Lake Michigan surfer saves drowning girls

A surfer in Grand Haven pulled two teenagers out of rip currents in Lake Michigan Thursday afternoon.

“We would let the waves push us to shore but then they kept pushing us out farther, and we were screaming ‘Help!” she said.

“It appears that the girls may have become caught in a rip current”, Jeff Hawke, the Grand Haven Public Safety Director, said in a statement.

Zeb Boeskool of Grand Haven was surfing at the lake, and says he swam out and got the 13-year-old.

“Somebody told me there was someone out struggling and not able to come back in, so I jumped in the water an ran down the beach as fast as I could”, Boeskool said, according to a report by WXMI.

“She looked like a log floating in the water”, he said, according to the report.

“Two little girls just came into my head immediately”, Boeskool recalled. He managed to reach the older girl, who was about 800 feet away from the beach. The unnamed girls were taken to North Ottawa Community Hospital for treatment, with one of them in serious condition after needing to be resuscitated.

Her condition improved by the evening and the 14-year-old was also taken to the hospital for observation but was released.

Police aren’t releasing the girls’ names.

A red flag was flying at the beach, warning people of unsafe swimming conditions.

According to the National Weather Service, rip currents are one of the hazards for beaches on the Great Lakes.