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If you ever have to save someone from a rip current, expert lifeguards say you should pretty much just do exactly what a 13-year-old boy in San Clemente did when he heard his friend's distressed cries yesterday.Luke Messinger told The Orange County Register heard his friend Yannick Hoppen calling for help, as he got pulled into the rip current. Hoppen had lost his bodyboard.
Messinger sprung into action and went paddling after his friend. He offered his own bodyboard and helped Hoppen onto it. He pushed back to shore and waved to a lifeguard who met the boys halfway.
This is how it should be done, folks:
Lifeguards say it was a textbook example of how to be safe at the beach - always swim with a friend, swim near a staffed lifeguard tower, wear fins and, if you have a board, have it leashed to you.