Rip currents have been especially strong this week in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Photo: Unsplash
New Smyrna Beach, Florida is world-renowned for its reputation as a place that often puts swimmers in peril. Normally, that’s due to the ridiculous amount of shark attacks in the area. However, that doesn’t rule out the peril of your garden-variety threats as well. Thanks to a local surfer, though, two swimmers managed to make it out of Volusia’s troubled waters alive.
On Tuesday, as WESH reports, a 72-year-old surfer, David “Bean” Coffee, heard cries of distress in the water. “I just heard somebody yelling, ‘Help! Help!’” Coffee told the news outlet. “I looked out in the water and saw somebody floating backwards, and I saw somebody else further in.”
The swimmers were a father and son, who had found themselves stuck in a rip current. Though the son had a surfboard, the leash had snapped and it had floated away.
“He was underwater,” added Coffee. “I had to pull him up out of the water and put him on my board.”
After a tough paddle in, Coffee and the swimmers arrived on shore, just as first responders arrived.
“If I wasn’t there, they would’ve been in the Bahamas or underwater,” he told WESH. “I just happened to be there and I’m glad I was.”
