Most people driving an ATV along a Gulf Coast beach on a summer afternoon are thinking about where to grab lunch, not how to execute a water rescue. Jordan Matthew, a 22-year-old shuttle driver from Mandeville, Louisiana, apparently had other plans. Earlier this month, Matthew spotted three swimmers being dragged out to sea by a rip current near Elmer’s Island Beach, close to Grand Isle, and did what many would hesitate to do: he jumped in after them.
Matthew operates the free beach shuttle for Reliant Shuttle LLC every summer, ferrying beachgoers from the Elmer’s Island parking lot out to the shoreline and back. It’s not glamorous work, but it turns out to be exactly the kind of job that puts a capable person in exactly the right place at exactly the right moment.
The family from Oklahoma were returning visitors who frequently made the trip to Grand Isle for shark fishing and swimming. Matthew had dropped them off earlier at their favorite stretch of beach near the end of the island, close to Caminada Pass.
About an hour later, on his way back to the lot with another group, Matthew noticed people on the beach frantically waving him down. He stepped off his ATV and scanned the water. Three people were drifting outward, screaming for their lives. None of them could swim. The boy had gone in first, then the two women who went after him. At that point, all three were exhausted and working just to stay at the surface.
Matthew shed his hat, sunglasses, and shirt and went in without hesitation. He reached the woman and boy first, bringing the boy to shore before going back for her. The second woman had drifted farther out, tangled in fishing line.
Matthew said he knew to swim parallel to the shoreline to avoid getting caught in the same current. He eventually dragged her in as she was going under. A police officer on the scene helped get the last rescued woman back to an ambulance waiting at the parking lot.
A Rescue by Someone Who Was Simply Paying Attention
What makes this story worth telling is not that Matthew is a trained lifeguard or a first responder. He is neither. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries credited his quick thinking and decisive action, saying his willingness to act in a critical moment made all the difference.
Plenty of people see a crisis unfolding and freeze, or wait for someone else to move first. Matthew stepped off his ATV and moved.
Rip Currents Are More Dangerous Than They Look
Grand Isle State Park itself posts warnings about rip currents, noting that water can look calm on the surface while powerful currents run beneath. The recommended technique if caught in one is to swim parallel to shore rather than fight the pull directly. That is precisely what Matthew did, and it almost certainly kept him from becoming a fourth victim.
Rip currents are responsible for the majority of lifeguard rescues at U.S. beaches and account for roughly 100 drowning deaths per year nationally, according to NOAA. The Gulf Coast, with its shifting sandbars and tidal passes, is particularly prone to them.
The Gulf Coast Has Had a Difficult Summer on the Water
The timing of this rescue lands against a backdrop of broader concern about Gulf Coast water safety. In April, a 17-year-old was pulled from the water off Grand Isle after a rip current dragged him from the rocks, and his body was later recovered.
Tropical Storm Arthur, which formed in the Atlantic on June 17 and tracked toward southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana, complicated conditions further, with coastal flooding and surge concerns issued for the area. Between unstable weather, strong currents, and the surge of summer visitors, Gulf beaches can turn hostile fast.
The Reward: Shark and Jambalaya
That evening, the grateful Oklahoma family invited Matthew to their fishing camp for dinner. The menu: shark they had caught themselves, and jambalaya. Matthew remained characteristically understated about the whole thing. “They were calling me a hero,” he said. “It was nothing.”
It was not nothing. Three people who could not swim were pulled out of a rip current by a 22-year-old ATV driver who simply refused to look away. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries publicly recognized Matthew for his actions, and it is hard to argue they got that one wrong.