A Jersey Shore surfer who survived a fall from a 20-foot wave in a wipe-out that went viral in December saved the life of another man struggling to swim in the same waters last week.
Brendan Tighe — who previously made headlines for the death-defying free fall captured on video — was surfing the waves off Belmar last Monday when he heard a person yelling out.
He turned and saw a man struggling to swim in the 50-degree water and paddled over to him, video of the rescue shows.
“Today, 3 minutes into my session at a [beach] I never surf, I heard someone screaming for help significantly far from me,” Tighe wrote in an April 29 Instagram post intended to spread awareness on rescue techniques.
“I paddled 200 yards out and over from the jetty I was surfing to a nearly unconscious/hypothermic man floating on his back,” he said. “He was drifting out to sea without a wetsuit and not swimming.”
Tighe, 33, described how he pushed his surfboard into the man’s arms to avoid being pushed underwater himself as distressed swimmers often unintentionally pull their rescuers under in an adrenaline-fueled panic.
The man grabbed on as the surfer pulled him toward the shore before they got caught in the same riptide that pulled him out in the first place, Tighe wrote.
He told the struggling swimmer to hold onto the board as he swam around him and then pushed him the rest of the way to the beach, he wrote.
Paramedics, police officers and Coast Guard officers met the pair on the shore and took over the rescue effort from there.
The man was cleared by medics and will be OK — but Tighe warned that it could have ended differently.
“I can confidently say if I wasn’t there, it would have been a lot different of a story,” Tighe told News 12.
Lifeguards also warned of the dangers.
“You come on the beach – it’s 85 degrees, it’s hot. You are automatically attracted to the water. The water is cold, your body is hot. The water is cold and that’s a recipe for hypothermia,” Belmar chief lifeguard Harry Harsin told the local New Jersey news station.
Just a few blocks south of Belmar, a 23-year-old man from Belleville drowned in the waters off St. Clair Avenue Beach in Spring Lake, police said. There were no lifeguards on duty at the time.
Officials have warned beach-goers to stay out of the ocean in the pre-season when no lifeguards are present and the conditions can quickly become dangerous.
Tighe, who has lifeguard training and is CPR certified, called on fellow surfers to keep an eye out for struggling swimmers.
“Surfers: it may not be our responsibility to be lifeguards, but having the skill and being in the right place at the right time can save someone’s life,” he wrote on Instagram.
He also warned swimmers to be aware of their abilities and limits.
“Just be careful. Know your limits. If you can’t swim well in a pool, it’s not a great idea to swim in the ocean,” he told News 12. “Just be careful – it’s a giant body of water that people take for granted.”
