CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. -- Sunday afternoon’s drowning victim at Memorial Park Public Beach Access at Pine Knoll Shores is identified as 38-year-old Ernest Earl Foster, Jr. of Guilford County.
- Officials from Atlantic Beach Fire Department, less than 10 minutes from the scene of Sunday’s rescue, offer insight into better understanding rip currents.
- Lifeguards can usually see rip currents from the shore and advise people to swim farther away from them.
- Something as common as a boogie board could be the difference between life or death.
Foster is the fifth person to die due to rip currents on the Crystal Coast this year.
Officials from Atlantic Beach Fire Department, less than 10 minutes from the scene of Sunday’s rescue, offer insight into better understanding rip currents.
“The best way to find a rip is by looking at the wave action and kind of seeing where the waves are really the least,” said Deputy Fire Chief Casey Arthur. He added the calmest looking areas are not always the safest.
“There should be a space to the left and the right where waves sort of are breaking. And in the middle of that there won’t be as much wave action because what happens is there is water moving out.”
Lifeguards can usually see rip currents from the shore and advise people to swim farther away from them.
The beach Foster was swimming at Sunday is unguarded year round. Lifeguards typically patrol that section of the beach periodically on all-terrain vehicles.
Rescuers recommend remaining calm if your feet are swept out from underneath you.
“It is definitely an intense moment,” said Kyle Campbell, a lifeguard at Atlantic Beach. “But if you can stay calm and relax then you can swim sideways or at a diagonal angle towards the beach.”
Because it can be difficult to maintain your sense of direction in such a stressful situation, Deputy Chief Arthur says swimmers should never enter the water empty-handed--whether just for fun or to save someone in distress.
Something as common as a boogie board could be the difference between life or death.