Scene Around: An RFH Senior and a Heroic Locals’ Summer Save

Ocean rescuers Roberto, Cameron Rice and Isabella … Photo/Long Branch Ocean Rescue via Rice

What started out as a simple locals’ summer Sunday swim turned, with a deceptive tempestuous tide, into an ocean rescue at the skilled hands of off-duty Long Branch Ocean Rescue and Jersey Shore YMCA lifeguard Cameron Rice, a Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) senior and Fair Havenite.

It all happened just before 3 p.m. on this past sunny Sunday on the Morris Avenue Long Branch Beach. While the rescue was initiated by Rice, who spotted the struggling swimmer and, by lifeguard instinct, predicted impending drowning, she was joined in the save by two off-duty Cape May guards, Roberto and Isabella, who happened to be there, on the beach, “in the right place at the right time when they noticed a man struggling in the surf,” a released statement from Long Branch Ocean Rescue said. “Cameron and the Cape May guards immediately jumped into action and successfully rescued the victim.”

The rescue story from Rice, herself? Well, it all started when she was taking a stroll on the beach with her friend.

“It was around 2:45 p.m. when I was walking on the beach with my friend, Natalie, and noticed two people swimming,” Rice said. “One appeared to be stuck in a rip current. They were both trying to swim against the rip, but I knew they weren’t going to be able to get back in because that same exact rip current had been there all summer.

“I said to my friend Natalie ‘Do you see that?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ I gave it a couple seconds but the one man was only getting dragged further away from the beach. Although I knew I didn’t have any sort of rescue equipment on me not a bathing suit, I had to save this person because I’m a lifeguard and that’s what I do. I took off my shirt and swam as hard as I could out to him.”

With a stroke of luck, it turned out that when Rice swam out for the rescue, someone of the same mind ended up beside her paddling out to the victim on a boogie board. That was Roberto, one of the Cape May guards (whose last names were not given, or unknown).

“We successfully got the man (whose name was not provided) in with no problems,” Rice said. “This man is lucky that Roberto and I were in the right place at the right time. I truly believe that people should NOT swim when there are no lifeguards on duty. Rip currents are way stronger than you think. Look at the water before swimming. Although it is nice weather, doesn’t mean the water is nice. This man was lucky. If we were not there it could’ve ended way worse for him.”

Long Branch Ocean Rescue officials echoed Rice’s warning, backed with statistics: “Your chances of fatally drowning on a beach with lifeguards present are less than 1 in 18 million according to @uslifesaving. Your chances of fatally drowning exponentially increase when lifeguards are not present. Please stay out of the water until next summer.”

The heroism? To Rice, on- or off-duty, it’s all part of what a lifeguard does — saves lives. That means that at any given moment, it’s all in a day’s beach stroll for this RFH senior.