Features

SAN FRANCISCO — A man out for an early morning swim with two friends was dragged away from the city’s Ocean Beach by a rip tide Sunday, prompting a surfer and the San Francisco Fire Department to come to his aid. 

The three men, whom authorities did not identify, had camped overnight on the beach and decided to take a dip around 7 a.m., said Joe Ford, a petty officer with the U.S. Coast Guard. 

Two men had made it back to shore when the fire department’s surf and cliff rescue teams arrived, and a surfer had paddled into the rip current to help the third man keep his head above water, said fire department spokesman Pete Howes. The teams then helped the ailing swimmer to shore. All three were evaluated by medics at the scene, and the man caught in the rip tide was sent to the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center to be evaluated for hypothermia, Howes said. 

“Those persons who are inexperienced at Ocean Beach and not equipped with a wet suit or proper training should be wary of dangerous rip currents which can carry them out,” Howes said.