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The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch
August 16, 2013
Shore Break Leads To Busy Week For OCBeach Patrol
By SHAWN J. SOPER
NEWS EDITOR
DECK PARTY
Monday, August 19
On Deck 5:30 p.m.
DJ ROB CEE
ON DECK 9:30 P.M.
THE LOOP
ON STAGE 10 P.M.
60th Street On The Bay 410-524-5500 www.fagers.com
OCEAN CITY – An unidentified teenage girl suffered serious back and neck injuries on Tuesday at 100th Street after diving over a shore break wave into shallow water, illustrating again the importance of safety when swimming in the unpredictable ocean. Late Tuesday afternoon, a teenage girl and her friend were swimming in the ocean when each attempted to dive over an incoming wave and struck their heads on the ocean bottom in shallow water. According to Ocean City Beach Patrol Captain Butch Arbin, one of the girls reportedly said, “I think I almost broke my neck” before looking over and seeing her friend floating face down in the water. The victim was brought to the beach and treated with care because of concern over a serious neck or back injury. She was carefully taken to Northside Park and then transported to PRMC via Maryland State Police helicopter. The extent of her injuries and her condition are unknown. OCBP Lieutenant Ward Kovacs on Tuesday confirmed the incident was related in part to the sudden appearance this week of a heavy shore break. The heavy wave action close to shore coincided with high tides in the middle of the afternoon at times when the beach is most crowded, resulting in a spike in the number of rescues and injuries. Kovacs said there were 12 injuries of varying severity reported on Monday and several more on Tuesday. “We have seen a pretty dramatic increase in calls for emergency medical services to respond to different kinds of joint injuries,” Kovacs said Tuesday. “We have over the last several days seen quite a bit of shore break. What happens with shore break is either people will try and ride the wave and ride it right into shallow water or into the sand and the impact causes the injury. The other thing with shore break is people will try and sometimes dive over the incoming wave and since the water is so shallow, they will strike their head on the ocean floor.” Kovacs said Tuesday’s incident involving the teenage girl appeared to be the result of the latter. While the heavy shore break condition likely contributed to the incident on Tuesday, Arbin said a similar situation can occur in any ocean conditions. He pointed out the not so subtle difference between a shore break injury and a shallow dive injury. “In this particular case, the victim attempted to dive over a wave and hit her head on the bottom in shallow water,” he said. “I think this was more a case of a shallow dive injury than a shore break injury and shalSEE PAGE 15
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