ROCKAWAY BEACH, Queens (PIX11)— In the last few weeks, heat waves, the start of summer and holiday weekends have crowded beaches.
Unfortunately, the dangers of swimming with no lifeguards in sight have taken the lives of two teenage boys just last weekend.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards requested that the NYC Parks Department extend lifeguard shifts past 6 p.m.
“Extend the time that lifeguards are on duty at least until dusk, at least during a heatwave,” Richards said.
“If you look at the train, at the Q53, if you look at the ferry, we look at an enormous crowd arriving after 3 p.m., and those people are looking to cool off,” an activist from Out Rockaway said.,
Another request is to extend the beach season beyond early September. Richards said many drownings happen in late September and even early October. He also points out the importance of using school property to teach swimming in a controlled environment.
“We should be using the very infrastructures we have, especially in schools where we have pools; it should be a requirement for our young people to learn how to swim,” Richards said.
A few miles east at Jones Beach, a New York state park beach, lifeguard Andrew Presta tells us rip currents have become normal. He says most of the time, swimmers don’t realize they are caught up in them.
He advises “not to fight it, try to swim parallel to the shore, because if you are trying to swim against it that’s when you get tired, and these drownings are happening.”
Around 200 lifeguards will work on Jones Beach on the Fourth of July. They will be on duty from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. when the beach closes. Then, they will work until 10 p.m. to ensure no one gets in the water during the fireworks display.
Presta has a message for beachgoers.
“I tell my family, my friends, my students I’m a teacher… swim near a lifeguard always,” Presta said.
Authorities also want to remind people in Rockaway Beach that getting into the water without a lifeguard around or after hours is very dangerous and that they should avoid it at all costs.
