It was a normal Sunday with a good crowd at Main Beach, said Drew Smith, chief of East Hampton Village lifeguards, when, around 2 p.m., a teenage girl was caught in a rip current. "A lieutenant at Stand Two called, 'Heads up!' " he said, and another lieutenant guard, Andrew Wilson, raced through the waves to the girl, calmed her, and assisted her back to safety with a float.
Once a victim is out of the water, Mr. Smith said, "what we do is, have a conversation with the person about the riptide and how it pulls them out, and what's the best way to continue." (Swim parallel to shore.) "The guards are down there working really hard this year," he added, calling Sunday's save "really sharp." It was "good," he said, "nice and early in the season, for younger guards to get to see that."
Ian Ginsberg, whose family has a house in town, was watching. "The guards jumped into motion," he said, "and, as a beachgoer, it was just nice to see them be confident."
Ian and his parents happened to be sitting on the sand next to the victim and her friends. She was "definitely a little shaken up," he said, adding that he had overheard her telling them that "she thought she was drowning, and then all of a sudden a lifeguard was coming toward her, 'Baywatch' style!"