Ocean City Local Rescues Family From Rip Current Off Nantucket

OCEAN CITY — An Ocean City local humbly donned the mantle of hero last week when he rescued a family of three caught in a rip current on a beach in Nantucket.

Ocean City local Tommy Vach was on vacation in Nantucket last week when the lifetime surfer was quickly called into duty. The Johns family, including father Derrick, mom Jennifer and 16-year-old Erynn, from Austin, Texas, were in the ocean at Nobadeer Beach on Nantucket last Tuesday when they suddenly found themselves caught in a dangerous rip current. Vach said this week it was somewhat foggy last Tuesday on the beach and he heard what he thought at first was the normal screams of people playing in the water until he realized something far more serious was going on.

“I could hear people playing with the normal noise and screams, but I realized it was people calling for help,” he said on Monday now back in his office in Ocean Pines. “I went into the ocean and found the mom screaming for help for her daughter. I was able to pull the daughter in safely and went back out to get her parents.”

More