Mack Kitchens was out kiteboarding on the south end of Tybee Island last Sunday night.
He had just finished for the day and was rolling up his kite gear when a woman approached him.
She told Kitchens there were two young women out in the water — far out, around 150 yards into the choppy surf. Kitchens told her to get a phone and call 911, and he grabbed his kiteboard.
Kitchens, 63, hustled to the water and started paddling. The currents were strong, and Kitchens knew it. He had been out in it all afternoon.
“That’s where I play at, out there in that area, that drowning pool,” Kitchens said Monday. “I noticed (the currents) more last night than I have in a while. And we had a new moon, so that didn’t help, and the wind was blowing east, right out with the tide. That didn’t help either.”
Kiteboards are smaller than surfboards, and they aren’t as buoyant. They’re made to skim the water as the kite does most of the work, but Kitchens was working with what he had.
He kicked and paddled against the wind, the chop and the current. Kitchens guessed it took him about eight minutes to get out to the area, but it felt like much longer.
He heard them before he saw them.
“There were two girls, and I really couldn’t see them. But I could hear one,” Kitchens said. “I could hear one hollering for help. I was nearly submerged on this dinky little board I was paddling out there.
“I popped up and I was able to see the girl that was screaming, and eventually I could see the other girl, about 15 or 20 yards farther out, to the northeast.”
Kitchens rolled off the board as he approached the first woman.
“I said, ‘Just grab the tail kick of the board and just hold on. Don’t try to climb up, just hold onto the back of the board,’” Kitchens said.
The woman was screaming to her friend, still in the water. Kitchens was trying to keep her calm as she grabbed the tail of the kiteboard. Kitchens was holding the front of the board, trying to keep an eye on the other swimmer farther out.
“She was looking at the beach, and I was trying to keep an eye on the other girl, and, you know, at some point I made the conscious decision: If I tried to get that girl, we’d all get pulled out.”
Through tears, Kitchens recalled the harrowing moment.
“I didn’t think about it right then, because it’s what I decided to do. It just clicked. That’s all. I didn’t deliberate. I didn’t think a lot, but the last time I saw the girl, we had just started trying to get back in. The girl on the board was hollering her friend’s name. I told her, ‘I’m coming back. I’m going to come back.’”
Kitchens said the choppy waters lifted all three of them up for a moment. It was the last time he saw the woman.
“She just slipped down,” Kitchens said.
Kitchens and the woman holding onto his board paddled back to the beach. They met a Coast Guardsman on the way back, to whom Kitchens relayed the situation.
He got the woman back to the beach.
“When we could touch the bottom, I just let her off and turned around and went back out, knowing I was not going to find her. I just knew I wouldn’t find her,” Kitchens said. “I don’t know why I went back out there, but I did.”
When Kitchens got back out to the spot, there wasn’t much he could do except look.
“You can’t really do anything but paddle to a spot, sit and bob and hope you see something. Then go to another spot, sit and bob and hope you see something,” Kitchens said.
But Kitchens never saw anything — or anybody.
The Coast Guard, Chatham County’s Mosquito Control Helicopter, Tybee Fire Department, Tybee Marine Rescue Squad and Tybee Police Department took over the search.
After a night of searching, Mayor Shirley Sessions confirmed that the swimmer’s body was found in Chimney Creek, near Spanish Hammock.
Sessions said there was a third swimmer who was rescued by Tybee personnel, but Kitchens had only seen the two. Sessions said the young women were out for a swim when they were pulled out by the currents. The woman who drowned was 18, Chatham County Coroner Bill Wessinger said.
“It’s hard to shake the vision of: you’re here one day having a great time, having fun with your friends, and then you’re not,” Sessions said. “No matter how many times it happens, it’s just so hard to comprehend.”
Monday morning, Mayor Pro-Tem Barry Brown called Kitchens to the scene where they found the woman’s body. It was a travesty, Kitchens said, but it was closure.
He’s still grappling with the situation — was the choice he made in the heat of the moment the best choice? Could he have saved the other woman, too?
“You know, I made that decision. I made that choice to do what I did. Subconsciously or consciously, I don’t know, but apparently I made it because when I got that girl and scooped her up, we dipped. And I saw the girl go under just as we started to try to get it together,” Kitchens said. “So, I don’t know. There might have been nothing I could have done. And I’m trying to reach that rationale.”
Kitchens’ actions were praised on social media posts, but questions and what-ifs still lingered in his mind.
“I’ve heard the remarks and seen the posts and stuff, and you know, for some people, I guess that’s heroism. But you know, on a good day, you get them all. Everybody goes home happy,” Kitchens said. “I’m not beating myself up, but this is a travesty. I’m happy that one girl’s family got her back. But you know, you don’t really feel heroic.”
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