One reported dead, another missing as rip currents spur rescues up and down Jersey Shore

Labor Day weekend brought crowds of people to the beaches along the shore, but dangerous currents also brought trouble for swimmers.

In Seaside Park and Belmar, police rescued more than a dozen bathers from rough waters. Authorities were still searching on Monday afternoon for one man who'd gone missing in the waters off Seaside Park.

A 24-year old man drowned in Beach Haven on Sunday after being pulled underwater, WABC-Channel 6 in Philadelphia reported, citing unnamed sources. Beach Haven police did not return messages from the Asbury Park Press seeking confirmation.

In Harvey Cedars, meanwhile, one surfer jumped into action, working alongside lifeguards to help save a group in distress.

Stephen Houser, 35, of Toms River was out on Long Beach Island Sunday, filming a video with one of his surf sponsors to advertise an inflatable body board for two, he said. As he was recording his daughter surfing, he noticed a change in the waves.

"I can read the ocean pretty well," he said.

As he got his daughter to shore, he watched a group of people get swept out into the water, Houser said. It was a rip current.

“I started waving for the lifeguards to come and help me, and then I just kind of jumped into action,” he said.

The body board, equipped with handles on the sides, wound up being the perfect flotation device for a rescue, he said. His plan was to get to all the swimmers.

Then, Houser heard Gabriel McCabe yelling, and he knew he had to get to him first.

“I could tell right away he was straight up panicking,” he said.

He got McCabe on the board and tried to calm him down, he said. As a former Marine, Houser knows water survival techniques.

“[The training] just all kind of kicked in,” he said.

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They were back on shore in minutes as the lifeguards jumped in to save the others, Houser said.

“I was just at the right place at the right time,” he said. “It’s so surreal…this happened to me like five years ago.”

He was recalling a 2017 incident in which he and another surfer helped save a father and son whose kayaks capsized off Seaside Park.

Lifeguards aid in rescue

On Sunday, he said, the others people caught in the current were able to swim back to shore with the help of the lifeguards on duty.

McCabe, a 58-year-old from Bordentown, has been vacationing on Long Beach Island for two decades but said he’s never seen anything as unpredictable as what happened to him Sunday.

Not a confident swimmer, he was only waist-deep in the water when some waves crept up, knocking him off balance and sweeping him out, he said.

"In an instant," McCabe said. “The water was continuously pulling me out.”

The waves kept crashing, flipping him upside down and carrying him farther out.

“It was a matter of trying to survive, trying to stay above water,” he said.

Then, Houser appeared.

Swimmer 'was one of the lucky ones'

“My guardian angel,” McCabe said. “I was one of the lucky ones.”

McCabe said the lifeguards were "on it," but he's grateful for Houser.

“[Houser] saved me and gave them the opportunity to save other people,” he said, including a friend that was even further out than McCabe.

Houser, a history teacher, said this incident exemplifies a message he preaches to his students.

“If you don’t think you can do something, you can,” he said. “Nine times out of ten, you can be the first responder.”

Jersey Shore forecast

According to Sarah Johnson, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service at Mt. Holly, rip currents have been plaguing the shore for nearly a week, and will continue to do so until at least Tuesday.

The rip currents can be partially attributed to residue from hurricanes Franklin and Idalia, Johnson said.

"Even though those storms have weakened quite a bit and aren't really active storms anymore, we're still unfortunately getting the swells," she said.

In addition to the storms, on-shore flow and lower low tides from the recent full moon have contributed to the rip currents.

"It was a combination of factors, but the predominant factor was the swells that came from both those tropical systems," she said.

McCabe wasn't the only one impacted by the rip currents.

Seaside Park swimmer still missing

Around 6:06 p.m. on Sunday, Belmar Police received a report of swimmers in distress off the 6th Avenue beach, according to police. When officers arrived, multiple Belmar lifeguards and water rescue members were in the water and able to rescue five swimmers.

Another unresponsive swimmer was rescued from the water at the 5th Avenue beach and transported to Jersey Shore University Hospital, police said. Two other swimmers were also taken to the hospital. Information on their conditions wasn't immediately available.

Shortly after that, between 6:30 and 7 p.m., six swimmers were found in distress at Stockton Avenue beach in Seaside Park, according to police. Five were taken out safely, but one 31-year-old man is still missing.

Local water rescue agencies, along with the Ocean County Sheriff's Department, New Jersey State Police and the Coast Guard are involved, according to Seaside Park Police. No further information on the condition of the other swimmers is known at this time.

Houser − who never swims in the ocean without a flotation device − said when it comes down to it, it's not even about knowing your limits, since even the strongest swimmers can struggle with rip currents.

“I know how serious the ocean can get, and your life can change in a matter of seconds," he said.

Jenna Calderón covers breaking news and cold cases in Monmouth and Ocean counties. Before coming to the Press, she covered The Queen City for Cincinnati Magazine in Ohio. Contact her at 330-590-3903; jcalderon@gannettnj.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Drowning on LBI, Beach Haven, Seaside as rip currents abound in NJ