2 males swept out to sea during a baptism

Safety Alert: NSRI, lifeguards, Police and the emergency services are appealing to group visitors to beaches (schools, churches, sports teams, corporate functions), and bathers, to know tide times, attend at beaches protected by lifeguards, and do not venture too deep into the water. Know the emergency numbers: NSRI: 112 or 0870949774. Rip currents form constantly at different places along the shoreline throughout the day and night and bathers should always be alert to rip currents while in the surf zone. If you are caught in a rip current:

• Don't panic.

• Stay afloat by treading water - moving your arms and legs in circular movements - and using the air in your lungs for added buoyancy.

• As difficult as it sounds - go with the current and stay afloat - do not try to swim against the current, it will only tire you out.

• Shout for help (bystanders on the beach should call NSRI and continue to monitor where the casualties are in the water).

• At your first opportunity swim across the beach front until you are free of the rip current.

• Then use the incoming waves to get back to shore.

• Where NSRI pink buoys are stationed along the beach - bystanders should throw a pink buoy towards the casualty/s in the water.

Parents must ensure that their children have responsible adult supervision in and around water.

Mossel Bay:
 

On Sunday morning, 3 November, 2 NSRI off-duty crew, while attending at a local endurance event, at around 08h45, noticed 2 males being swept out to sea in rip currents, between De Bakke Santos and Dias Beach, on the Mossel Bay shoreline.

Mossel Bay Municipal (MBM) lifeguards were, at the time, booking on duty in that vicinity, and they also immediately reacted, together with the 2 NSRI crewmen, when 2 local males, age 63 and 19, during a baptism that it appears that they may have been attending, during an outgoing Spring tide, were caught in rip currents and were being swept out to sea through the surf zone.

The 2 NSRI rescue swimmers and 2 MBM lifeguards reached the casualties about 50 meters off-shore in the surf zone.

Lifeguards free dived under water to recover the 19-year-old male who had disappeared under water.

Together, the MBM lifeguards and the NSRI rescue swimmers brought both casualties out of the water, safely to the shoreline, where, once on the beach, medical treatment commenced for non-fatal drowning symptoms.

NSRI Mossel Bay duty crew had been placed on alert, while By Grace ambulance services and WC Government Health EMS responded.

The 63-year-old man was released, requiring no further medical care, after being assessed by paramedics.

The 19-year-old male was transported to hospital by By Grace ambulance in a stable condition for observation for non-fatal drowning symptoms.

NSRI commend the swift response to this emergency, by MBM lifeguards and by the NSRI rescue swimmers, for saving the 2 casualties lives.