North Wildwood was the scene of the 2004 drowning of an Upper Darby, Pa., man who got caught in a rip current.

Rip currents are strong but invisible currents that can pull unwary swimmers into deep water. Even the best swimmers cannot fight a strong rip current. But swimmers can get out of a rip current by treading water until the current ebbs and then swimming parallel to the beach until they reach calmer water.

North Wildwood police, the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office and the Southern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office are investigating the accident.

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A mother and her five year old daughter drowned at Montara State Beach late this afternoon, reports KTVU. Emergency crews responded at 4:20pm.

A San Mateo County Fire spokesman said a five-year-old girl was swept a few hundred yards out in a rip current that runs along the south end of the beach.

The girl’s mother was also overcome by the heavy surf trying to save the child. …

“We had a total of seven victims on the shore,” said Ari Delay of the Half Moon Bay Fire Department. “Five of them were not transported. Two were taken by helicopter to Stanford Medical Center, both with CPR in progress in route to the hospital.” …

“The family at some point was swept out on the south end of Montara State Beach. There’s a rip [current] that goes along the south end,” explained Delay. “It’s unknown the exact circumstances. It’s a precarious surf out here. The surf line is very dangerous.”

The daughter was found after a 30 minute search by the Harbormaster’s boat.

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A 12-year-old Northern California girl has died after swimming in the ocean near Pismo Beach.

Megan McDonough was vacationing with her family on June 19 when she and two friends got caught in a rip current just south of city limits, confirmed Lieutenant Robert Tolin, who is a supervising ranger at Oceano State Park.

Lieutenant Tolin said lifeguards rescued McDonough’s two friends, but had not realized there was a third drowning victim in the water.

A surfer found McDonough’s lifeless body and began to pull her to shore. A lifeguard who assisted the surfer began giving McDonough mouth-to-mouth in the water.

Tolin said rescuers then administered CPR on shore where McDonough started breathing again. She was taken to a local hospital and then flown to an Oakland hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries three days later.

The seventh grader was from the Brentwood area.

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Looks like no fatalities. Congrats, Lifeguards.

Rip Current Danger Eases After 600 Rescued

Beach Patrol Urges Swimmers To Use Caution

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The danger from rip currents eased on Monday, after a weekend in which more than 600 people were rescued in Volusia County.
Lifeguards’ skills were put to the test all weekend as the beachgoers pack the shores.
A change in winds on Monday cut down the danger.
Rich Gardner of the Volusia County Beach Patrol said it’s an amazing number of rescues during the weekend.0

Lifeguards looked through binoculars, blew their whistles and waved their orange flags to get people back closer to the shore.
Some people were not happy with all the commotion.
“Might as well put up a brick wall. That way you won’t need lifeguards because no one can drown in ankle deep water,” a beachgoer said.
Gardner said rips don’t discriminate.
“Even some of the best swimmers can get caught in a rip current,” he said.

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Woman dies after being caught in Kure Beach rip current

KURE BEACH | An Ohio woman vacationing at Kure Beach died Monday after being pulled from a rip current on Saturday, officials said.

New Hanover County Medical Examiner Dr. Dennis Nicks said he learned of the death Monday. He did not have the woman’s name available when reached at his home Monday night.

Kure Beach police and ocean rescue have said the woman, her husband and a 16-year-old boy were pulled from a large rip current around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Once on shore, the boy was fine, but the couple was rushed to New Hanover Regional Medical Center. By Sunday, authorities said the man had been released from New Hanover but the woman remained in critical condition in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

The couple who are in their 40s, were vacationing from Ohio, officials have said.

On Monday, Kure Beach Fire Chief Harold Heglar said the drowning was the first on a guarded stretch of Kure Beach in probably 20 years.

“It was a huge rip current, as big as I’ve ever seen,” Heglar said.

It took five lifeguards to get the woman, her husband and the boy out of the water, Heglar said. Lifeguards worked together to pull the swimmers in, Kure Beach Ocean Rescue Director Tom Cannon has said.

After bringing the couple on shore, lifeguards began CPR, which was continued by EMS workers, Cannon said.

Lifeguards at Kure and Carolina beaches flew red flags to warn swimmers of dangerous surf conditions.

Cannon asked people with questions about swimming to check with lifeguards. If you are caught in a rip current, the key is not to panic, he said. Rather than fight against the current, swimmers should swim parallel to the shore. If a current carries someone far out, lifeguards will swim to them, Cannon said, so swimmers should save their energy and not fight the rip current.

Related Links:

• Drowning victim’s spouse praises Kure Beach staff
• Body of missing swimmer found Thursday morning in Carolina Beach
• Missing swimmer is presumed drowned at Carolina Beach
• Beach hazard – Lifeguards rescue dozens during weekend
• Missing man last seen in waters off Carolina Beach
• Follow these safety rules, tips for a fun summer in the sun
• Ocean Safety | Video
• Carolina Beach Rescue | Video
• Coast Guard improves boat location system
• Swimmer taken to hospital after rescue by lifeguards at Carolina Beach
• Beach life comes with rules, regulations

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Maryland man caught in rip current drowns at Oceanfront

By Patrick Wilson
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 24, 2009

VIRGINIA BEACH

A Maryland man drowned Saturday while body-boarding at the Oceanfront after a rip current pulled him offshore, police said.

The victim was Brodie Frederick III, 32, of Greenbelt, Md., said Officer Adam Bernstein of Virginia Beach police. Frederick and his family arrived Saturday morning and after checking into a hotel, went into the ocean near 10th Street with body boards, Bernstein said.

A rip current dragged several people farther into the water, including Frederick and his family. A police officer on boat patrol saw lifeguards rescuing people from the water and spotted Frederick about 100 yards offshore, Bernstein said.

The officer pulled him aboard the boat and performed CPR. Another officer performed CPR as Frederick was taken to a hospital, but he was pronounced dead about 1:30 p.m.

“This one seems to have been a very unexpected, swift-moving kind of a current and it caught people by surprise,” said Bruce Nedelka, the division chief for Virginia Beach Emergency Medical Services. “It’s really very tragic.”

Rip currents are narrow, fast-moving channels of water that flow from the surf to deeper water. Sandbars break down after several days of large waves. Water funnels through them, creating the powerful currents.

Nedelka emphasized the proper response for those who get caught in a rip current: Swim parallel to the shore until out of the current. People who fight the current by swimming toward the beach can overexert and panic.

There was one drowning last summer at the Oceanfront. Derrick Rand, 19, a student at Granby High School in Norfolk, died Aug. 24 while swimming and body boarding.

On average, two swimmers drown annually at the Oceanfront.

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Search suspended for missing 19-year-old from Fayetteville

The Coast Guard suspended the search for a missing Fayetteville man, who was last seen swimming off Carolina Beach on Saturday afternoon.

Angel Gonzalez, 19, was swimming with his brother when he was swept away by a riptide, said Lt. j.g. Scott Hembrook, a spokesman for the Coast Guard.

Lifeguards, police, fire departments and Coast Guard officials searched for the man day and night, Hembrook said.

Boats, helicopters and other aircraft were used in the search, Hembrook said.

The Coast Guard suspended its search Sunday at 3:48 p.m., but it could be resumed if more clues are found, Hembrook said.

Local officials will continue to look for the missing man, however.

Hembrook said some swimmers panic when caught in a riptide, which is a strong flow of water near the shore that pulls swimmers seaward.

Hembrook said it’s important to relax, because panicking can cause you to swallow water and drown.

“They should relax. It’s going to let you go,” he said. “Just let it take you until it spits you out.”

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A refresher course on sneaker waves and rip currents

Story Published: May 20, 2009 at 6:33 PM PDT

Story Updated: May 20, 2009 at 6:55 PM PDT

By Melica Johnson KATU News and KATU.com Staff

 Video

OREGON COAST – With the holiday weekend coming up and nice weather on tap, the coast will certainly be a busy destination.

If you plan on doing a little beach combing, here’s a reminder about the dangers you might face and what you need to know to stay safe.

Sneaker Waves

How easy is it to get caught off guard by a sneaker wave?  A lot easier than you might think.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be something that’s 10 feet and comes over the top of your head,” said Peter Robertson with North Lincoln Fire and Rescue.

Walking along the water’s edge is far enough to get you in trouble.  Remember, there is a reason they’re called ‘sneaker waves,’ because they do just that – they sneak up on you.

Aside from the danger of suddenly being swept away, sneaker waves can also carry an awful lot of sand, which can weigh you down and make it nearly impossible for you to swim.

Robertson’s advice is simple – never turn your back to the ocean.

Rip Currents

A rip current is created when a sand bar traps water from incoming waves, creating a pool.  When the sand bar breaks, the water in the pool is quickly sucked back out to sea.  And if you happen to be in that pool when it happens, you get sucked out right along with it.

If you get caught in a rip current, let the current carry you out.  Then swim parallel to the beach until you are out of the rip current and can swim back to shore.

“There are always currents moving in and out, so you can ultimately get into a current that’s going to push you into shore,” said Robertson.

Logs

It is important to stay away from logs, whether they are in the water or on wet sand.  It only takes four inches of water to move a 5-ton log, which can easily crush you.

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St. Amant man missing off Grand Isle

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) – The U.S. Coast guard says it has located a body near the spot where an Ascension Parish man disappeared early Tuesday morning.  

They are now working to identify the body and determine if it is that of the missing St. Amant man.

Robbie Savoy, Jr., 32, of St. Amant was among a group of seven men who were surf fishing along Caminada Pass, near Grand Isle, when they got caught in a rip current Tuesday morning, the Coast Guard reports.

Six of the men made it back to shore but Savoy has not been seen since, the Coast Guard reported.

Savoy is the operations manager at Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales.

The Coast Guard received a call for help at 6:52am and dispatched a 33-foot response boat and a helicopter to the scene.

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Great Lakes rip currents subject of Duluth conference

Rip currents are blamed for about 100 deaths each year in the U.S., more than tornadoes or lightning. Often associated with the ocean, rip currents can and do occur on the Great Lakes, especially along sand beaches.By: John Myers, Duluth News Tribune

When summer finally arrives and Lake Superior warms up enough to wade in, swimmers on Duluth’s Park Point beach should know about a danger lurking off shore.

Rip currents, the sometimes deadly pull of water away from beaches, will be the subject of a day-long conference in Duluth on June 4.

The event is set for the Lafayette Community Center on Park Point — just a few feet from the Lake Superior beach where rip currents can wreak havoc. It’s sponsored by Minnesota Sea Grant and the National Weather Service.

“It’s important for search-and-rescue people, some of whom have been stuck in these trying to rescue women, to know what’s out there and how to deal with it,” said Jesse Schomberg, extension educator for Minnesota Sea Grant. “But it’s also good if people who teach swimming lessons and those who spend a lot of time at the beach can come so they can pass this information on.”

Nationally, rip currents are blamed for about 100 deaths each year in the U.S., more than tornadoes or lightning. While they’re usually associated with the ocean, rip currents can and do occur on the Great Lakes, especially along sand beaches. Eighteen people died at Lake Michigan beaches in recent years from rip currents.

One man died and several people needed to be rescued from rip currents on Duluth’s Park Point beach on Aug. 13, 2003. Several reports of rescues occurred in July and August of 2004 on Park Point. The most recent publicized close calls occurred on Aug. 13, 2007. All were warm days with high off-lake winds and waves.

The conference keynote speaker is Guy Meadows, director of the University of Michigan Ocean Engineering Laboratory and a rip-current expert. Other regional experts will speak, and an expert on hypothermia from cold water is scheduled, as is a field trip to the beach.

Dean Packingham, National Weather Service meteorologist coordinating the conference, said Duluth police, fire, the Coast Guard and other groups are slated to attend to talk about coordinated efforts to react to rip currents before emergency calls are made for rescues.

Forecasting rips

The weather service uses a model to estimate when a rip current might occur. The Duluth office in August became the first on the Great Lakes to issue a daily “surf zone forecast” in the summer that includes risk factors for rip currents.

The highest-risk days are when easterly winds blow waves onto the sand on Park Point.

As water piles up on shore, it tries to find its way back into the lake through the path of least resistance. That movement can cause breaks in the sand and a strong off-shore pull of water through those narrow breaks like underwater rivers.

Swimmers and others caught in that pull can be overcome in their efforts to struggle free and swim or walk against the current. Experts warn against trying to fight the current and say to instead swim parallel with the shore until you get out of the narrow outward pull, then head back to shore.

The city erected large signs at popular beach entry points after the 2003 tragedy, but it’s believed many people simply don’t pay attention.

The weather service is trying to coordinate public information on rip currents and is hoping to coordinate a warning system to let the public know when they might occur.

“We’d like to be able to have some sort of interactive system to warn people of the danger and to have someone out there on the days when it might be an issue,” Packingham said. “A lot of people clearly aren’t aware of the danger that can be out there. We don’t want to scare people. But we want to make sure they get the information.”

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Rip currents return to South Florida beaches

Rip currents returned with a vengeance to South Florida beaches. At one beach, firefighters said they rescued five people in just 20 minutes.

BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ

DMOSKOVITZ@MIAMIHERALD.COM

South Florida’s fun-loving beaches took a treacherous turn on Sunday with the return of rip currents and rescues of swimmers caught in them.

And meteorologists predicted similar dangers for Monday and next weekend.

On Sunday, red flags fluttered beneath the sunny skies in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, a warning to visitors about the dangerous waters. At some beaches, purple flags also flew to warn about possible Man-of-Wars.

Lifeguards spent their afternoons preaching caution and, at times, pulling out swimmers trapped in currents. Reports of rescued swimmers Sunday stretched from Miami Beach to Fort Lauderdale and Deerfield Beach.

In Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, volunteer firefighters rescued five people in 20 minutes Sunday.

No deaths or serious injuries were reported.

But the danger will linger. The cause — strong winds from the east — is expected to stretch into Monday, then retreat before flaring up this coming weekend, said Evelyn Rivera, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Among the lucky were Tina Kristensen and Roger Spencer, whom rescuers identified as vacationers from Holland.

The pair spent Sunday afternoon in the surf off Lauderdale-by-the-Sea when, suddenly, they were caught in a rip current, said Deputy Chief Jim McIntee of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea’s volunteer fire department.

Firefighters already were in the area, in the 4300 block of Ocean Drive, because of a previous call for help shortly before 1 p.m.

As McIntee helped the first person to an ambulance, he turned to his right, saw the couple and then, ”the rip tide grabs both of them and away they go,” McIntee said.

Firefighters rushed back into the water. One grabbed Spencer and carried him to shore, McIntee said, where he was met by more firefighters. Meanwhile, another firefighter grabbed Kristensen, who also was carried back to land with the help of firefighters.

”It’s a blessing we were there,” McIntee said.

McIntee and other first responders said they hoped beachgoers would remember to stay cautious even as the sunshine and blue waters tempt them.

”If the wind keeps coming from the east,” the weather service’s Rivera said, “it will keep the risk of rips higher.”

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USF graduate is missing in Costa Rica

TAMPA – A recent University of South Florida graduate in Costa Rica for a school trip has been missing since Saturday after he was apparently caught in a riptide while swimming in the Pacific Ocean, university officials say.

The Costa Rican Coast Guard continued to search Sunday for Aly Zain Lakdawala, 21, USF spokesman Michael Hoad said.

Police, lifeguards and a Red Cross chapter are assisting in the search.

Three others who were swimming with Lakdawala Saturday afternoon managed to break free from the riptide and make it back to shore, Hoad said.

Lakdawala of Coral Springs and 13 other students have been participating in a two-week alternative summer break program in Costa Rica, Hoad said. Lakdawala has a dual major in international studies and philosophy.

A dean flew from Tampa to Costa Rica to join a USF Leadership and Civic Engagement director and the other students, Hoad said. The students have been in Costa Rica since May 8.

“The sad part is they were there to do good stuff, and it’s a real tragedy this happened,” Hoad said.

The students paid $1,200 for the trip and taught English in the village of Samara on the southwest coast. Students also worked on a sea turtle nesting project and volunteered at an orphanage in the capital, San Jose. The trip’s itinerary included visits to the active Arenal volcano and the rainforest, according to the university’s Web site.

Lakdawala had taken part in similar university-sponsored mission trips in the past, Hoad said.

“He was a very involved student.”

Lakdawala was a member of service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and played intramural volleyball and soccer. Friends flooded his Facebook wall with messages Sunday when they heard he had gone missing.

“We are all praying for his safe return,” friend Suyivan Villegas said in an e-mail to News Channel 8 and The Tampa Tribune.

He has participated in USF’s alternative spring break trips in the past and recently wrote a testimonial about his experiences on the university’s Web site.

“I was one of the nine students who made the School House Rocks ASB trip to South Carolina last spring break and spent a week with the boys of Tara Hall,” Lakdawala wrote.

The Tara Hall Home for Boys in Georgetown, S.C., helps abandoned and abused children.

“The trip was supposed to be based on Youth and Education but it was so much more,” Lakdawla wrote. “The trip was about friendship, love and being a role model. During that week, we engaged with the boys in every aspect of their life. We were with them everywhere from the classrooms to the playgrounds. The boys of Tara Hall and us the ‘College Kids’ as they like to call us developed a special bond that still lives through. Tara Hall was amazing and everyone who has been there will tell you the same. I highly recommend this trip It will change your life.”

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Hyde Park brothers swept out to sea at Costa Rica resort

1 drowned; other is still missing

By Maria SacchettiGlobe Staff / May 12, 2009

The two brothers had always been close. Darnell and Jermaine Zimmerman went to the same high school outside of Boston, loved the same sports teams, and were on the same flight Saturday for what was supposed to be a fun-filled trip to Costa Rica with their friends.

But on Sunday, both brothers were swept away by the powerful currents in front of their seaside resort on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, authorities said.

Darnell Zimmerman, 25, drowned and his brother Jermaine, 24, was still missing yesterday and presumed dead, said Rafael Angel Araya Cordero, regional director of the police in Guanacaste Province, in western Costa Rica.

Both lived in Hyde Park with their mother and were active members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation in Jamaica Plain.

Costa Rica’s picturesque beaches attract many tourists each year, but the swift and powerful rip tides and currents, combined with the scarcity of lifeguards and warning signs, make them dangerous for the unwary. The US State Department warns travelers to exercise extreme caution when visiting the country’s Pacific and Caribbean coasts.

Eight to 12 Americans drown there every year, according to the department’s online travel advisory.

Darnell Zimmerman was pulled from the ocean around 2:10 p.m. Sunday.

It was just a day after the group arrived at Playa Azul, a remote, picturesque beach known for cobalt seas near a turtle sanctuary.

Local police and the Red Cross are still searching for Jermaine Zimmerman on boat and beach patrols, said Araya Cordero. Recovering a drowning victim could take several days, he said.

“We do all we can to find someone,” Araya Cordero said in a phone interview from Liberia, a city to the north. “We’ll always keep looking.”

Yesterday, their group of friends waited and mourned in Costa Rica.

A friend who declined to be named said by phone that the group had been swimming together, a day after they had arrived.

“We were just all out there, and the current just pulled them in,” he said.

The brothers were raised by their mother, Taundalier, after their father died of an illness when they were children.

She enrolled them in the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, a voluntary school desegregation program that sends students from Boston to suburban school districts.

The brothers graduated from Scituate High School, Darnell in 2002 and Jermaine, who was named to the honor roll several times, in 2003, said their sister, Sarcha Auguste of Brockton.

Darnell attended Bay State College and worked in a physical-therapy clinic, and Jermaine was a customer-service technician for Toyota in Framingham, the friend and relatives said.

Franky Auguste, their brother-in-law, said the two brothers often watched Red Sox and Celtics games together.

“They were really good guys, and they were really, really close,” he said, adding that it would be unthinkable to “bury one without the other.”

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Hurray for these surfers!

Local boys rescue three men from water (with VIDEO)

Comments 17 | Recommend 4

May 11, 2009 – 9:39 PM

Robbyn Brooks

MIRAMAR BEACH – Two local boys saved three adult men from dangerous rip currents Saturday evening while their friends and a wedding party watched.

Cameron Chase, 12, and his brother Payton Chase, 13, were heading to a birthday party and decided to do some surfing near the Crab Trap before the party began.

Their decision to practice their hobby possibly saved three lives. From 20 yards away, Cameron noticed a swimmer in trouble. Payton was surfing in the break farther down and saw the struggling man as well.

“They got pulled out by rip current,” Payton said. “One guy’s friend got him to about where the break was and then he started to need help.”

To watch a video of the boys discussing their rescue effort, click here.

Payton was being hit with wave after wave and was forced to abandon his surfboard because it was dragging him down. Cameron arrived at the men first. He slipped off his surfboard and pulled the men to it, using the board as a floatation rescue device.

“We got to them and said, ‘We’re junior lifeguards and we’re here to help you,’ ” Payton recalled.

One man spoke in Japanese, the boys said. Both were scared.
“We had to encourage them a lot,” Cameron said.

A third man tried to swim out to help the boys but found himself in danger instead. Payton took the two men on the board, and Cameron left to aid the other.

“We were just concentrating, not really having emotional thoughts,” Payton said.

The brothers, both students at Ruckel Middle School in Niceville, had pulled the men about three-fourths of the way to shore when the South Walton Fire Department arrived to help.

“We just came in and sat on the sand by the man who needed help the most,” Cameron said.

Daralyn Chase, the boys’ mother, said she and her husband arrived on scene about the same time as rescue workers.

“When we got back, we just saw the fire trucks and the ambulance. We knew our boys were out there so at first we kind of panicked,” Daralyn said.

Then a wedding party from Kentucky approached them.
“They said, ‘Your boys are heroes. They were amazing,’ ” Daralyn said.

Cameron and Payton knew exactly what to do to help the men in distress because they’ve already served two summers in Destin Beach Safety’s junior lifeguard program. Daralyn explained she enrolled them so they would be comfortable in the water and know what to do to keep themselves safe, partially because she was rescued from the water as a child.

When she was 2, Daralyn fell into a pool in Atlanta, Ga. Her nanny drowned trying to save her, but three 16-year-old boys were able to pull her to safety and resuscitate her.

“I wanted to have that confidence they would know what to do if they got in trouble,” Daralyn said. “Not really thinking they would save anybody or do anything heroic at their age.”

The rescue was much harder than the practice rescues the boys were familiar with, they admitted.

“They were a lot heavier and freaking out,” Payton said.
“And the current was strong,” Cameron added.

Destin Beach Safety Patrol’s Joe D’Agostino said the brothers are among the best athletes in the junior lifeguard program. He said they pay attention and work hard.

Both boys have been surfing about two years, as well, and plan to compete in a national lifeguarding competition in August.

“We really don’t encourage anybody to do those types of things if they haven’t gone through lifeguard training class,” D’Agostino said. “They did react and they did do a heroic thing.”

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Fort Morgan drowning victim identified

Posted by Craig Myers, Staff Reporter May 09, 2009 2:05 PM

Categories: Breaking News

Baldwin County’s coroner has identified the woman who drowned Friday night on Fort Morgan after apparently getting caught in strong currents. 

Coroner Jim Small said today Margaret Goff, 75, was wading or swimming in the Gulf of Mexico near her home about 7 p.m. Friday when she got caught in an undertow or riptide. 

Some bystanders attempted to help her, Small said. Her body was recovered about 8 p.m. on the beach near the 8-mile marker point on the peninsula, authorities said. 

Red flags are flying today at the Gulf Shores Public Beach area due to rough surf and strong currents.

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SOUTH PADRE ISLAND – A 17-year-old San Benito boy is dead, after drowning on South Padre Island.

Police say Matthew Cantu was swimming with a friend, when the two got caught in a rip current.

The other teen made it to shore, but Cantu vanished.

The U.S. Coast Guard searched for two hours after he was reported missing. His body was found two miles north of where he was last seen.

“It’s devastating.  That’s something we learn to deal with. We come across this a lot during Spring Break and the summer months. It’s very unfortunate that it happens, but it does happen,” says Captain Gary Wilburn of the South Padre Island Fire Department.

Officials tell NEWSCHANNEL 5 Cantu had been missing for 30 minutes before they recieved the emergency call. They say the best advice is to call immediately when someone goes missing in the water, because it only takes a few minutes to drown.

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Deadly rip currents can confound even experienced swimmers

By MARGIE KACOHA, Daily News Staff Writer 

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Lee Hershfield (enlarge photo) Lifeguards oversee the public beach during designated hours.   Related story: Lifeguard eyes, ears of Midtown Beach safetyRelated story: Rip current safety tips from NOAA  Watch this video

While hurricanes are a bold display of sheer force and power, and lightning rips though the sky with impressive but frightening precision, rip currents are the silent but deadly danger that lurks just beneath the ocean’s surface.

They create an invisible channel of water that will stymie the strongest, most experienced swimmer with an impenetrable wall of water.

Adding to the deception of the deadly flow is its formation when the seas look their calmest with winds wafting in across the ocean.

“With strong, easterly winds you’re going to have strong rip currents,” said Weather Service Specialist Rob Ebaugh of the National Weather Service in Miami. “With a strong risk of rip currents, swimming is not advised.”

Swimmers get caught, with potentially fatal consequences, in a channel of water that is flowing away from the shore. These rip currents form when waves pile up water near the beach. When that water recedes back into the open ocean, it can form a swiftly moving narrow jet that runs perpendicular to the shoreline.

Logically and intuitively, swimmers try to swim directly back to the safety of the sandy shoreline.

But that won’t work, leaving struggling swimmers stymied in the surf.

The best way to fight a rip current is not to fight it at all in what would probably be a losing battle.

“First of all, don’t panic,” advised Palm Beach Lifeguard Supervisor Mark Hassell.

He said swimmers having problems should signal for help by waving their arms, if possible, to attract attention.

According to Hassell, the best route out of a rip current is to redirect course, swimming parallel to the shore.

That approach will lead a swimmer out of the rip current and he will then be able to swim back to the beach.

An alternative for weak or tired swimmers is to simply flip onto their backs and float until they are free of the current or until someone can reach and rescue them.

Hassell advised swimmers to swim in guarded areas. He also said swimmers should take note of warning flags and check conditions posted at the entry points to the guarded beach areas near lifeguard stands.

Drownings in Palm Beach County

* 2009 … 3

* 2007 … 4

* 2004 … 3

* 2003 … 2

* 2001 … 2

* 1998 … 1

* 1997… 2

* 1996 … 1

* 1995 … 3

* 1994 … 2

* 1993 … 2

* 1992 … 1

* 1991 … 1

* 1989 … 1

* 1988 … 4

* 1986 … 3

* 1985 … 2

* 1984 … 2

* 1983 … 2

* 1982 … 1

* 1981 … 2

* 1979 … 1

Source: Rob Ebaugh, weather service specialist, National Weather Service, Miami

 

OCEAN RESCUES

For the first quarter of 2009 (January to March), Palm Beach lifeguards performed two ocean rescues, both outside the guarded beach area.

According to statistics for April 2009, town lifeguards conducted six rescues. Four were in unguarded areas; two were within the guarded area.

Source: Town of Palm Beach Lifeguard Supervisor Mark Hassell

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Father of rip current victim Dishman recalls son’s swimming experience

By MARGIE KACOHA, Daily News Staff Writer 

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Illustration Courtesy of NOAA (enlarge photo) ‘Rip currents are powerful currents of water moving away from shore. They can sweep even the strongest swimmer out to sea,’ says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Visit www.ripcurrents.noaa.gov.    Watch this video

Kyle Dishman, a 24-year-old lawn care specialist, drowned in rough surf one week ago while swimming with two friends.

“I think he was a pretty good kid myself,” said Ronald Dishman, Kyle’s father. “He liked swimming, being out there on the beach.”

The trio, all from Cape Coral, arrived at Midtown Beach and went into the water about 4:30 p.m. near Peruvian Avenue, south of the guarded section of Midtown Beach.

At 5:08 p.m., a call went out to police and fire-rescue that a swimmer was in distress.

Despite efforts by the town’s rescuers, Dishman’s friends and bystanders — including a surfer from West Palm Beach — Dishman could not be saved. He was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Medical Center.

According to rescuers, waves were 4 to 5 feet high, and witnesses told police there was a rip current in the area.

Palm Beach Lifeguard Supervisor Mark Hassell said none on his team recall seeing, or having any contact with, Dishman and his friends before they went off duty at 5 p.m.

“He was a lifeguard for two years,” Ronald Dishman said. “I think something went wrong out there. It sounds like the tides were bad. It was just a bad deal, no matter how you look at it.”

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Rip current safety tips from NOAA

Saturday, May 02, 2009

When at the beach:

* Whenever possible, swim at a lifeguard-protected beach.

* Never swim alone.

* Learn how to swim in the surf. It’s not the same as swimming in a pool or lake.

* Be cautious at all times, especially when swimming at unguarded beaches. If in doubt, don’t go out.

* Obey all instructions and orders from lifeguards. Lifeguards are trained to identify hazards. Ask a lifeguard about the conditions before entering the water. This is part of their job.

* Stay at least 100 feet away from piers and jetties. Permanent rip currents often exist alongside these structures.

* Consider using polarized sunglasses when at the beach. They will help you spot signatures of rip currents by cutting glare and sunlight reflected from the ocean’s surface.

* Pay especially close attention to children and elderly when at the beach. Even in shallow water, wave action can cause loss of footing.

 

If caught in a rip current:

* Remain calm to conserve energy and think clearly.

* Never fight against the current.

* Think of a rip current like a treadmill that cannot be turned off; you need to step off to the side.

* Swim out of the current in a direction parallel to the shoreline. When out of the current, swim at an angle — away from the current — toward shore.

* If you are unable to swim out of the rip current, float or calmly tread water. When out of the current, swim toward shore.

* If you are still unable to reach shore, draw attention to yourself by waving your arm and yelling for help.

 

If you see someone in trouble, don’t become a victim too:

* Get help from a lifeguard.

* If a lifeguard is not available, have someone call 911.

* Throw the rip current victim something that floats — a life jacket, a cooler, an inflatable ball.

* Yell instructions on how to escape.

* Remember, many people drown while trying to save someone else from a rip current.

 

Why rip currents form:

As waves travel from deep to shallow water, they will break near the shoreline. When waves break strongly in some locations and weakly in others, this can cause circulation cells which are seen as rip currents: narrow, fast-moving belts of water traveling offshore.

Rip currents are the leading surf hazard for all beachgoers. They are particularly dangerous for weak or non-swimmers. Rip current speeds are typically 1-2 feet per second. However, speeds as high as 8 feet per second have been measured; this is faster than an Olympic swimmer can sprint. Thus, rip currents can sweep even the strongest swimmer out to sea.

More than 100 drownings due to rip currents occur every year in the United States. More than 80 percent of water rescues on surf beaches are due to rip currents.

Rip currents can occur at any beach with breaking waves, including the Great Lakes.

The strength and speed of a rip current will likely increase as wave height and wave period increase.

 

Where rip currents form

Rip currents most typically form at low spots or breaks in sandbars and near structures such as groins, jetties and piers. The seaward pull of rip currents varies: Sometimes the rip current ends just beyond the line of breaking waves, but sometimes rip currents continue to push hundreds of yards offshore.

 

How to identify rip currents

Look for any of these clues:

* A channel of churning, choppy water.

* An area having a notable difference in water color.

* A line of foam, seaweed or debris moving steadily seaward.

* A break in the incoming wave pattern.

 

* Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

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Recent rip current deaths another sad reminder of ocean dangers

ISSUE: Rip tides claim two more.

Sun Sentinel Editorial Board

May 2, 2009

Charles Schultze died a hero. 

While that simple statement speaks volumes about the kind of man the Washington, D.C., lawyer was, his death carries a deafening message on both the perils of South Florida’s frequent rip currents, and the risks some take in trying to save others from dangerous surf.

It is a lesson every beachgoer must pause to absorb before choosing to step away from the safety of the sand and hitting the waves once again this weekend.

Schultze, 73, was enjoying a brief respite with his wife at their vacation condo in Pompano Beach last weekend when a walk on the sand quickly turned tragic. Spotting two brothers, 9 and 12, struggling in the powerful currents just offshore, Schultz tossed his hat to his wife and dove in to save the boys. He returned both safely to shore. But moments later, Schultz collapsed on the sand and died from a heart attack.

He wasn’t the weekend’s only victim. The following day, in Palm Beach, officers discovered the body of 24-year-old Kyle Dishman, of Cape Coral, who drowned in the rough water. Officials say more than a dozen other swimmers were rescued from rip currents in the waters off Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Like unsupervised pools and canals across South Florida, ocean rip currents claim all too many drowning victims every year, despite frequent warnings and beachfront signs alerting beachgoers to the dangers.

So, as South Florida wakes up to what is expected to be another spectacular weekend for sun and surf, the caution flags are worth waving once again.

Be careful when swimming in the ocean: Rip tides can catch you off-guard. Don’t swim alone. If caught in a rip current, swim parallel to shore, then float or tread water until help arrives. And if you see someone struggling in the water, lifeguards recommend calling 911 instead of attempting a rescue yourself.

It may be hard to sit back while someone else is in danger, but chances are, your heroic impulse may only add to the victim count. 

BOTTOM LINE: Surf’s up, watch those waves.

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