6 MB THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2020tancing. Last week, the city announced that
its public beaches would finally open for
swimming this coming Wednesday.
Like many coastal areas, the Rockaways,
on the southern edge of Queens, often at-
tracts those with little to no swimming skills
who plan merely to wade or relax by the
waves.
But there is peril in such beauty, a danger
misunderstood.
In May, three young men were rescued
from the water at Rockaway Beach. One did
not survive.
Last year, at least seven others were stol-
en by its sea. All were young, all were peo-
ple of color.
June 15: Perla Jimenez, 25.
July 9: Umarie Chamble, 25.
July 9: Keylon Ramsay, 28.
July 30: John Munoz, 18.
Aug. 4: Maintain Odozi, 15.
Oct. 1: Adedayo Adewale, 15.
Oct. 1: Gabe Rice, 16.Their deaths are the highest rash of
drownings that the area had seen in a dec-
ade. Still, each one came with a sense of déjà
vu. Drownings have been reluctantly folded
into the region’s fabric, where local resi-
dents know the meaning of helicopters
whirring over the ocean.
“The water’s gorgeous; it looks like a
lake, but it’s a bad drop-off,” said Ann Kirby-
Payne, 50, a textbook editor who has lived
all her life in Far Rockaway.
“So, one minute they’re standing there,
then they take a few steps and they’re in
over their head,” she added. “If I could get
one message to people: Standing up to your
knees is swimming in the ocean.”
Efforts to raise awareness about the
strong currents can be seen along the Rock-
aways, some of which is operated by the Na-
tional Park Service. There are signs about
water safety and red flags to mark unau-
thorized areas.
This can be lost on the D.F.D.s — the local
term for those “down for the day” who lack
proper beach etiquette and do not show a
healthy fear of the ocean.
Some believe that the signage should be
more extensive and that the lifeguard hours
are insufficient.
Lifeguards are on duty at Rockaway
Beach and Jacob Riis Park from 10 a.m. to 6
p.m. daily, but only from Memorial Day
weekend through early September. The co-
ronavirus has postponed their usual start
date.
If there is no lifeguard present in an area,
swimming is prohibited.
It’s a rule that can be hard to enforce.
Umarie Chamble, a 25-year-old home
health aide, was reportedly trying to teach
her boyfriend, Keylon Ramsay, 28, how to
swim while at a friend’s birthday gathering
last July. The Long Island couple disap-
peared just after 10 p.m.
Later that month, John Munoz, an 18-
year-old from Brooklyn, went into the water
with a friend after 8 p.m. His body was
found the next morning.
Four days later, Maintain Odozi, 15, of Far
Rockaway went for a dip with friends in an
area reserved for kayaks and canoes and
couldn’t stay afloat.
Drowning is among the top causes of un-
intentional death for those under 30, ac-
cording to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. Young people, newly inde-
pendent, often put themselves at great risk.
“You kind of want to scare them, because
a lot of these kids, they want to go out there
when the lifeguards are gone,” said Lou
Harris, who has lived in the Rockaways for
14 years.
Mr. Harris, 48, runs the East Coast chap-
ter of the Black Surfing Association, a non-
profit based in the Rockaways that teaches
children how to surf. The first thing his stu-
dents learn is how to spot a rip current.
They’ll sit on the shoreline to feel the strong
tug that comes with the ebb.
Mr. Harris also warns young visitors he
encounters at the convenience store.
“They’ll be in there buying 40s of beer, and
I’ll say, ‘Hey guys, alcohol doesn’t mix on
the beach.’ And they’re like, ‘OK, whatever.’
They have no idea.”
Each year, there are more than 500 res-
cues and thousands of preventive acts at
Rockaway Beach, said Janet Fash, one of
the area’s chief lifeguards.
Ms. Fash has been on the job for four dec-
ades. The drowning process, she said, can
start within 15 seconds.
It often begins with what beachgoers
think is calm water. But there is a lateral
current. It can push you into a rip current,
which will pull you out to the sea.
To survive, you must remain calm. If you
are in shallow water, step out of the current.
Otherwise, relax and let it carry you. When
it stops, tread water or try to float until you
are rescued or swim diagonal to shore.
Those who panic and flail begin to drown.
After that, Ms. Fash said, there is a two-
minute window of opportunity for a life to be
saved. Within that time, some are so ex-
hausted they give up. Of course, it is differ-ent for those who do not know how to swim.
Their chance of survival diminishes the in-
stant the current steals them away.PERLA JIMENEZ WASthe first victim at the
Rockaways last year. A 25-year-old tattoo
artist studying to become a schoolteacher,
she was found lying unconscious on the
sand of Jacob Riis Park less than an hour af-
ter lifeguards had retired for the day.
She had taken just a handful of swimming
lessons after immigrating from the Domi-
nican Republic as a child.
“We had to send her to private school, be-
cause the school in that area wasn’t good, so
we were kind of tight with the money,” said
her father, Pablo Jimenez, 51, who works for
an auto parts company. “Perla also wasn’t
interested in swimming.”
Ms. Jimenez had recently reconnected
with her parents and two younger sisters in
South Ozone Park and was eager to cook
them dinner and plan their birthday parties.
“It’s like everything turned upside down,”
her father said. “A part of me is gone.”
Swimming ability is the first line of de-
fense for beachgoers, but access to lessons
can be limited by cost, time and availability.
The issue is also generational. If parents
can’t swim, it is more likely that their chil-
dren won’t either.
The legacy of segregated swimming pools
still plays out today. About 65 percent of
black children have little to no swimming
abilities, according to the U.S.A. Swimming
Foundation. Their fatal drowning rate is
also considerably higher than that of white
children.
New York City’s Department of Parks and
Recreation offers free swimming lessons to
all, but there is often a waiting list. The
agency also runs Swim for Life, a free
course for second-grade classes. Only a
small percentage of public schools partici-
pate.
Drowning protection must come in layers,
said Shawn Slevin, the founder of Swim
Strong Foundation, a nonprofit that started
in the Rockaways and offers lessons at little
to no cost. She believes ocean safety should
be taught in schools until it is innate, like
putting on a seatbelt in the car.
Less than two months after Ms. Jimenez
died, Maintain Odozi drowned.
Maintain had been part of the New York
Police Department’s Explorer program and
was on the brink of his sophomore year in
high school. Interested in becoming a video
game engineer, he was a funny, generous
friend with little patience for bullies.
His absence has left his mother, Tashima
Wright, to re-examine her own life. She once
harbored an assortment of phobias, includ-
ing one of the water. But after your son dies,
what else is there to fear?
Ms. Wright, 41, began going to her local
Y.M.C.A. every week. She wanted to learn to
swim.ON A SUNDAY IN OCTOBER,Gabe Rice’s body
was discovered near a Brooklyn bay known
for the glass bottles that wash up on its
shore. He had traveled at least 12 miles
around the western end of the peninsulaMAINTAIN ODOZI
In December, Miking Odozi,
right, adjusted a refrigerator
message about his older
brother Maintain, 15, who
drowned in August off the
Rockaways in Queens. The
family’s photographs in-
clude one of Maintain and
his mother, Tashima Wright,
at his middle school gradua-
tion, far right.
An Irresistible Danger: Swept Away by the Sea
Strong currents
can surprise
beachgoers,
especially those
without access
to swimming
lessons.
Photographs by JONAH MARKOWITZ
for The New York TimesANNA ESHELMAN
The places where seven young people drowned last year in the waters off the Rockaways on the southern edge of Queens.CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1