Charlottetown mother stresses importance of swimming safety after rip current experience

A Charlottetown mother is urging people to take extra caution when swimming in the ocean after an experience that could have turned fatal for her and her 12-year-old son.

Beth Johnston said she and her son, Charlie Ross, decided to take a swim in the water near Savage Harbour as the sun was setting Saturday evening. The pair was sitting in shallow waters “about waist deep” when they realized they could not feel the ground below them.

“Before we knew it, he (Charlie) turned to me and said, ‘I can’t touch anymore,’ and I said, ‘Oh my gosh I can’t either,’ and then I looked and we had been swept maybe 50 feet offshore,” she said in a phone interview.

READ MORE: Kite boarder saves woman caught in Lake Erie rip current

Johnston said they started trying to swim to shore but they were swimming against a rip current and the waves would “crash” on them dragging them back further into the water. That’s when she knew they were in trouble.

Charlie was her first concern and though she said he’s a strong swimmer and she coached him to keep his head above water, he was still having difficulty and was being pushed under water by the waves.

He was able to eventually get out of the current and get to shore, but Johnston was still in the water.

“He was screaming for help from the shore, but it’s about 15 minutes later that I finally got out of it and got to shore,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "He was screaming for help from the shore, but it's about 15 minutes later that I finally got out of it and got to shore," she said.

The pair had come down to the beach with family members who had been keeping an eye, but they “thought we were fine” and had gone back to the house.

She’s unsure how Charlie was able to get out of the current, but as she was trying to swim away, she was able to lodge herself between a sandbar and rocks and pushed herself forward.

The experience left them both exhausted and Johnston wanting to warn people about the importance of swimming safety. Having swam at that beach for the past 40 years, she said it’s important to be aware of the dangers of rip currents even if you’re a good swimmer.

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Along with awareness, she said it’s also important to bring a friend to be on the shore should you get into trouble, for them to have a phone to call for help, and for children to have swimming lessons.

“We didn’t swim out into the ocean, we were playing with a camera up to our waist on a sandbar,” Johnston said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We didn't swim out into the ocean, we were playing with a camera up to our waist on a sandbar," Johnston said.

“It felt like … when you run on a treadmill you run as hard as you can but you don’t go anywhere, that’s what swimming against the current felt like … You felt like you were climbing uphill but could never reach the top.”

Johnston’s experience came the same day a New Brunswick man drowned nearby in St. Margarets, only a short distance from where the pair swam.

Kings District RCMP said they responded to a call of a 52-year-old man who was pulled out by the current and wave conditions as a result of high winds at 5 p.m.. They said the man could not be reached and drowned.

READ MORE: How to survive a rip current

Emergency officials advise that rip current conditions are often accompanied by high waves and say the most important thing is not to panic.

The Canadian Red Cross advises swimmers should focus on keeping their head above water and swim parallel to shore until they can escape the current.