A U.S. Marine veteran saved a man’s life on Long Beach Island over the weekend as dangerous rip currents killed at least three swimmers at the Jersey Shore.
The hero, Stephen Houser, was filming a YouTube video with his family at the beach when he saw swimmer Gabe McCabe fighting a riptide. Houser alerted lifeguards that swimmers were in distress and then leaped into the Atlantic Ocean with his bodyboard, heading straight for McCabe.
The courageous rescue was caught on camera and posted to Houser’s YouTube channel.
“I was Surfing with my daughter on my TANDM SURF AIR BODYBOARD when I noticed some swimmers in destress [sic]. I waved for the lifeguards to help and jumped into action,” Houser wrote in the video caption. “The TANDM BODYBOARD is not designed to be a life saving device… but it sure worked today.
U.S. Marine veteran Stephen Houser used a bodyboard to save a swimmer from drowning in a dangerous rip current at Long Beach Island, New Jersey. (Steve Houser/LOCAL NEWS X /TMX )
“Happy to be in the right place at the right time! I went to LBI today to film a video for Tandm Surf. Ended up helping someone instead,” Houser added.
“This past weekend our community lost two people to drowning in the Atlantic Ocean,” the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday. “We continue to remind the public to not swim in areas where there are no lifeguards on duty. The Ocean is not a swimming pool and can cause harm to many, including first responders!”
At least seven deaths were reported along the mid-Atlantic coast over Labor Day weekend as strong rip currents created dangerous conditions for swimmers.
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Houser was filming a YouTube video with his family at the beach when he noticed several swimmers in distress. He alerted lifeguards and ran into the ocean, rescuing one man who was caught in a rip current. (Steve Houser/LOCAL NEWS X /TMX )
The National Weather Service issued rip current warnings that remained in effect Tuesday from New York to North Carolina, urging swimmers to use extra caution and only swim in areas where lifeguards were present. In some places, officials closed beaches where conditions were too dangerous to swim.
The dangerous currents were spawned by the remnants of hurricanes Franklin and Idalia, officials said. They warned that people caught in a rip current can be swept away from shore very quickly and note the best way to escape is by swimming parallel to the shore instead of towards it.
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This graphic from the National Weather Service shows what to do if you are caught in a rip current. The best way to escape is to swim parallel to the shore out of the current’s flow. If possible, always swim near a lifeguard. (U.S. National Weather Service)
At least three deaths were reported in New Jersey, including a 22-year-old man from the Dominican Republic who began struggling in the water off Beach Haven on Sunday while swimming with two other people, according to the Asbury Park Press. More than a dozen lifeguards formed a human chain as part of an effort to rescue the swimmers. Two of them were safely brought to land, but the third disappeared under the water and his body was found a few hours later.
Two other swimmers who went missing in New Jersey over the weekend have been presumed dead.
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Meanwhile, the body of a 31-year-old Maryland man who went missing while swimming off Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on Sunday was recovered after a massive search effort.
In North Carolina, a 28-year-old woman drowned after becoming caught in strong waves along the Outer Banks. Efforts to rescue the woman were unsuccessful, WVEC-TV reported.
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
