Officials with the Town of Pine Knoll Shores said there were two separate water rescues on Monday involving six swimmers.

The Pine Knoll Shores Fire/EMS crew said one person was hospitalized but no lives were lost.

In the first rescue, officials said three swimmers were caught in a rip current near The Inn. The mother was furthest out and could not get to shore but had a boogie board as a flotation device and was picked up by the crew on a rescue jet ski.

Two others were closer and were brought to shore by swimmers, but officials said none could beat the rip and make it ashore on their own.

In the second incident near the Beach Walk condominiums, three young adults were caught in a very wide and strong rip. In fact, the best swimmer on the fire department rescue team said it was the largest and strongest rip current he had ever seen.

None of these people had flotation of any kind, and when the jet ski made it out to two of these individuals rescuers said one was near complete exhaustion and had difficulty getting himself on the rescue board. The other had to be hospitalized after ingesting seawater.

Town officials said there are two lessons to be learned from these incidents.

The first is that there is no reason for anyone but the experienced ocean swimmer to go into the ocean without some means of flotation. The mother in the first rescue event may not have survived had she not taken that boogie board in the water with her. The exhausted swimmer in the second incident, according to the department’s jet ski operator, was close to slipping under the water.

The second lesson is that every person going into the water should learn to recognize a rip current. They said that if beach visitors see a break in the surf, where the water is relatively flat with breakers to the left and right of the calm/flat area, there is a good chance that there is a rip current there.