JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – News4JAX was speaking with Ocean Rescue Lifeguards about the dangers of rip currents and witnessed a rescue happen on Monday.
RELATED: Body found on St. Johns County beach is 15-year-old swimmer missing since Saturday, deputies say
Lt. Maxwell Ervanian talked about what’s important when they get called for a rescue.
“Any time we have a distressed swimmer incident, anytime we have a missing swimmer incident, the most important thing for us is to rescue that distressed swimmer,” Ervanian said.
Elisa Moehl and her boyfriend were visiting from Germany. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
“I’ve seen this on TV a couple of times,” Moehl said.
News4JAX cameras were rolling from a distance as lifeguards helped someone in the water.
“You’re going to be feeling the water pushing you away from shore,” Ervanian said.
Ervanian hammered home some important things to remember if you get caught in a rip current.
“You want to swim diagonally back into shore. If you let the rip current take you out of the rip current, all you’re going to do is just have a longer swim back into shore. But can’t stress enough, don’t swim directly back into shore, because you’ll swim directly back into the rip current. You’re going to have to swim parallel to the shoreline and then swim back into shore,” Maxwell said.
Thankfully the lifeguards made it to this person and got them to shore in time.
Sadly, over the weekend a 15-year-old drowned while swimming not far from where News4JAX was doing the interview.
His body was recovered in Ponte Vedra miles down shore.
As rescuers were finishing up, Ervanian talked about the things to watch for in the water.
They told us with the naked eye you can watch for no waves breaking, water discoloration, and X-shaped waves.
Here are some other tips Ocean Rescue Lifeguards have listed on their website.
- Check the flags: Jacksonville Beach uses a flag system to indicate the current ocean conditions. Flags are located at various boardwalk crossovers.
- Green flag: Calm ocean conditions
- Yellow flag: Moderate Ocean conditions, such as waves, long-shore currents, and rip currents
- Red flag: Dangerous ocean conditions, such as large waves, strong long-shore currents, and strong rip currents
- Double red flag: No water activity allowed
- Purple flag: Dangerous marine life present
Lifeguards expect that, with the disturbance brewing in the Gulf, rip current risks could be elevated if the system comes close or makes landfall.