Vacationing teen rescues mom and son fighting rip tide in waters off North Carolina coast.
Ohio student Travis Shrout was about to head for shore when he noticed a mother and her child struggling in the coastal waters off North Carolina.
"I saw two heads out there farther than me," said the 18-year-old of the July 4 weekend incident. "I could not understand what they were doing there."
Rip tide currents were pulling the pair into deeper waters. Calling to the mother, "I said are you alright? And she turned around and she said, 'No,'" Shrout recounted.
A former lifeguard, Shrout paddled to the mom and gave her his boogie board. Then he headed for her 10-year-old son, who was heading out to sea and had gone under a few times, the teen said. He was able to grab the child, and to have him lean back in the water.
Shrout and the boy joined mom Ashley Bachelor. All three held onto the body board as people on shore formed a human chain to help pull in the trio.
Shrout downplayed his rescue efforts, saying any "good person" would do the same. Still, things could have gone much worse.
"If I wasn't there, we could have been pulling bodies in from the beach," he said. It's "hard to wrap your head around how bad things could have ended up."
