Kayaker rescues 4 swimmers from Rip Tide – Robert Martin
| River: | Other |
| Skill: | All |
| Trip Date: | 07/19/2004 |
Atlantic Beach, NC. Monday afternoon July 19 2004.
The short of it: I was able to give four swimmers a kayak ride after they got caught in a very large and powerful Rip Tide. I made several mistakes during the rescue but got away with it. I was lucky.
The long of it:
The afternoon surf was churning up into some fantastic kayak surfing. If you could fight your way passed the shore break, there was an outer break about 80 yards off shore. Between these two break was a wide trough of "funny" water. (I can't describe it any better, it just looked odd).
I was paddling back out to the far break after a particularly long ride when I heard a woman's voice call for help. I looked down the beach and saw a woman just beyond the shore break and she yelled for help again. I paddled up to her and asked if she needed any help (she looked Ok to me). She pointed and said, "My son can't get in!". I looked and saw two swimmers approaching the far break and said, " Oh, they must have got caught on a little rip current. I'll paddle out and help 'em in."
I paddled out and found a 10 year old boy on a boogie board and a man in his 30's swimming. At first I just extolled them to swim harder and told them that I would stay with them, but they looked so tired I invited them to hold on to my boat and rest. Of course, as soon as they grabbed my boat I was a rescuer. The kid grabbed my front loop and the man grabbed my stern loop. I began talking to the kid doing my best Andy Griffith imitation. "Now you gonna be all right. Just keep a holt of my boat and we'll get ya in." I asked him his name and he said "Gurgle Gurgle". That's not a good sign. The second time I asked him he said, "Preston Gurgle". I continued to talk to Preston the entire time. I started cranking towards shore as hard as I could but was making little headway. "This rip current is stronger than I thought."
The waves were starting to fold over as they passed us and I was beginning to worry that I would flip and not be able to roll. I was scared. I had taken out my stern floatation bags because I was afraid the shell fragments would puncture them. I also worried that I might crush Preston against the bottom when we got to the Shore Break.
I couldn't believe that all those people standing on shore could stand there watching me struggling with two swimmers and not offer to help me. I had blown my whistle at the life guard at the Atlantis Lodge but (I found out later) he was only a Beach Monitor and not trained in surf rescue. I noticed this barrel-chested man, who looked like he was chomping at the bit to help me. I knew he was tough because he had one of those turned down mustaches. I pointed to him and waved him out. He immediately sprang into action and jumped in along with another man with a boogie board.
I was getting in close to the shore break now and I really had to concentrate on not capsizing and using the waves to get closer to shore. I didn't notice that Barrel Chest and Boogie Board Man were immediately caught in the Rip Tide. I told the kid and the man to start riding each wave as it hits us and slowly we began to make progress towards shore. There was a crowd of about 30 people standing at the shore when we finally broke out of the Rip and made it to shore.
There was a man standing ankle deep in the water with a ten foot aluminum pole with a hook on the end. He must have gotten it from the swimming pool. "Great. We'll make it all the way to shore and get impaled." But he was trying to help. Everyone was grateful that I was able to get the Preston and his dad. Preston's mom swept him up and took him back to their room. I was just glad it was over, until someone pointed out, "There are two more out there!"
Sure enough I looked back to see Barrel Chest (Tom) and Boogie Board Man (Dan from Ohio) almost at the far break 80 yards out. "Crap!" I paddled back out to Tom who had found a sand bar to stand on but it was chest deep and he was fighting to stay on it. Dan was floating out through the far break into open sea, so I ignored Tom and went straight for Dan. It took another monumental effort to get Dan in but he was helping me along and we were able to surf our way in towards shore. We were about 30 yards from shore when the Carteret County Rescue Squad and two Beach Patrol vehicles drove up. I was glad to see those guys; my arms were burning. As soon as I hit shore they took Dan, shoved an oxygen mask in his face and started taking his vital signs.
I jumped out of my boat and went over and asked "Who's the IC?" I didn't have to ask. The man in charge was the one yelling at everyone to get out of the water. He was looking out to sea. "Oh yeah! Barrel Chest is still out there!" Since the rescue squad had no boat or swimming gear, I offered to go out and get him. The IC (Incident commander) told me to go. So I went out and got Tom and paddled him back to shore. After everyone was out of the water the Beach Patrol closed the beach for swimming. Tom, Dan, Preston and his father all told me that they would have surely drown if I had not gotten to them when I did.
This stretch of beach has changed since they replenished the beach last year. Instead of having two or three sandbars before the outer break, with shallow troughs between each, we now have one big trough that gets over your head and only one sand bar at the outer break that is 5 feet deep at low tide. This may be why the Rip Tide was such a monster.