A US Marine veteran rushed into the Atlantic Ocean to rescue a swimmer who was trapped in a riptide along the Jersey Shore, where dangerous conditions killed two people over Labor Day weekend.
Stephen Houser, 35 was filming himself surfing on Long Beach Island with his family when he spotted a swimmer, Gabe McCabe, struggling in the Atlantic Ocean.
The daring footage shows people swimming away from the riptide as Houser paddled toward McCabe, who tried to yell for help as another swimmer attempted to keep him afloat.
“Thank you,” McCabe tells the veteran after catching his breath. “It f–king whipped me around.”
“You’re alright. You’re alright,” Houser answers as he tells McCabe to focus on getting back on land.
The clip ends with the two men riding several waves back to shore, joining up with the other swimmers who managed to escape the riptide.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” McCabe told ABC 7 after the terrifying ordeal. “It just sucked, zapped the energy right out of you.”
Houser said this was not the first time he’s had to make such a rescue and was glad he was near McCabe when the riptide hit.
“I was just in the right place at the right time,” Houser told the outlet. “I’m just happy to have helped him, and I think anybody in my situation would have done the same thing.”
While McCabe avoided tragedy, another swimmer died Sunday in Long Beach Island’s Beach Haven community, when a group of swimmers were pulled underwater.
Lifeguards created a human chain to pull out the submerged swimmers, and one swimmer, Edwin Antonio Made Sanches, 22, of the Dominican Republic, was rushed to a hospital, where he died.
In Belmar, about an hour north of LBI, police received a call about five swimmers in distress off the 6th Avenue Beach, with one 42-year-old male swimmer found unresponsive. The man, who has not been publicly identified, also died in the hospital.
On Sunday evening, police in Seaside Park got a call about six swimmers caught in rough waves, with the US Coast Guard called in to help rescue them.
Five of the six swimmers were found, with a 31-year-old male swimmer still missing, officials said.