- March 13, 2025
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After an Orlando man disappeared while swimming Friday morning at Flagler Beach and was washed ashore the following morning, Tom Gillin hopes people swimming on area beaches will remember the dangers of rip currents.
Gillin, parks and recreation director and lifeguard-in-chief for the city of Flagler Beach, said 21-year-old Dominic Mone and his older brother were swimming in shallow water on the sand bar about 30 yards off shore when they were caught in a rip current that carried them into deeper water.
The brothers entered the water around 9:30 a.m., which is half an hour before lifeguards go on duty. When a lifeguard reported for duty that morning, he noticed a man struggling in the water, so he rushed to assist.
The guard didn’t see another victim during the rescue, and didn’t learn that Mone was still in the water until he was back on shore. This discovery prompted a search that lasted until dark and resumed again the next morning, until Mone’s body was found on shore north of the Flagler Beach pier.
“Rip currents are the biggest hazard on our beaches,” Gillin said. “I’d estimate about 95% of our rescues, and the majority of drownings, are related to rip currents.”
Spotting this hazard isn’t always easy, because the roughness of waves does not always correlate with danger. The ocean looked calm Friday morning, Gillin said, but the dangerous currents can be present in calmer waters as well. One way to identify these currents is to look for abnormalities in the patterns of waves breaking near shore.
Rip currents form when there is a break in the offshore sand bar that looks similar to a valley between two mountains. When waves break, water receding from shore toward sea flows faster through these breaks, causing a stronger current, in which swimmers can get caught and pulled away from shore.
“Nobody should drown in a rip current,” Gillin said. “The No. 1 thing is not to panic, and then to know how to respond.”
Swimmers who find themselves in the pull of a rip current shouldn’t waste energy fighting it. Instead, they should float on their backs to conserve their energy until the current ends.
Once the current has ended, a person should swim parallel to shore to escape the strong pull to an area of calmer, more manageable water. Often, Gillin said, doing this will bring swimmers back onto the sand bar, where water is shallower.
The rip currents in Flagler Beach tend to be shorter — but also stronger — than at other beaches, and the average current will pull a swimmer about 50 yards away from shore.
Flagler Beaches are guarded during the summers from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The beaches also have a flag system that warns potential swimmers of rip current risks and signs posted throughout the area that warn of potential dangers.
The last time someone drowned in the city on a guarded beach was in 2006, Gillin said.
“We actually put lifeguards on the beach during spring break this year, too,” Gillin said. “It was warm, and the water was hot. I knew a lot of kids would want to come to the beaches.”
Gillin said he tries to keep a cushion in his staffing budget so he can make staffing adjustments when necessary. During spring break, he said his guards made at least 10 rescues.
“Statistically, your chances of drowning on a lifeguard-protected beach are one in 18 million,” he said. “Sometimes, you have to think more about safety than budgets.”
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