April 20--ATLANTIS -- As soon as Sandy Barch heard her son, Collin, and his friend, TJ Preble, were caught in currents at the Boynton Inlet, it took her back to when her daughter was caught in its infamous tow years ago.
"I was terrified," she said. "It brought back such horrible memories."
This time, though, her son and his friend were the ones saving others.
On Friday afternoon, Park Vista High seniors Preble and Collin Barch, both 18, jumped into the Boynton Inlet to save two boys who had been swept away. Because of their quick reaction, the two boys were saved.
Preble, who struggled to stay above the water with the young boy pushing him under, was taken to JFK Medical Center and remained there under observation Saturday because of a fever. His mother, Zizah, said doctors worried he might get pneumonia, but said he should be released by Monday.
"The most important thing is he's going to get out," she said.
She knows not all those who find themselves captured in the inlet are that lucky.
In February one man drowned while swimming early in the morning. In January, a teenage boy went under near the jetty on the inlet's north side and never came up. His body was found two days later. When the Palm Beach Post surveyed all incidents in the last two decades near the inlet, almost all happened on the north side of the jetty.
Barch said he, TJ and a couple other friends had spent the day at Delray Beach and headed up to Boynton Beach to meet a few other friends. Just as they were about to put their stuff on the sand, a woman came running at them screaming for help.
Barch said she told them that her son and his friend were caught in a rip current and couldn't swim out. He and Preble took off down to the inlet and jumped in.
He said at first both boys were on his back, but he couldn't move. Once Preble was close enough, one boy got onto his back. He said both boys had difficulty holding on to them, and the one on Preble's back kept pushing him under.
Barch said he and the boy on his back were able to get out, but Preble continued to struggle. He said the waters eventually separated the two, and the boy was picked up by a nearby boat. Preble was able to grab a rope from some people who threw a line out at the end of the pier, said TJ's father, Tim Preble.
He said when he first heard his son was on his way to a hospital because he nearly drowned at the inlet, he was upset.
"My first reaction was: Why are you swimming in the inlet?"
He, like many others, knew the dangers of the strong currents.
He said when he heard his son helped save two boys from drowning, he understood why his son jumped into the dangerous waters.
"We're very proud," he said.
Barch said without their other two friends, Chris Rondina and Stephen Fenner, who ran to the lifeguard to get help, they may have not made it out alive. On the north end of the inlet there is no lifeguard nearby. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue responded quickly to the scene.
The seniors have known each other "forever," said Barch, playing football together since middle school and then again at Park Vista.
Once the two seniors graduate this spring, Preble is headed to Florida State University and Barch is to the University of West Florida.
Copyright 2014 - The Palm Beach Post, Fla.
