Three minutes was all it took to save three teenagers from drowning after they were rescued from a rip current at Strand Beach on Friday.
The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said they were alerted to a 14-year-old boy who was caught in difficulty in a rip current which was detected with a beach safety camera after 1pm.
NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said the boy was rescued with two of his friends who tried to help him when he was swept away with the rip current.
“A group of six youngsters were wading in the surf zone outside the flags area when one was caught in a rip current and pulled away from the beach. Two of his friends then went to try and help him. NSRI Beach Safety Camera operator Lezhae Snyders, monitoring the camera from the NSRI’s Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at the time, spotted the youth in difficulty at 1:01pm and immediately alerted the (City) Strand lifeguards,” said Lambinon.
Two City lifeguards, Caydon Neuman and Jubilee van Jaarsveld, responded with Torpedo Buoys and another City lifeguard Sthembela Khawula assisted with a rescue board.
“(Neuman and Van Jaarsveld) reached the casualties at 1:04pm, three minutes after they had got into difficulty, floated them, and with the assistance of Khawula. Together the three lifeguards helped the children return to the beach, preventing what could have been three fatal drownings,” said Lambinon.
Meanwhile in a separate incident in Jeffreys Bay, a teenager drowned while another is recovering in hospital after an incident at the Kabeljous River Mouth on December 26.
Jeffreys Bay station commander, Kristo Kritzinger, said the 13-year-old boy had been rescued by a fisherman who was angling from the shoreline.
The fisherman had cast his fishing line in the direction of the teenager who was able to wrap the fishing line around his wrist before being reeled to shore. The second teenager, a 19-year-old, was reported missing in the surf.
The teenager was recovered but was unresponsive when the duty crew found him. He was taken to shore where he was declared deceased, Kritzinger said.
An inquest docket was opened for investigation.
Later that same day in Mossel Bay, a six-year-old boy was saved by a Good Samaritan after his uncle, with whom he had been sitting on a sandbank in shallow water, had been caught in a rip current.
Mossel Bay NSRI station commander, JC Roos, said the man reportedly stepped off the sandbank and he was caught in a rip current and swept out to sea.
Despite efforts to retrieve the man from the water and after CPR was administered, he was declared dead.
Meanwhile, in Cape Town, the City’s Identikidz programme saw 25 770 children tagged over Christmas and Boxing Day, with 169 lost children reunited with their loved ones.
The busiest beaches over the two days were Strandfontein, Strand, and Monwabisi.
Mayco member for Community Services and Health, Patricia van der Ross, said the amount of children who were tagged was an indication of how packed the beaches were.
“It is easy for young children to lose sight of where their family is located and get lost in the crowds.
A number of the lost children in the past two days were not tagged. Parents and caregivers can rest assured that their information is confidential and is only used when their child is lost.
With more holidays and good weather coming up, I want to encourage parents and caregivers who visit the beach with small children to find the Identikidz registration desks and get their little ones tagged,” said Van der Ross.
Cape Times