Water rescues double this year

Whether it's a matter of more people on the beach or more rescue personnel patrolling the beach, this year is seeing twice as many water rescues as compared to last year's numbers.

"The weather plays a big part of it," said Deputy Chief Sean Hughes of the South Walton Fire District.

"The surf and wave action was particularly volatile during the spring; this moved the sandbar configuration and created a lot of rip currents," said Gary Wise, beach safety director.

This year has also seen an increase in tourists to the area, with year-to-date bed tax collections up more than 8 percent, according to Tracy Louthain, director of public relations and visitor services for Tourist Development.

"This year there was an exceptionally large amount of people on the beaches," said Wise. "Especially between the tower at Whale's Tail and Sandestin."

Additional lifeguard positions might have also contributed to the increase in rescues, said Wise.

Two towers and four roving guards on ATVs were added this year, bringing the total of towers to eight. The eight towers are responsible for covering the entire 26 miles of beach in South Walton, Wise said.

Before these positions were added, bystanders would perform rescues that the lifeguards could not get to in time, he said.

"There are still rescues we don't know about being done by beach vendors and surfers," said Wise.

Adding to the difficulty of covering 26 miles of beach is positioning of the towers. They are not equally spaced. This allows for long stretches of beaches to escape the supervision of a lifeguard, Wise said.

With more lifeguards on duty, there will be an increase in preventative action, not necessarily rescues, said Wise.

The number of rescues is relative to the conditions, the surf, currents and weather.