Video captures rescue in waters off Seaside Park

SOUTH SEASIDE PARK, N.J. (WPVI) -- Rip currents at the Jersey shore this weekend kept lifeguards busy at Midway beach in South Seaside Park.

Video captured the rescue of about one dozen people who were trapped in a rip current in the waters off South Seaside Park, New Jersey, over the weekend.

That video, courtesy Jersey Shore Hurricane News, shows some lifeguards out in the ocean, while others used a rope to pull those swimmers back to shore.

Capt. Bill Plagg, a former Army special forces medic and dive instructor, says a number of people were on a sandbar Saturday afternoon when powerful rip currents swept them out.

"Saturday and Sunday we had a lot of multiple rescues; actually our line went out four times in two days," says Plagg.

When the last of the swimmers was brought to shore, hundreds of people on the beach applauded the efforts of lifeguards like Mason Kuri.

"Jump over one wave and you fly five feet more over, and then at that point you can't stand anymore. At that point, the riptide just starts taking you out. We were on it pretty fast though," says Kuri.

In another incident, Avon administrator Tim Gallagher tells the Asbury Park Press a 60-year-old man was unconscious when he was dragged ashore by lifeguards on Saturday.

Gallagher says lifeguards performed CPR and the man was responsive by the time he was put in an ambulance and taken to a hospital.

Guards say the ocean was calmer Monday, but warned swimmers to always be careful in the water.