By Doug Miller
His body was recovered shortly after noon the next day, at Roosevelt Boulevard.
It was the first time in 10 years that a swimmer drowned in Long Beach while lifeguards were on duty. The previous death occurred a decade earlier almost to the day, Aug. 10, 1995.
According to police, John was swimming with two other people when they were caught in a riptide and pulled east. After a powerful wave separated the swimmers, one of them, believed to be John's older brother, Ginu, notified lifeguards that Giju was missing, and a rescue effort began, involving more than 70 lifeguards, members of the Long Beach police and fire departments, the Nassau County Marine and Aviation Bureau and the Coast Guard.
The rescue was called off at 8:15 p.m., when lightning was spotted in the area.
Typically, lifeguards go off duty at 6 p.m., but because of the rough water, Assistant Lifeguard Chief George Schilling ordered his crews to stay on duty another hour.
City officials said they were saddened by the drowning, which came two months after another Flushing teen, Yuhang Gao, 15, drowned on June 24, one day before lifeguards began full-time duty on the city's beaches.
"One drowning is too many," said City Council President James Hennessy, himself a member of the lifeguard officer corps. "I think this made it real for a lot of the lifeguards that all that training and all that hard work has a purpose. I know a lot of them are taking it very hard right now."
The city has 25 rookie lifeguards on staff this year, many as young as 16, who were said to be deeply shaken by the drowning. Counseling was made available to rescue workers who requested it.
In the last few years, a number of near-drownings have occurred after lifeguards have left the beach. In response, a handful of guards have remained on the beaches until 8 p.m. to respond to any calls for assistance from the police department.
Yuhang was swimming with a group of 14 friends when rough seas pushed them into a jetty at Long Beach Boulevard, according to police. The others all managed to make it back to shore, though battered and bruised. After they flagged down a Long Beach police officer patrolling the beach, however, they realized that Yuhang had not made it back in, and a rescue operation involving units from local fire departments, police, lifeguards and dive teams began. Yuhang's body was found 45 minutes later, and transported to Long Beach Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
In August 2000, Maurice Grey, 16, of the Bronx, drowned when he, his younger brother Larse, 14, and their friend Andre Richmond, 12, of Lindenhurst, were pulled about 75 yards out from shore by a rip current. The boys entered the water at about 7 p.m., an hour after the beach park had closed. Larse Grey and Richmond were rescued, but Maurice Grey's body was located half an hour later by three off-duty lifeguards who were unable to revive him. Grey was later pronounced dead at LBMC.
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