The dirt lot at Ditch Plain in Montauk still smelled of whale on July 3, nearly a week after the removal of a decomposing humpback, but the odor didn’t keep crowds from the beach over the Fourth of July weekend. Thousands packed the sand in Montauk to swim and sweat in the sun, making it one of the busiest holidays local lifeguards have seen since the pandemic.
“Covid was our busiest,” said Thomas Brierley, an assistant chief lifeguard for the Town of East Hampton. “There was nowhere else to go and we actually had to shut down our town beaches because there were too many people. Besides then, this is pretty much the busiest I’ve seen it in a long time.”
As temperatures neared 90 degrees, the water was especially crowded, with rescues happening daily.
“It’s the way the tides are right now,” Brierley said. “In the middle of the day it kind of switches and the rips pick up halfway through the day and people don’t realize that. We have our big jetty rip that sits where a lot of people are sitting and they’ll just walk out front into the rip and not realize they’re in trouble until they’re 150 yards out — and by that time our guards are already halfway to them.”
In the middle of a conversation with The Star, James Kissane, the captain at Ditch Plain Beach, had to run to the water to help a young girl on a blue boogie board who was getting pulled out by the rip current — something he’d done several times over the weekend. While the average beachgoer might not have noticed she was in distress, Kissane spotted her immediately.
“If they’re not making any forward progress, trying to swim in but not moving inwards, moving further out. You can also look, if the water looks like it’s a little sandy and going out, that’s a rip current. If it’s blue and more waves are coming in, it’s a little safer,” Kissane said. “Smaller children on boogie boards tend to get sucked out pretty fast on a rip current because their feet aren’t on the sand. Being on a flotation device is very helpful, but it can also kind of get you caught in a rip and pulled out. The good thing to do is to stay on it cause we’ll come and get you.”
There are a few things to remember if you get caught in a rip current, Kissane said. First, stay on your boogie board, if you’re on one, as it will help keep you afloat. If you’re not on a board, Brierley encourages swimmers to float on their backs to avoid tiring out. A rip current may pull you away from shore, but it won’t pull you underwater, so don’t panic. Swim or float parallel to the shoreline if you can. When entering the water, always swim between the blue flags in front of lifeguard stands. If you run into trouble, guards will spot the problem and respond quickly.
“Always tell your kid to swim in front of the lifeguard stand,” Kissane said. “It’s the safest area on the beach. Also know that we’re watching everybody in the water at all times.”
Parents who want to better protect their children at the beach this summer can take advantage of East Hampton Town’s Beach Guardian water safety program on Saturdays and Sundays from 9:30 to 11 a.m. through Aug. 2 at Ditch Plain in Montauk and Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett, at the same times as the town’s junior lifeguard program. Adults can learn how to read ocean conditions, recognize hazards, spot swimmers in distress, perform hands-only CPR and basic first aid, and improve their own swimming skills. The cost is $90; registration is through the town Recreation Department, online at bit.ly/4vjMNDH.
