GA Crew Responded Quickly to Rescue People From Rough Surf

Aug. 10—An experienced surfer at Gould's Inlet managed to reach a young woman in distress before she was swept farther out to sea on Monday evening's swift outgoing tides.

But her two friends had been pulled so far out that a Glynn County Fire-Rescue crew could not even spot the pair on the Atlantic Ocean's eastern horizon.

The surfer and the woman were held afloat 3/4 mile out on a surfboard and a boogie board. The two members of the water rescue team focused their attentions and rescue boat on finding the other two.

The missing man and the missing woman would have been treading the choppy waters without any assistance, if they were still above water, fire-rescue Lt. Kyle Brown knew.

"Time's really not on our side at this point, especially with them not having floatation devices," he said. "The urgency kicks in. If we don't get to them within the first 10 minutes, it's usually not good news."

It wasn't long after those comments that firefighter Todd Thompson and firefighter/paramedic Kirk Kempe spotted a pair of heads bobbing on the distant ocean swells. They steered the boat another 1/4 mile out to reach them.

"My guys were able to find them over some wave caps," said Brown, the rescue operation's onshore incident commander. "It took a few minutes, but they found them about a mile offshore. We were just getting ready to notify the Coast Guard, and then they radioed me that they had eyes on them."

Thompson and Kempe quickly reached the two and pulled them into the boat. By then, the surfer and the woman were too far offshore to make it to dry sand alone.

Brown kept a close eye on the two floating figures while the rescue boat headed ashore with the other pair. Thompson and Kempe then headed back out to retrieve the surfer and the woman.

"My guys said, 'Hang tight. We'll bring them in and come back for you,'" Brown said. "The surfer helped a lot. He knew the waters. He kept her as calm as he could. Then our guys went back out and brought them in."

All four were checked out by a county fire-rescue ambulance crew and released on the scene.

The quick actions of well-trained fire-rescue personnel helped avert what might have been a tragic ending to a day at the beach.

"It kind of solidifies the reason we have this Water Resue Team," Brown said. "We know it makes a difference. It helped save three guys who might not have made it if not for our guys."

The three beachgoers found themselves caught up in the swift outgoing tides at Gould's Inlet, where water movements at the mouth of the Back River further intensify some of the strongest tidal currents on the East Coast. The shores of the Golden Isles pack an average 8-foot differential between high and low tides, second only to a section of coastline in Maine, Brown said.

As the surfer went out on his board to help, a bystander on the beach called 911 at 7:48 p.m. Towing the inflatable rescue boat behind an ATV four-wheeler from the fire-rescue station at 1929 Demere Road. Thompson and Kempe were in the water at Gould's Inlet within seven minutes, Brown said.

"The faster we respond, the better the outcome," he said.

The incident serves as a reminder to take care when venturing out into the surf on local beaches. Stay close to shore, Brown advised. Do not go in alone. Use a flotation device.

"And, of course, call out for help as soon as possible if you are in trouble," Brown said. "Even the strongest of swimmers would struggle in the currents at Gould's Inlet during the tide changes."

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