Water rescue caught on cam by selfie stick

By Matt Blanchette

mblanchette@abc6.com

@mattblanchette

A teen and her father – lucky to be alive – after getting pulled  underwater in a frightening rip current at surfside beach in Nantucket. The entire ordeal was caught on camera on a selfie stick. Luckily the 16 year old girls and her father were pulled to safety.

It's a scenario Rhode Island lifeguards are all too familiar with. Beaches from Narragansett to Westerly have similar rip currents.

"It does happen here. This past weekend on Sunday we had 12 rescues it felt like a tv show," long time lifeguard Ben Sienko said. He has worked at Scarborough Beach for a decade, and says the rip tides affect anyone and everyone.

"Riptides do not discriminate. That is 100 percent true across the board. Older people, children, men, women, good swimmers, poor swimmers non-swimmers, people on boogie boards, or with floatation devices, it doesn't matter," he said.

The father rescused in Nantucket can attest. "I did a few tours overseas with the marines and I never felt that kind of fatigue or fear," he said.

Sienko says the waves here break closer to shore, adding to the risk, and offers advice to swimmers who may get caught in a rip.

"The biggest mistake people can make is to swim straight back into the beach. Because you are swimming against that current that is pulling you away from shore. So you should swim parallel from shore to break the grip of the rip and wait for help from the lifeguard staff."