Eighteen-year-old Ryan Aldrich sat on a Ship Bottom beach last Friday afternoon, June 5, drying off after coming out of the ocean about 20 minutes earlier, when a friend’s sharp whistle cut through the air and propelled him into action: racing into the surf to help rescue three men caught in a rip current.

In the wake of several drownings at the shore, including one recently in Ship Bottom, a PSA posted on the Surf City Beach Patrol’s social media urges people to stay out of the water until lifeguards are on duty. In Surf City, guarded beaches begin on June 19.

“I kicked off my sandals, got up and began running,” the recent graduate of La Salle College High School in Pennsylvania recalled Sunday afternoon, saying he saw his friend Pat run into the…