A shuttle driver with no formal lifeguard training said he relied on “absolute focus” after rescuing three Oklahoma tourists from a rip current off Grand Isle, Louisiana, earlier this month.
Jordan Matthew works for Reliant Shuttle. In an interview published June 15 by WWL Louisiana, he recounted that he had just dropped off a group of tourists at a beach on Grand Isle when a member of the group frantically flagged him down. A young boy had been caught in a rip current, Matthew said, and two women who went in to help were also pulled into the dangerous current.
Matthew, a native of Mandeville, Louisiana, about 120 miles from the Elmer’s Island wildlife refuge where the rescue occurred, described running into the water without hesitation. He first pulled the boy and one woman to a shallower spot, then led them to shore. The other woman had drifted farther out, so Matthew swam to her, grabbed her, and carried her over his shoulder to safety.
“I activated [absolute focus] in my mind, just locked in, and went one by one to get them,” Matthew said. He told the victims to remain calm so they would not “run out of energy” while struggling.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, which manages the refuge, posted about the rescue on June 13. “Thanks to Jordan’s decisive action, all three individuals made it safely out,” the department wrote on social media, adding a “big thank you to … Matthew for his quick thinking and heroic actions.” The department also quoted Matthew’s warning to beachgoers: “If there’s calm water, there’s bound to be a rip [current].”
Matthew told WWL he was relieved the tourists were physically unharmed, though shaken. The group invited him to dinner as a gesture of gratitude.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines rip currents as narrow channels of water moving rapidly away from shore. They are responsible for about 100 deaths each year in the United States. NOAA advises swimmers caught in a rip current to swim parallel to the shore rather than directly toward it.